







































































































































JL7 

pdlfb 



















ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 


(From a War-time Photograph,) 





V 


BATTLE¬ 

FIELD 

History of the Conflicts 
and Campaigns of the 

Great Civil War 

IN THE 

UNITED STATES 

C v 



ROSSITER JOHNSON, LET). 

M 


Author of a “ History of the War Between the United States and Great Britain ; ’ a “ History of the French War," etc. 


General O. O. HOWARD, U.S.A. 
General SELDEN CONNOR, U.S.A. 


WITH SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS BY 
General JOHN B. GORDON, C.S.A. 
General JOHN T. MORGAN, C.S.A. 


Honorable JAMES TANNER 
Mrs. L. C. PICKETT 

(Wife of Gen. Geo. E. Pickett, C.S.A.) 


And an Introduction by JOHN CLARK RIDPATH, LL.D. 


Splendidly illustrated with the Original Photographs of the celebrated BRADY COLLECTION in possession of the Government, 
and loaned for reproduction in this work by special permission of HON. Daniel S. Lamont, Secretary of War. 


Sold by Subscription only. 


(2 

NEW YORK 

KNIGHT & BROWN 












BEFORE THE BOMBARDMENT. 



Copyright, 1894, by IN '865 —AFTER ITS REDUCTION BY GENERAL GILLMORE. Copyright, 1896, 

Bryan, Taylor & Co. by KNIGHT & Brown. 


FORT SUMTER 














INTRODUCTION. 


The Civil Wai in the United States made for itself a record vast and varied. Indeed the storv of that conflict is almost 
infinite. It drew the whole American people into the vortex of commotion. It whirled them around and around with the 
foice ot a cyclone. It produced on the minds of millions the most vivid pictures ever traced in the consciousness of our race. 
/ lhe\er\ soldieis of our rank and file were writers and observers. A thousand records were made dav by day in a thousand 
places. Could the entire correspondence of those four immortal years be gathered again as it was when written, touched with 
the powder smut on boyish hands, wet with tears, stained on a million pages of poor crumpled paper with the blood of young 
heroes fighting for their country, sending last messages on the eve of deadly battles to as many homes—that record, unedited, 
unadorned with the graces of composition, untouched with the devices of publishers, would constitute a library of manuscripts 
that would surpass the Iliad ! 

Many kinds of histories of the Civil War have been produced. Some of them are large and formal ; others are special 
and small. Some commemorate the general movements of the epoch ; others celebrate the deeds of particular men and armies. 
Some are written in the spirit of philosophy ; others, in the spirit of 
hero worship ; others still, in the spirit of fiction and poetry. 

The present work is one of many accounts of the Union 
War; but it constitutes a class by itself. It goes to the original field 
of the inquiry. Not satisfied with narrative, it adopts the pictorial 
method, and reinforces the story of the war with a panoramic repro¬ 
duction of its most heroic incidents and actors. 

It was the good fortune of our country that at the time of 
the great conflict the art of photography had come, and that it was 
used as a means of preserving for after ages a living transcript of the 
drama. It was also the special fortune of our country that at this 
time a great photographer came, and that he was inspired with his 
mission as the pictorial historian of the American Civil War. 

Matthew Benjamin Brady, the leading photographer of our 
heroic age, was born in Warren County, New Hampshire, in 1823. 

Early in life he opened a studio in New York City. In 1851 he 
took prizes at the first World’s Fair, in London. His photographic 
work was exhibited all over Europe. He established himself at 
Washington City, and at the outbreak of the war sent corps of his 
artists in the wake of every army. During the four years of our 
national conflict he expended more than a hundred thousand dollars 
in procuring photographs from the field. He made and preserved the 
pictures of thousands on thousands of the leading participants. He 
collected an aggregate of more than thirty thousand photographs of 
men and events. He spent a fortune in gathering together the 
materials, which he expected ultimately to transfer to the Govern¬ 
ment as a pictorial museum of the great tragedy. Late in life he 
lost the greater part of his property, and became, like other heroes, 
nearly blind in his old age. But the Government was able to obtain from the residue of his work about eight thousand of 
his photographic plates; and these now constitute one of the choicest historical treasures that a nation ever possessed. The 
veteran photographer lived to the age of seventy-three, and died in New York on the nineteenth of January, 1896. 

The authors and publishers of “ Campfire and Battlefield,” when the work was projected, conceived the idea of getting 
access to the photographic originals of the Brady gallery, and of illustrating with reproductions of the originals the narrative of 
this pictorial history of the war. They applied for permission to use the Brady collection to Honorable Daniel S. Lamont, 
Secretary of War, and received from that official in answer the following communication : 

“ War Department, 

“Washington, D. C., April 20, 1894. 

"Sir : —In reply to your letter of the 28th ultimo, I take pleasure in saying that if either you or your representative will present this letter to the chief 
clerk of the Department, facilities will be afforded to select such negatives of the Brady collection of war views as you may desire to have printed at your 
expense. It is preferred that the photographing should be done in this city, and of course it is expected that the negatives when they have served their purpose 
will be returned in as good condition as received. Very respectfully, Daniee S. Lamont, Secretary of War." 

Armed with this authority, the publishers of “ Campfire and Battlefield ” succeeded in getting the use of the Brady 
photographs, and with reproductions of these invaluable original pictures the present work is copiously embellished. The 
selections from the Brady pictures have been made with great care. As many as possible of this rare and unequaled series have 
been used in the illustration of these pages. The pictures are contemporaneous with the events described in the narrative, and 



MATTHEW BENJAMIN BRADY. 










4 


/NTROD UCTION. 



are set in such l'elation to the narrative as to brine: the reader face to face with the actual scenery of the war. The whole drama 
thus revives, and the reader of these pages is able to follow the graphic and picturesque account of the great event with the aid 
of a pictorial representation of the tragedy passing like a living scene before his eyes. In “ Campfire and Battlefield ” the personal 
element in the Civil War is strongly delineated. The reader here finds man as an actor at his highest estate. Through the 
chapters of this work the event does not drag on under the influence of remote and abstract forces, but is led rather to its 
consummation by heroes and statesmen. The work may well be defined as a history of the Civil War from the heroic point of 
view. Nothing can be more interesting, nothing more inspiring, than to turn these pictured pages, and to catch with every leaf 
the shadows of the faces of men who were great in that day and greater afterwards. Here are the war-time features of fully 
twelve hundred of the immortal actors who counseled in the Cabinet or fought in the field the battle of the Union. Under 
these photographic reproductions we read the names of men destined to be famous throughout the world. Here they are pictured 
in their first regimentals, and are designated as captain or colonel! Some we must admit are here preserved as great whom 
subsequent events and a revised judgment havdf remanded to the category of the small ; but they were then among the great. 
The reader in all these pages discovers how history relentlessly sifts out the chaff from the wheat, putting the wheat into the 

bins of immortality and burning the chaff with unquench¬ 
able fire. 

To the men who still survive, with a quick memory of 
our great tragedy, “ Campfire and Battlefield ” is as a vast stage, 
on which the well-remembered characters come forth again 
alive in their own persons, as they came forth and performed 
their parts in the day of battle. The great play is re-enacted 
here. Here our heroes in blue and in gray, whether with 
the insignia of command upon them or in the plain uni¬ 
form of the rank and file, come before us as they did in the 
years of trial. Here are the pontoon bridges ; the gunboats ; 
the marching host. Here is the caravan of army wagons, 
winding on and on. Here is the camp, the bivouac. Here 
is the picket on duty or “ the picket off duty forever.” 
Here is the battlefield, not pictured from the resources of 
an artist’s imagination, but truthfully delineated with the 
pencil of sunlight through the photographic lens, half 
obscured with smoke and dust. Here are the negro quarters ; 
the sutler’s cabin ; the hasty meal by the campfire ; the gen¬ 
eral and his staff sitting before the tent; the foraging expe¬ 
dition ; the lines of riflepits ; burning houses on the outskirts 
of battle; mortars vomiting; shells streaking the midnight 
sky and bursting over invisible camps ; headquarters and 
scouting parties ; hospitals and trenches full of dead ; ruin and 
desolation in one place ; uproar and jubilee in another. Here 
men are young and strong, that have now grown old and gray. 
Here faces are flushed with youth and ambition, that have 
long since paled in death. Here on hillslope and by river¬ 
side and in sombre forests the battle rages, which is to decide 
the momentous question of the perpetuity of the Union and 
the preservation of American institutions. “ Campfire and Battlefield ” is the work of able and well-known authors. Dr. 
Rossiter Johnson is a leading writer on American history, an eminent man of letters. He has been assisted in his duties by 
a corps of special contributors, many of whom are characters honored in the annals of our country. Such are Generals O. O. 
Howard, J. T. Morgan, John B. Gordon and Selden Connor. The other contributors are writers of ability and distinction. One 
of these is the wife of General Pickett, whose unavailing charge at Gettysburg, history has recorded among the immortal things. 

The work has been prepared with the greatest care under the supervision of the artists Frank Beard and George Spiel, 
whose good taste and skill of arrangement are shown on every page. “Campfire and Battlefield,” regarded as a whole, is perhaps 
the most attractive, as it will be the most popular, publication thus far made of the immortal story which recites the heroism, 
the sorrow and the glorv of the Civil War in the United States. 


JOHN CLARK RIOPATH. LL.D. 



















DEFENCES OF WASHINGTON—HEAVY ARTILLERY. 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


CHAPTER I. 

PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 


CAUSES OF THE WAR—SLAVERY, STATE RIGHTS, SECTIONAL FEELING JOHN BROWN ELECTION OF LINCOLN—SECESSION OF SOUTHERN 

STATES—“SHOOT HIM ON THE SPOT”—PENSACOLA — MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON—SUMTER OCCUPIED—THE “STAR OF THE WEST”— 
SUMTER BOMBARDED AND EVACUATED—THE CALL TO ARMS. 



On the 9th of January, 1861, the Star of the West , a vessel which the United States Government had sent to convey supplies 
to Fort Sumter, was fired on by batteries on Morris Island, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, and was compelled to withdraw. 

The bombardment of Fort Sumter began on April 12th, the fort was surrendered on the 
13th and evacuated on the 14th. On April 19th the Sixth Massachusetts regiment, which 
had been summoned to the defence of the national capital, was attacked, en route , in the 
streets of Baltimore. 

Meanwhile, several Southern States had passed ordinances seceding from the Union, and 
had formed a new union called the Confederate States of America. Many Government forts, 
arsenals, and navy yards had been seized by the new Confederacy ; and by midsummer a bloody 
civil war was in progress, which for four years absorbed the energies of the whole American people. 
What were the causes of this civil war? 

The underlying, fundamental cause was African slavery—the determination 
of the South to perpetuate and extend it, and the determination of the people 
of the North to limit or abolish it. Originally existing in all the colonies, 
slavery had been gradually abolished in the Northern States, and was excluded 
from the new States that came into the Union from the Northwestern Terri¬ 
tory. The unprofitableness of slave labor might, in time, have resulted in its 
abolition in the South ; but the invention, at the close of the last century, of 
Eli Whitney’s cotton-gin, transformed the raising of cotton from an almost 
profitless to the most profitable of the staple industries, and as a result of it the 
American plantations produced seven-eighths of all the cotton of the world. 
African labor was necessary to it, and the system of slavery became a fixed and 
deep-rooted system in the South. 

The self-interest thus established led the South, in the face of Northern 
opposition to slavery which might make an independent government necessary 
to them, to insist on the sovereignty of the individual States, involving the 
right to secede from the Union. The Constitution adopted in 1789 did not 
river gunboat (A converted new york ferryboat), determine the question as to whether the sovereignty of the States or that of 



















WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 
Secretary of State. 


SALMON P. CHASE, 
Secretary of the Treasury. 



EDWIN M. STANTON, 
Secretary ot War. 



MONTGOMERY BLAIR, 
Postmaster-General. 



EDWARD BATES, 
Attorney-General. 


PRESIDENT LINCOLN AND HIS CABINET. 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



the central government was paramount, but left it open, to be 
interpreted according to the interests involved, and to be set¬ 
tled in the end by an appeal to the sword. In the earlier history 
of the country the doctrine of State sovereignty was most advo¬ 
cated in New England ; but with the rise of the tariff, which 
favored the manufacturing East at the expense of the agricul¬ 
tural South, New England passed to the advocacy of national 
sovereignty, while the people of the South took up the doctrine 
of State Rights, determined to act on it should a separation seem 
to be necessary to their independence of action on the issue of 
slavery. 

From this time onward there was constant danger that the 
slavery question would so imbitter the politics and legislation 
of the country as to bring about disunion. The danger was 
imminent at the time of the Missouri agitation of 1820-21, but 
was temporarily averted by the Missouri Compromise. The 
Nullification Acts of South Carolina indicated the intention of 
the South to stand on 
their State sovereignty 
when it suited them. 

The annexation of 
Texas enlarged the 
domain of slavery and 
made the issue a vital 
one. The aggressive¬ 
ness of the South ap¬ 
peared in the repeal 
of the Missouri Com¬ 
promise in 1854; and 
the Dred Scott De¬ 
cision in 1857, giving 
the slaveholder the 
right to hold his slaves 
in a free State, aroused 
to indignant and deter¬ 
mined opposition the 
anti-slavery sentiment 
of the North. The 


like two different peoples, 
estranged, jealous and 
suspicious. The publica¬ 
tion of sectional books 
fostered animosities and 
perpetuated misjudgments 
and misunderstandings ; 
and the interested influ¬ 
ence of demagogues, 
whose purposes would be 
furthered by sectional 
hatred, kept alive and 
intensified the sectional 
differences. 

There was little feeling 
of fraternity, then, to stand 
in the way when the issues 


SIEGE GUN BEARING ON SUMTER. 

(Showing Carriage rendered useless before Confederate Evacuation, 1864.) 

expression in this decision, that the negro had “ no rights which 
the white man was bound to respect,” brought squarely before 
the people the issue of manhood liberty, and afforded a text 
for preaching effectively the gospel of universal freedom. 

The absence of intercourse between the North and the South, 
and their radically different systems of civilization, made them 


MAJOR-GENERAL 
ROBERT ANDERSON. 

involved seemed to 
require the arbitra¬ 
ment of war, and 
it was as enemies 
rather than as quar¬ 
relling brothers, 
that the men of 
the North and the 
South rallied to 
their respective 
standards. 

An episode 
w h i c h occurred 
about a year before 
the war, which was 
inherently of minor 
importance, 
brought to the 
surface the bitter 
feeling which was 

preparing the way for the fraternal strife. John Brown, an 
enthusiastic abolitionist, a man of undoubted courage, but pos¬ 
sessing poor judgment, and who had been very prominent in a 
struggle to make Kansas a free State, in 1859 collected a small 
company, and, invading the State of Virginia, seized the United 
States Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. His expectation was that the 
blacks would flock to his standard, and that, arming them from 
the arsenal, he could lead a servile insurrection which would 
result in ending slavery. His project, which was quixotic in the 
extreme, lacking all justification of possible success, failed miser¬ 
ably, and Brown was hung as a criminal. At the South, his action 
was taken as an indication of what the abolitionists would do if 
they secured control of the Government, and the secessionist 
sentiment was greatly stimulated by his attempt. At the North 
he became a martyr to the cause of freedom ; and although the 
leaders would not at first call the war for the Union an anti¬ 
slavery war, the people knew it was an anti-slavery war, and old 


FORT MOULTRIE, CHARLESTON, WITH FORT SUMTER IN THE DISTANCE. 


























































! 



INTERIOR OF FORT SUMTER AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT IN 1863—FROM GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPH. 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


John Brown’s wraith hung over every Southern battlefield. The 
song, 

“John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, 

His soul is marching on,” 

became a battle-cry, sung at every public meeting, sending 
reciuits to the front, and making the echoes ring around the 
army campfires. 

So long as the Democratic party, which was in political alliance 
with the South, retained control of the Federal Government, there 
was neither motive nor excuse for secession or rebellion. Had 
the Free Soil Party elected Fremont in 1856, war would have 
come then. When the election of i860, through Democratic 
dissension and adherence to several candidates, resulted in the 
election of Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the Free Soilers, 
the die was cast, and the South prepared for the struggle it was 
about to precipitate. 

The day after the election, on November 7th, i860, the Pal¬ 
metto flag, the ensign of the State of South Carolina, was raised 
at Charleston, replacing the 
American flag. High offi¬ 
cials in the Government, in 
sympathy with the Southern 
cause, had stripped the 
Northern arsenals of arms 
and ammunition and had 
sent the m to Southern 
posts. The little standing 
army had been so disposed 
as to leave the city of Wash¬ 
ington defenceless, except 
for a few hundred marines 
and half a hundred men of 
ordnance. The outgoing 
Administration was leaving 
the national treasury bank¬ 
rupt, and permitted hostile 
preparations to go on un¬ 
checked, and hostile demon¬ 
strations to be made without 
interference. So little did 
the people of the North real¬ 
ize that war was impending, that Southern agents found no diffi¬ 
culty in making purchases of military supplies from Northern 
manufacturers. Except for the purchases made by Raphael 
Semmes in New England, the Confederacy would have begun 
the war without percussion caps, which were not manufactured 
at the South. With every advantage thrown at the outset in 

favor of the South 
and against the 
North, the struggle 
began. 

The Southern 
leaders had been 
secretly preparing 
for a long time. 
During the summer 
and fall of i860, John 
B. Floyd, the Secre¬ 
tary of War, had 
the confederate flag. - Been sending war 




CHARLESTON HARBOR 



material South, and he continued 
his pernicious activity until, in 
December, complicity in the theft 
of some bonds rendered 
his resignation necessary. 

About the same time 
the Secretary of the 
T reasury, Howell 
Cobb, the Secretary 
of the Interior, Jacob 
Thompson, and the 
Secretary of State, 

Lewis Cass, with¬ 
drew from the 
cabinet. On the 
election of Lin¬ 
coln, treasonable preparations became more open and more 
general. These were aided by President Buchanan’s message to 
Congress expressing doubt of the constitutional power of the 
Government to take offensive action against a State. On 

December 20, an ordinance 
of secession was passed by 
the South Carolina Legisla¬ 
ture; and following this 
example, Mississippi, Flor¬ 
ida, Alabama, Georgia, 
Louisiana, Texas and Vir¬ 
ginia seceded in the order 
named. Virginia held on 
till the last ; and while a 
popular vote was pending, 
to accept or reject the action 
of the Legislature, the seat 
of government of the Con¬ 
federate States, established 
in February at Montgomery, 
Ala., was removed to Rich¬ 
mond, the capital of Vir¬ 
ginia. Governor Letcher 
turned over to the Confed¬ 
erates the entire military 
force and equipment of the 
State, which passed out of 
the Union without waiting for the verdict of the people. This 
State was well punished by becoming the centre of the conflict 
for four years, and by political dismemberment, loyal West Vir¬ 
ginia being separated from the original commonwealth and 
admitted to the Union during the war. 

During the fall and winter of 1860-61, the Southern leaders 
committed many acts of treasonable aggression. They seized 
United States property, acting under the authority of their 
States, until the formation of the Confederacy, when the central 
government became their authority. In some of these cases the 
Federal custodians of the property yielded it in recognition of 
the right of the State to take it. In some cases they abandoned 


it, hopeless of being able to hold it 


against 


the armed forces 


that threatened it, and doubtful of support from the Buchanan 
Administration at Washington. But there were noble excep¬ 
tions, and brave officers held to their trusts, and either preserved 
them to the United States Government or released them only 
when overpowered. 

In December, i860, the rebels seized Castle Pinckney and 

































10 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 



A SUMTER CASEMATE DURING THE BOMBARDMENT. 


Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, the arsenal at Charleston, 
and the revenue cutter William Aiken ; in January, the arsenals 
at Mount Vernon, Ala., Apalachicola, Fla., Baton Rouge, La., 
Augusta, Ga., and many forts, hospitals, etc., in Southern ports. 
By February they had gained such assurance of not being 
molested in their seizures of Government property, that every¬ 
thing within their reach was taken with impunity. So many of 
the officers in active service were in sympathy with the South, 
that it frequently required only a demand for the surrender of a 
vessel or a fort—sometimes not even that—to secure it. One of 
these attempted seizures gave rise to an official utterance that 
did much to cheer the Northern heart. John A. Dix, who in 
January, 1861, succeeded Cobb as Secretary of the Treasury, 
sent W. H. Jones, a Treasury clerk, to New Orleans, to save to 
the Government certain revenue cutters in Southern ports. 
Jones telegraphed the secretary that the captain of the cutter 
McClelland refused to give her up, and Dix thereupon sent the 
following memorable despatch : 

“ Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command of the 
cutter, and obey the order I gave through you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, 
undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to 
consider him as a mutineer and treat him accordingly. If any one attempts to haul 
down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.” 

These determined words were among the few that were 
uttered by Northern officials that gave the friends of the Union 
any hope of leadership against the aggression of the seceding 
States ; and they passed among the proverbial expressions of the 
war, to live as long as American history. 


The firmness of Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer had prevented 
the surrender of Fort Pickens, in Pensacola Harbor, Florida, on 
the Gulf of Mexico, when it was demanded with some show ot 
force, in January, 1861. 

Meanwhile, an event was preparing, in which the loyalty, courage, 
and promptness of a United States officer was to bring to an issue 
the question of “ bloodless secession ” or war. The seizures ot 
Government property here and there had excited indignation in 
the loyal North, but no general, effective sentiment of opposition. 
But at the shot that was fired at Sumter, the North burst into a 
flame of patriotic, quenchless fury, which did not subside until 
it had been atoned for on many a battlefield, and the Confederate 
“stars and bars” fell, never to rise again. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Gardner had been in command at Charles¬ 
ton Harbor, S. C., and when he saw the secessionists preparing 
to seize the forts there, so early as November, i860, he applied 
to Washington for reinforcements. Upon this, at the request of 
Southern members of Congress, Secretary of War Floyd removed 
him, and sent in his place Major Robert Anderson, evidently sup¬ 
posing that that officer’s Kentucky origin would render him faith¬ 
ful to the Southern cause. But his fidelity to the old flag resulted 
in one of the most dramatic episodes of the war. 

On reaching his headquarters at Fort Moultrie, Major Ander¬ 
son at once applied for improvements, which the Secretary of 
War was now willing and even eager to make, and he appropriated 
large sums for the improvement of both Fort Moultrie and Fort 
Sumter, but would not increase the garrison or the ammunition. 
It soon became apparent that against a hostile attack Fort Moul- 
































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


ii 




trie could not be held, as it was commanded from the house-tops 
on Sullivan’s Island, near by, and Major Anderson decided to 
move his garrison across the harbor to Fort Sumter, which, 
unlike Moultrie, was un¬ 
approachable by land. 

The secessionists in 
Charleston were active 
and watched suspicious¬ 
ly every movement 
made by the military, 
and the latter were con¬ 
stantly on guard to pre¬ 
vent surprise and cap¬ 
ture of the fort. The 
preparations for re¬ 
moval to Sumter were 
made with the greatest 
caution. So well had 
Major Anderson kept 
his purpose secret, that 
his second in command, 

Captain Abner Double¬ 
day, was informed of it 
only when ordered to 
have his company ready 
to co to Fort Sumter 
in twenty minutes. The 
families of the officers 
were sent to Fort John¬ 
son, opposite Charles¬ 
ton, whence they were 
afterward taken North. 

For the osten¬ 
sible purpose of 
removing these 
non-combatants to 
a place of safety 
—a step to which 

the now well-organized South Carolina militia 
could make no objection—Anderson’s quar¬ 
termaster, Lieutenant Hall, had chartered 
three schooners and some barges, which were 
ultimately used to transport supplies from 
Moultrie to Sumter. Laden with these sup¬ 
plies, the transports started for Fort Johnson, 
and there awaited the signal gun which was 
to direct them to land at Sumter. The guns 
of Moultrie were trained to bear on the route 
across the harbor, to be used defensively in 
case the movement was detected and inter¬ 
fered with. 

The preparations completed, at sunset on 
December 26, the troops, who had equipped 
themselves in the twenty minutes allowed 
them, were silently marched out of Fort 
Moultrie and passed through the little vil¬ 
lage of Moultrieville, which lay between the 
fort and the point of embarkation. The 
march was fortunately made without obser¬ 
vation, and the men took their places in row¬ 
boats which promptly started on their momentous voyage. 
After several narrow escapes from being stopped by the omni¬ 


present guard boats, which were deceived into supposing the 
troop boats to contain only laborers in charge of officers, the 
party reached Fort Sumter. Here they found crowds of laborers, 

who were at work, at the 
Government’s expense, 
preparing Sumter to be 
handed over to the 
Southern league. These 
men, most of them from 
Baltimore, were nearly 
all secessionists, and had 
already refused to man 
the fort as soldiers for 
its defence. They 
showed some opposition 
to the landing of the 
troops, but were prompt¬ 
ly driven inside the fort 
at the point of the 
bayonet, and were pres¬ 
ently shipped on board 
the supply schooners 
and sent ashore, where 
they communicated to 
the secession authorities 
the news of Major 
Anderson’s clever ruse. 
The signal gun was fired 
from Sumter, the sup¬ 
plies were landed, and 
Fort Sumter was in the 
hands of the loyal men 
who were to im¬ 
mortalize their 
names by their 
heroic defence of 
it. 

Sixty-one artil¬ 
lerymen and thirteen musicians, under com¬ 
mand of seven or eight officers, constituted 
the slender garrison. Many of these officers 
subsequently rose to distinction in the service 
of their country, in which some of them died. 
Major Anderson became a major-general and 
served for a while in his native Kentucky, but 
was soon compelled by failing health to retire. 
Captains Abner Doubleday, John G. Foster 
and Truman Seymour, Lieut. Jefferson C. 
Davis and Dr. S. Wiley Crawford, the surgeon, 
became major-generals, and were in service 
throughout the war; Lieut. Norman J. Hall 
became colonel of the Seventh Michigan 
Volunteers, and was thrice brevetted in the 
regular army for gallantry, especially at Get¬ 
tysburg ; Lieuts. George W. Snyder and 
Theodore Talbot received promotion, but 
died early in the war; and Edward Moale, 
a civilian clerk who rendered great assistance, 
afterward received a commission in the regu¬ 
lar army. One only of the defenders of Sum¬ 
ter afterward joined the Confederacy; this was Lieut. Richard 
K. Meade, who yielded to the tremendous social and family 


Capt. T. Seymour. ist Lieut. G. W. Snyder, ist Lieut. J. C. Davis. 2d Lieut. R. K. Meade. 1st Lieut. T. Talbot. 
Capt. A. Doubleday. Major R Anderson. Surg\ S. W. Crawford. Capt. J. G. Foster. 

MAJOR ANDERSON AND OFFICERS DEFENDING FORT SUMTER. 


GUSTAVUS V. FOX, 

Commanding the Relief Expedition to Fort Sumter ; 
afterward Assistant Secretary of the Navy. 


































12 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


pressure that carried so many reluctant men to the wrong side 
when the war began. Commissioned in the rebel army, he 
died in 1862. 

At noon on December 27, Major Anderson solemnized his 
occupancy of Sumter by formally raising the flag of his country, 
with prayer by the chaplain, Rev. Matthias Harris, and military 
ceremonies. 

The sight of the national ensign on Sumter was quickly 
observed from a troop ship in the harbor, which hastened to the 
city with the news, not 
only that Anderson had 
moved from Moultrie to 
Sumter, but also that he 
was heavily reinforced, the 
sixty soldiers thronging the 
parapet making so good a 
show as to give the impres¬ 
sion of a much larger num¬ 
ber. At this news Charles¬ 
ton was thrown into a 
ferment of rage and excite¬ 
ment. South Carolina 
troops were at once sent, 
on December 27, to take 
possession of Castle Pinck¬ 
ney, the seizure of which 
was perhaps the first overt 
act of war on the part of the 
secessionists. This was fol¬ 
lowed by the rebel occupa¬ 
tion of Forts Moultrie and 
Johnson, which were gotten 
into readiness for action, 
and shore batteries, some of 
them iron clad, were planted 
near Moultrie and on Cum¬ 
mings Point, an extremity 
of Morris Island near to 
Sumter; so that by the 
time the preparations were 
completed, Anderson’s gal¬ 
lant little band was effect¬ 
ively covered on four differ¬ 
ent sides. 

But the rebels were not 
relying wholly on measures 
for reducing Sumter in 
order to secure it. It was 
diplomacy rather than war 
which they expected would place in their hands all the gov¬ 
ernment property in Charleston Harbor. On the very day of 
Anderson s strategic move across the harbor, three commis¬ 
sioners arrived in Washington for the purpose of negotiating 
for the peaceable surrender to South Carolina of all the forts 
and establishments. But the telegraphic news, which reached 
Washington with the commissioners, that the loyal Anderson 
was doing his part, met with such patriotic response in the 
North as effectively to interfere with the commissioners’ plans. 
What Buchanan might have released to them under other cir¬ 
cumstances, he could not give them after Major Anderson had 
taken steps to protect his trust. 

Once within the fort, the Sumter garrison set vigorously to 


work to put it in a defensive condition. The Government work 
on the fort was not completed, and had the Southerners attacked 
it at once, as they would have done but for the expectation that 
the President would order Anderson to return to Moultrie, they 
could easily have captured it by assault. But they still hoped 
for “ bloodless secession,” and deferred offensive action. There 
were no flanking defences for the fort, and no fire-proof quarters 
for the officers. There was a great quantity of combustible 
material in the wooden quarters, which ultimately terminated 

the defence ; for the garri¬ 
son was rather smoked out 
by fire, than either starved 
out or reduced by shot and 
shell. The engineer officers 
were driven to all sorts of 
expedients to make the fort 
tenable, because there was 
very little material there out 
of which to make proper 
military defences. The 
workmen had left in the in¬ 
terior of the unfinished fort 
a confused mass of building 
material, unmounted guns, 
gun-carriages, derricks, 
blocks and tackle. Only 
two tiers of the fort were 
in condition for the mount¬ 
ing of heavy artillery—the 
upper and lower tiers. Al¬ 
though the garrison was 
severely taxed in perform¬ 
ing the excessive guard 
duty, required by their peril¬ 
ous situation, they yet ac¬ 
complished an enormous 
amount of work—mount¬ 
ing guns with improvised 
tackle; carrying by hand to 
the upper tier shot weighing 
nearly one hundred and 
thirty pounds each ; pro¬ 
tecting the casemates with 
flag-stones ; rigging ten-inch 
columbiads as mortars in 
the parade grounds within 
the fort, to fire on Morris 
Island ; and making their 
quarters as comfortable as 
the circumstances admitted. The guns of the fort were care¬ 
fully aimed at the various objects to be fired at, and the proper 
elevation marked on each, to avoid errors in aiming when the 
smoke of action should refract the light. 

To guard against a simultaneous attack from many sides, 
against which sixty men could make only a feeble defence, mines 
were planted under the wharf where a landing was most feasible, 
to blow it up at the proper time. Piles of paving stones with 
charges of powder under them, to scatter them as deadly mis¬ 
siles among an attacking party, were placed on the esplanade. 
Metal-lined boxes were placed on the parapet on all sides of the 
fort, from which musketrv-fire and hand-grenades could be 
thrown down on the invaders directly beneath. Barrels filled 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT, 


Commanding U. S. Army, 1861. 









CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


13 



HARPER’S FERRY. 


with broken stone, with charges of powder at the centre, were 
prepared to roll down to the water's edge and there burst. A 
trial of this device was observed by the rebels, who inferred 
from it that Sumter was bristling with “ infernal machines ” and 
had better be dealt with at long range. 

The discomforts and sufferings of the garrison were very great. 
Quarters were lacking in accommodations; rations were short, 
and fuel was scanty in midwinter. The transition from the posi¬ 
tion of friends to that of foes was not immediate, but gradual. 
After the move to Sumter, the men were still permitted to do 
their marketing in Charleston ; for all that Anderson had then 
done was to make a displeasing change of base in a harbor where 
he commanded, and could go where he pleased. Presently market 
privileges were restricted, and then prohibited altogether; and 
even when, under the expectation of action at Washington satis¬ 
factory to the South, the authorities relaxed their prohibition, 
the secessionist marketmen would sell nothing to go to the 
fort. Constant work on salt pork, with limited necessaries and 
an entire absence of luxuries, made the condition of the garrison 
very hard, and their conduct worthy of the highest praise. 

Anderson has been criticised for permitting the secessionists 


to build and arm batteries all around him, and coolly take pos¬ 
session of Government property, without his firing a shot to 
prevent it, as he could easily have done, since the guns of Sumter 
commanded the waterways all over the harbor. But it is easier 
now to see what should have been done than it was then to see 
what should be done. Anderson did not even know that he 
would be supported by his own Government, in case he took the 
offensive ; and the reluctance to begin hostilities was something 
he shared with the leaders on both sides, even down to the time 
of Lincoln’s inaugural, in which the President said to the people 
of the South : “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Gov¬ 
ernment will not assail you. You can have no conflict without 
being yourselves the aggressors.” The fact of Anderson’s South¬ 
ern birth, while it did not interfere with his loyalty, did make 
him reluctant to precipitate a struggle which he prayed and 
hoped might be averted. Had the issue of war been declared at 
the time, freeing him to do what he could, he could have saved 
Sumter. As it was, the preparations for reducing Sumter went 
on unmolested. 

Instead of yielding to the demand of the South Carolina com. 






14 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. DIX. 


missioners for Anderson’s return to Moultrie, President Buchanan 
permitted the organization of an expedition for the relief of 
Sumter. But instead of sending down a war vessel, a merchant 
steamer was sent with recruits from Governor’s Island, New 
York. The Star of the West arrived off Charleston January 9, 
and as soon as she attempted to enter the harbor, she was 
fired on from batteries on Morris Island. Approaching nearer, 
and coming within gun-shot of Moultrie, she was again fired on. 
At Sumter, the long roll was beaten and the guns manned, but 
Anderson would not permit the rebel fire to be returned. The 
Star of the West withdrew and returned to New York. Explana¬ 
tions were demanded by Anderson, with the result of sending 
Lieutenant Talbot to Washington With a full statement of the 
affair, there to await instructions. The tacit truce thus established 
enabled the preparation of Sumter to be completed, but the rebel 
batteries also were advanced. 

Then began a series of demands from Charleston for the sur¬ 
render of the fort. The secessionists argued with Anderson as 
to the hopelessness of his case, with the Washington Govern¬ 
ment going to pieces, and the South determined to have the fort 
and exterminate the garrison ; and still another commission was 
sent to Washington, to secure there a settlement of the question, 
which was invariably referred back to Anderson’s judgment. 

The winter was passed in this sort of diplomacy and in intense 
activity, within the fort and around it. The garrison shared the 
general encouragement drawn from the accessions to the cabinet 
of strong and loyal men, such as John A. Dix and Joseph Holt, 
to replace the secessionists who had resigned. The Charleston 


people continued their loud demands for an attack on Sumter. 
The affair of the Star of the West, and the organization of the 
Confederate Government in February, had greatly stimulated the 
war spirit of the North, and it was felt that the crisis was approach¬ 
ing. Charleston people began to feel the effects of blockading 
their own channel with sunken ships, for their commerce all went 
to other ports. 

With the inauguration of Lincoln on March 4, the South 
learned that they had to deal with an Administration which, 
however forbearing, was firm as a rock. Indications of a vigor¬ 
ous policy were slow in reaching the anxious garrison of Sumter, 
for the new President was surrounded with spies, and every order 
or private despatch was quickly repeated throughout the South, 
which made him cautious. But the fact that he had determined 
to reinforce Sumter, and to insist on its defence, did soon become 
known, both at the fort and in Charleston ; and on April 6, 
Lieutenant Talbot was sent on from Washington to notify Gov¬ 
ernor Pickens to that effect. This information, received at 
Charleston April 8, was telegraphed to the Confederate Gov¬ 
ernment at Montgomery, and on the 10th General Beauregard 
received orders from the rebel Secretary of War to open fire at 
once on Sumter. 

Instantly there was renewed activity everywhere. The garri¬ 
son, inspired by the prospect of an end to their long and weari¬ 
some waiting, were in high spirits. The Confederates suddenly 
removed a house near Moultrie, disclosing behind it a formidable 
masked battery which effectually enfiladed the barbette guns at 
Sumter, which, although the heaviest there were, had to be 
abandoned. On the afternoon of the nth, officers came from 
Beauregard to demand the surrender of the fort, which they 
learned would have to yield soon for lack of provisions. At 





tceeffiL '/w#' 









fl, 





Afwtyy 4 













GENERAL DIX'S FAMOUS DESPATCH 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


15 



three A.M. of the 12th, General Beauregard sent word that he 
would open fire in one hour. 

He kept his word. At four o’clock the first gun of the war 
was fired from the Cummings Point battery on Morris Island, 
aimed by the venerable Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia, one of the 
fathers of secession. It was a good shot, the shell penetrating 
the masonry of the fort and bursting inside. At this signal, 
instantly the batteries opened on all sides, and the firing became 
an almost continuous roar. 

But, as yet, Sumter made no reply. The artillery duel was 
not to be a matter of hours, and there was no hurry. Break¬ 
fast was served to officers and men, and was eaten amid a con¬ 
tinual peppering of the fort with balls and shells from colum- 
biads and mortars. After this refreshment the men were told off 
into firing parties, and the first detachment was marched to the 
casemates, where Capt. Abner Doubleday aimed the first gun 
fired on the Union side against the Southern Confederacy. It 
was fired appropriately against the Cummings Point battery 


Crawford, who, having no sick in hospital, volunteered his active 
services, and hammered away on Fort Moultrie. 

By the middle of the morning the vessels of the relieving 
fleet, sent in pursuance of Lincoln’s promise, were sighted out¬ 
side the bar. Salutes were exchanged, but it was impossible for 
the vessels to enter the unknown, unmarked channel. This 
expedition was commanded by Capt. Gustavus V. Fox, 
afterward Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who 
had fitted it out with the cooperation 
of patriotic civilians—G. W. 

Blunt, William H. 

Aspinwall, 


morning of April 12th were the war 
ship Pawnee, under Commodore Rowan, and the 
transports Baltic and Harriet Lane. The Pocahontas, Captain 
Gillis, arrived on the 13th. Knowing in advance the impossi¬ 
bility of entering the harbor with these vessels, a number of 
launches had been brought, with the intention of running in 
the reinforcements in these, under cover of night and protected 
by the guns of Sumter. Except for the delay of the Pocahon¬ 
tas, which carried the launches, this would have been attempted 
on the night of the 12th, when the garrison anxiously expected 
the new arrivals. Postponed until the 13th, it was then too 
late, as by that time Sumter had been surrendered. 

The expectation of these reinforcements, the fear of a night 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL P G. T. BEAUREGARD, C. S. A. 

which had begun the hostilities ; and it struck its mark, but did 
no damage. The heaviest guns in Sumter being useless, the fort 
was at a disadvantage throughout the fight, from the lightness of 
its metal. Notwithstanding Major Anderson’s orders that the 
barbette guns should be abandoned, Sergeant John Carmody, 
disappointed at the effects produced by the fire of the fort, stole 
out and fired, one after another, the heavy barbette battery guns. 
Roughly aimed, they did little mischief; but they scared the 
enemy, who brought all their weight to bear now on this bat¬ 
tery. Captains Doubleday and Seymour directed the firing from 
Sumter, and were assisted by Lieut. J. C. Davis and Surgeon 














10 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 







' • 11* mjt. 




WL- * 


m yfje 

/f J53 


PC# ir / y 



!<J v 



3M 


p 


mm 

\ 


'4 

■ —_ 


IIS 

iHPftiv J 

|! 





HH 


iff 

Iff 

mi 


Jill 



Kii' 







mm 




BeEse 


AN ALEXANDRIA ANTE-BELLUM RELIC. 


assault by the enemy, and the difficulty of deciding whether any 
boats that might approach would contain friends to be welcomed 
or enemies to be repulsed, made the night of the 12th a most 
anxious one for the garrison. But neither friends nor enemies 
appeared, and after a breakfast of pork and water, on the morn¬ 
ing of the 13th, a momentous day’s fighting began. 

By nine o’clock in the morning fire broke out in the officers’ 
quarters, and it was learned that the hostile batteries were firing 
red-hot shot. Discovering the flames, the enemy redoubled 
their firing. It was impossible, even were it desirable, to save 
the wooden quarters, and, after one or two attempts to quench 
the flames, they were allowed to burn. Precautions were taken 
to secure the powder magazines from danger by cutting away 
the woodwork and spreading wet blankets. Many barrels of 


powder were rolled out for use. But finally a shot struck the 
door of the magazine and locked it fast, cutting off further sup¬ 
plies of ammunition. Powder that could not be protected was 
thrown overboard, but some of it lodging at the base of the 
fort was ignited by the enemy’s shot, and exploded, blowing a 
heavy gun at the nearest embrasure out of battery. A trench 
was dug in front of the magazine, and filled with water. 

So many of the men were required to attend to these precau¬ 
tions, that the firing from Sumter slackened up almost to cessa¬ 
tion, leading the enemy to think they had given up. The fire 
became intense, driving some of the men outside the fort for 
air, until the thick-falling missiles drove them in again; and, 
combined with the bursting shells, all this produced a scene that 
was terrific. As the fire subsided for want of fuel to burn, the 





























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



damage was disclosed. A tower at an angle of the fort, in which 
shells had been stored, had been entirely shattered by the burst¬ 
ing of the shells. The wooden gates at the entrance to the fort 
were burned through, leaving the way open for assault, and 
other entrances were now opened in the same way. 

Shortly after noon the flag was shot away from its staff. A 
tremendous amount of 
ammunition had been 
wasted by the rebels in 
the ambitious effort to 
lower the flag, and at last 
it was successful. But the 
exultation of the enemy 
was cut short by the 
plucky action of Peter 
Hart, a servant, who had 
been allowed to join Major 
Anderson at the fort on 
condition that he should 
remain a non-combatant. 

Making a temporary flag¬ 
staff of a spar, he nailed 
the flag to it and tied it 
firmly to the gun-carriages 
on the parapet, accom¬ 
plishing his feat under the 
concentrated fire w i t h 
which the enemy sought 
to prevent it. 

Supposing the fall of 
the flag to have been a 
token of surrender, ex- 
Senator Wigfall, of Texas, 
made his appearance at 
the fort about two P.M., 
announced himself as an 
aid to General Beauregard, 
and requested an inter¬ 
view with Major Ander¬ 
son. He begged that the 
bloodshed might cease, 
and was told that there 
had been none at Sumter. 

He offered Anderson hon¬ 
orable terms of evacua¬ 
tion, and then withdrew. 

At Wigfall’s request, a 
white flag had been dis¬ 
played during his presence 
at the fort, and the firing 
ceased. Observing this, 

General Beauregard sent 


a boat containing Col¬ 
onels Chestnut, Lee, and 

Pryor, and Captain Miles, to inquire whether he surrendered. 
A long parley ensued, during which these officers said that 
Wigfall had not been in communication with Beauregard ; upon 
which Major Anderson said, “Very well, gentlemen, you can 
return to your batteries,” and announced that he would run up 
his flag and renew his fire. But at their request he agreed to 
delay this until they could see General Beauregard, and they 
withdrew. 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C, S. A 


That evening, another boat-load of officers came, bringing 
Beauregard’s confirmation of the terms of evacuation that had 
been discussed with Wigfall, although permission to salute the 
United States flag was granted with much hesitation. It was 
then arranged that Anderson should leave Fort Sumter on 
the following day, taking all his men and arms and personal 

baggage, and saluting the 
flag. 

Early on the morning 
of Sunday, April 14, all 
was made ready for the 
departure. The firing of 
the salute was a matter of 
some danger, as there was 
so much fire still about 
the fort that it was risky 
to lay ammunition down, 
and sparks of fire floated 
in the air. Fifty guns 
were fired before the 
flag was lowered. In re¬ 
loading one of them, some 
spark that had lodged in 
the piece prematurely dis¬ 
charged it, instantly kill¬ 
ing the gunner, Daniel 
Hough. The fire from 
the muzzle dropping on 
the cartridges piled below 
exploded those also, seri¬ 
ously injuring five other 
men. This was the only 
life lost at Sumter, and 
the first life lost in the 
war; and, with the excep¬ 
tion of one man wounded 
by a bursting shell, these 
wounded men received 
the only casualties of the 
brave little garrison that 
defended Fort Sumter. 

The men were formed 
in company, banners were 
flung to the breeze, the 
drums beat “ Yankee 
Doodle,” and the order 
was given to march 
through the charred gate¬ 
way to the transport that 
lay at the dock in readi¬ 
ness to carry them to the 
Baltic , on which they 
sailed to New York. 

When they reached 
their destination, they were lionized by their enthusiastic coun¬ 
trymen. Steam whistles and cheers greeted their passage through 
the harbor; comforts, long a stranger to them, awaited them at 
Fort Hamilton, where they were greeted in the name of a grate¬ 
ful people by the people’s spokesman, Henry Ward Beecher; 
and the newspapers sang their praises in one harmonious chorus. 

When Fort Sumter was evacuated, it presented very much the 
exterior appearance that it did before the bombardment—a few 



















l8 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



holes knocked in the masonry were all that the comparatively 
light artillery then brought to bear on it could accomplish. 
Occupied by the Confederates after the evacuation, it remained 
in their hands until the end of the war. When, in 1863, General 
Q. A. Gillmore bombarded Charleston, Fort Sumter was reduced 
to a pile of bricks and mortar; but such a quantity of cannon¬ 
balls and shells were poured into its debris as to form 
an almost solid mass of iron, practically impregnable. 

Sumter never was reduced by artillery fire, and fell 
into Federal hands again only 
when Charleston fell before 
Sherman’s march to the sea. 

On the conglomerate pile 
which constituted the ruins of 
the fort, a dramatic scene of 
poetic justice occurred on April 
14, 1865, the fourth anniversary 
of the evacuation of Sumter. 

An expedition was 
sent by the Govern¬ 
ment to Charleston 
Harbor to celebrate 
the recapture by re¬ 
placing the national 
flag on Fort Sumter. 

The ship Arago bore 
the officials in charge 
of the ceremony, and 
many invited guests, 
among w h o m were 
William Lloyd Garri¬ 
son and the English 
George Thompson, 
leading abolitionists. 

A patriotic oration was 
pronounced by Henry 
Ward Beecher; and 
by the hand of Ander¬ 
son, now major-gen¬ 
eral, the same flag 
which he had lowered 
in 1861 was drawn to 
the peak of the flagstaff, while Sumter’s 
guns and those of every battery in the 
harbor that had fired on that flag fired 
a national salute of one hundred guns. 

The flag was riddled with holes, but, 
as the orator of the day pointed out, 
as symbolic of the preserved Union, 
not a single star had been shot away. 

Peter Hart, the brave man who had 
reset the flag during the bombardment, 

was present; and the Rev. Mr. Harris, who read prayers at the 
first raising, pronounced the benediction on the resurrection of 
the ensign of the nation. 

The shot that was fired on Sumter was the signal for a nation 
to rise in arms. That Sunday on which Sumter was evacuated 
was a memorable day to all who witnessed the intense excite¬ 
ment, the patriotic fury of a patient people roused to white-hot 
indignation. As on a gala day, the American flag suddenly 
appeared on every public building and from innumerable private 


WAR GOVERNORS" OF THE NORTHERN STATES. 


and conference. The national flag was thrown to the breeze 
from nearly every court-house, school-house, college, hotel, 
engine-house, railway station and public building, from the spires 
of many churches, and from the windows of innumerable private 
residences. The fife and drum were heard in the streets, and 
recruiting offices were opened in vacant stores or in tents hastily 
pitched in the public squares. All sorts and condi¬ 
tions of men left their business and stepped into the 
ranks, and in a few days the Government was offered 

several times as many troops as 
had been called for. Boys of 
fifteen sat down and wept be¬ 
cause they were not permitted 
to go, but here and there one 
dried his tears when he was 
told that he might be a drum¬ 
mer or an officer’s servant. At¬ 
tentions between young people 
were suddenly ripened 
into engagements, and 
engagements of long 
date were hastily fin¬ 
ished in marriages; for 
the boys were going, 
and the girls were 
proud to have them 
go, and wanted to send 
the m off in g o o d 
spirits. Everybody 
seemed anxious to put 
forth some expression 
of loyalty to the na¬ 
tional government and 
the starry flag. In the 
Ohio senate, on Friday, 
the 12th, a senator an¬ 
nounced that “the se¬ 
cessionists are bom¬ 
barding Fort Sumter.’’ 
“ Glory to God ! ” ex¬ 
claimed awomanin the 
gallery, breaking the 
solemn silence which briefly followed the 
announcement. This was Abby Kelly 
Foster, an active abolitionist, who dis¬ 
cerned that at last the final appeal had 
been taken on the slavery question—the 
appeal to the sword—from the trium¬ 
phant issue of which would come the 
freedom for which she and her associates 
had contended, and which they believed 
could come in no other way. 

On Monday, April 15, President Lincoln issued a call for sev¬ 
enty-five thousand militia from the several States “ to suppress 
this combination against the laws, and to cause the laws to be 
duly executed.” 

The response to this call was immediate, and within the week 
some of the troops thus summoned were in Washington. 

While forts and arsenals were being seized by the Confeder¬ 
ates all over the South, while batteries to reduce Fort Sumter 
were being constructed and armed, what had been doing at 


residences. Crowds surged through the streets, seeking news Washington city, the capital of the nation ? 
















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


19 



ON THE MARCH. 


CHAPTER II. 


PREPARATION FOR CONFLICT. 


DEFENCELESS CONDITION OF WASHINGTON—SECESSION SYMPA¬ 
THIZERS IN OFFICE—VOLUNTEERS IN THE DISTRICT OF 
COLUMBIA—COL. CHARLES P. STONE—PROTECTION OF PUBLIC 
OFFICES AND GUARDING OF COMMUNICATIONS—UPRISING OF 
THE PEOPLE—RESPONSE OF THE MILITIA—THE SIXTH MASSA¬ 
CHUSETTS IN BALTIMORE-THE NEW YORK SEVENTH REACHES 

WASHINGTON—DEATH OF COLONEL ELLSWORTH-SOUTHERN 

MILITARY AGGRESSION—HARPER’S FERRY CAPTURED—GOS¬ 
PORT NAVY YARD BURNED AND EVACUATED. 


DURING the interval between the election and the inaugu¬ 
ration of President Lincoln, a very alarming condition of 
affairs existed at the national capital. The administration 
was in the hands of men who, even those who were not 
actively disloyal, were not Republicans, and did not desire 
to assume responsibility for the crisis which the Republican 
success at the polls had precipitated. 

The Government service was honeycombed with secession 
sentiment,.which extended from cabinet officers down to depart¬ 
ment clerks. Always essentially a city of Southern sympathies, 
Washington was filled with the advocates of State Rights. The 
retiring Democratic President, James Buchanan, in addition to a 
perhaps not unnatural timidity in the face of impending war and 


RETURN FROM SKIRMISHING. 

a reluctance to embroil his administration in affairs which it prop¬ 
erly belonged to the incoming administration to settle, was also 
torn with conflicting opinions as to the constitutional questions 
involved, especially as to his power to coerce a sovereign State. 
Turning to his cabinet for advice, he was easily led to do the things 
that simplified the Southern preparations to leave the Union. 


• A/ ' v - " 
















































































20 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



defend the South against the “ coercion ” of the Yankees. Oppo¬ 
sition from the War Department to Colonel Stone’s measures 
ceased with Floyd’s resignation, and under the new Secretary 
of War, Joseph Holt (afterward Lincoln’s Attorney-General), 
he was able to enroll in a few weeks thirty-three companies of 
infantry volunteers and two troops of cavalry, under trustworthy 
leaders. These were recruited from neighborhoods, from among 
artisans, and from fire companies. All this was done with the 
discretion required by the strained condition of public feeling, 
which was such that, as General Scott said to Colonel Stone, “ a 
dog-fight might cause the gutters of the capital to run with 
blood.” As the time for Lincoln’s inauguration approached, it 
became safe to move more openly; and by the 4th of March a 
company of sappers and miners and a battery had been brought 
down from West Point, while thirty new companies had been 
added to the volunteer force of the District. 

In the first enthusiasm over the dramatic incidents attending 

the beginning of 
hostilities, the great 
services rendered 
by these troops 
were overlooked by 
the public. Abra¬ 
ham Lincoln’s jour¬ 
ney to Washington 
was beset with such 
danger that the last 
stage of it was made 
secretly, in advance 
of the published 
programme, and 
there was great re¬ 


joicing 


when it was 


announced that the 
President was “ safe 
in Washington.” 
He could not have 
been safe there ex¬ 
cept for the pres- 


It has been told that the regular army troops had been sent 
away from Washington, leaving a mere handful of marines on 
duty there. It became a problem for loyal men to devise means 
for the maintenance of order at the seat of Government. It 
being the policy of the Government at that time to do nothing 
to provoke hostilities, it was deemed unwise to bring regular 
troops openly into Washington. There was no regularly organ¬ 
ized militia there ; only a few independent companies of doubtful, 
or unascertained, loyalty. 

The aged Gen. Winfield Scott was in command of the army 
in i860, and appreciating that trouble would come either from 
continued acquiescence in the aggressions of the South or from 
a show of force, he advised the President to quietly enroll the 
loyal people of the District of Columbia for the guardianship of 
the capital. For this duty he called in Charles P. Stone, a 
graduate of West Point and a veteran of the Mexican war, who 
was made Inspector-General of the District of Columbia, with 
the rank of colonel. 

Colonel Stone 
took measures to 
ascertain the senti¬ 
ments of the exist¬ 
ing independent 
military companies. 

With admirable 
diplomacy he dis¬ 
armed such of them 
as were found to be 
disloyal. Some of 
them ne found to 
be in excellent con¬ 
dition of drill and 
equipment, by con¬ 
nivance of the Sec¬ 
retary of War, John 
B. Floyd, and they 
were well aware 
that it was their 
destiny to help 




tt*- 


WASH-DAY IN CAMP-GUARDING THE SUPPLY TRAIN. 














John Brown of Ossawatomie, spake on his dying day : 

»• | w i|| not have to shrive my soul a priest in slavery's pay, 

But let some poor slave-mother, whom I have striven to free, 

With »•' children. tronr. the gallowe stair, put up a prayer for me I ” 


LAST MOMENTS OF JOHN BROWN. 


John Brown of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die : 

Ard lo I a poor sla^-mother, with her little child, pressed nigh ; 

Then the bold blue eye grew tender, and the old harsh face grew mild. 

As he stooped between the crowding ranks, and kissed the negro’s child ! 

J. 6 Whim* 

























22 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



LONG BRIDGE—OVER THE POTOMAC, AT WASHINGTON. 

The planks were laid loose on the beams, and at night they were taken up, so that the bridge could not be crossed by the Confederate cavalry that hovered about the capital. 


ence of Colonel Stone’s volunteers. Trouble was apprehended 
at his inauguration. But the dispositions made by Colonel 
Stone secured peace and quiet for that ceremonial in a city 
teeming with traitors and would-be assassins. The advance to 
Washington of the troops called out by Lincoln’s proclamation 
of April 15 was opposed in Maryland, regiments were attacked 
in the streets of Baltimore, and communicating railroad bridges 
were burned in order that no more troops for the subjugation 
of the South might pass through that border city. The South 
was flocking to arms, stimulated by the desire of seizing Wash¬ 
ington. To a delegation that called on the President to protest 
against the passage of troops through Baltimore, Mr. Lincoln 
summed up the situation by saying: “I must have troops for 
the defence of the capital. The Carolinians are marching across 
Virginia to seize the capital and hang me. What am I to do? 
I must have troops, I say; and as they can neither crawl under 
Maryland nor fly over it, they must come across it.” 

During all this troubled time the District volunteers were the 
only reliance for the security of the public property, for guard¬ 
ing the approaches to the city, and for keeping open the com¬ 
munications for the entrance of the coming troops. They were 


among the first to be mustered into the United States service, 
and among the first to advance into Virginia. 

To secure the public buildings against a rising among the 
secessionists living in Washington, the volunteer companies and 
the regular army batteries were conveniently posted, the bridges 
and highways leading to the city were guarded, and signals were 
arranged for the concentration at any given point of the eight 
thousand men who now constituted the garrison of the capital. 
Provisions were collected and stored, many of them in the Capitol 
building, and, to such extent as the force warranted, Washington 
was considered secure unless a Southern army was marched 
against it. And this impending danger was daily increasing. 
On April 17, Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, 
had called for thirty-two thousand troops, and had offered letters 
of marque to vessels to attack American commerce. The arrival 
of the militia called out by President Lincoln’s proclamation 
was anxiously awaited. 

Almost before the boom of the guns that were fired on Sum¬ 
ter had ceased, military preparations were actively under way 
in nearly every city and village in the North. The uniformed 






































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


23 



militia regiments were promptly filled up to their full numbers 
by new enlistments. Home Guards were organized in country 
towns, to defend their homes should the war be waged in the 
North, and to man afresh, when necessary, the companies 
already sent out. To fife and drum, the ununiformed fanners 
marched up and down the village green, temporarily armed with 
shot-guns and smooth-bore rifles, acquiring proficiency in “ Har¬ 
dee’s Tactics’’ under the direction of old militia officers who had 
shone resplendent on former “ training days.” Neither 
custom nor regulations prescribing any particular uni¬ 
forms, the greatest variety of fancy was shown in the 
equipment of the volunteers. Some 
adopted the zouave uniform, 
which had become popular 
through the then 
recent war 
between 
France 
a n d 
A u s- 
tria and 
the mem¬ 
ories of 
Magenta 
and Solfer- 
ino. Garibaldi 
was a popular 
hero of the day, 
and the red shirts 
of his trusty men 
were another of the 
uniforms particularly 
favored. The war en¬ 
thusiasm extended to 
the women and children, 
and sewing circles were 
ganized for the making 
many useful, and also 
useless, articles for camp and 


hospital. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL MONTGOMERY C MEIGS 


Ol 


of 


ny 


and 


Th 


1 cap-cover 


havelocks ”—1 


cape combined—however useful in India, were 
not wanted in America. Later, when there 
were sick and wounded to be cared for, these 
organizations of women were of inestimable ser- 

o 

vice in preparing lint, bandages, and delicacies 
for the hospitals. 

Prompt to discern the coming appeal to arms, 

John A. Andrew, the famous “war governor” 
of Massachusetts, had begun to recruit, arm, and 
equip his State militia as early as February, 
i860, and by the time the call for troops came 
he had thirteen thousand men ready, not only 
to go to the front, but to furnish their own camp equipage and 
rations. Of these, nearly four thousand responded to the 
first call for three-months’ volunteers. The first regiment to 
start for Washington was the Sixth Militia, Col. Edward F. 
Jones, which left Boston on April 17, only three days after the 
fall of Sumter. The passage of the train bearing this regiment 
was one long ovation from Boston to Philadelphia. At the 
latter city, as at New York, the men were received with enthu¬ 
siastic hospitality, welcomed, fed, and plied with good things for 
their already overstocked haversacks; and it began to seem as 


though war were one continuous picnic. At least until the defence 
of Washington should begin, they were under no apprehension of 
trouble, until, on approaching Baltimore, on April 19, the anni¬ 
versary of the Revolutionary battle of Lexington, the officers 
were warned that the passage of the regiment through that city 
would be forcibly opposed by a mob, which was already collected 
and marching about the city, following a secession flag. Colonel 
Jones ordered ammunition to be distributed, and, passing through 

the cars in person, he warned 
the men that they were to pay 
no attention to abuse or even 
missiles, and that, if it became 
necessary for them to fire on 
the mob, they would receive 
orders to that effect from their 
commandants. 

The passage of trains through 
Baltimore at that period was 
by horse power across the city, 
from one depot to another. 
The horses being quickly at¬ 
tached as soon as the locomo¬ 
tive was taken off, cars carrying 
about two-thirds of the regi¬ 
ment were driven rapidly over 
the route ; but to intercept the 
remaining four companies the 
mob barricaded the tracks, and 
it became necessary for these 
to abandon 
the cars and 
cover the re¬ 
maining dis¬ 
tance on foot. 
At once they 
became the 
target for 
s h o w e rs of 
stones thrown 
by the mob, 
and in order 
to lessen the 
need of armed 
resistance, the 
officers gave 
the order to 
proceed at the 
double-quick. 
It was a mis- 
take, but a 
common one 
when citizen 

soldiers are dealing with a mob; the most merciful as well as the 
wisest course being to scatter the mob promptly by a warning, 
followed by the promised volley. The mob thought they had 
the troops on the run, and were encouraged to believe that they 
either dared not shoot or that they were without ammunition. 
Tfie missiles were followed with pistol shots, at which one soldier 
fell dead. Then the order to fire was given to the troops, and 
several of the crowd, rioters and spectators, fell. The mayor 
of Baltimore joined the officers at the head of the column, to 
give his authority to its progress, and also to tell the officers to 


OLD CAPITOL PRISON, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
























24 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 




defend themselves. In¬ 
stead of being faced 
about to confront the 
mob, the troops were 
marched steadily for¬ 
ward, turning about as 
they advanced and de¬ 
livering a desultory fire, 
which, however, did not 
deter the mob from con¬ 
tinuing its attack. At 
last, Marshal Kane, of 
the Baltimore police, 
interposed with a com¬ 
pany of policemen be¬ 
tween the rear of troops 
and the rioters, formed 
a line, and ordered the 
mob back on penalty of 
a pistol volley. This 
was so effective as to 
practically end the af¬ 
fair, and without further 
serious disturbance the 
detachment joined their 
comrades at the Camden 
station, and boarded 
the train that took 
them to Washington. The regi¬ 
ment’s loss was four killed and 
thirty-six wounded. The men 
were furious over the affair, and 
it required all the authority of 
the colonel to keep them from 
leaving the cars and taking ven¬ 
geance on Baltimore for the 
death of their comrades. Ar¬ 
rived at Washington, the first 
regiment to come in response 
to the call of the President, they 
were quartered in the Senate 
Chamber. 

After this incident, the mayor 
and police of Baltimore, who 
had done their duty handsome¬ 
ly, with the approval of the gov¬ 
ernor destroyed the tracks and 
railway bridges leading into the 
city, that there might be no 
repetition of such scenes; and 
the troops that followed—the 
Twenty-seventh Pennsylvania 
(which, unarmed, had reached 
Baltimore with the Sixth Mass¬ 
achusetts, but had to turn 
back), the Eighth Massachusetts 
under Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, 
and the famous Seventh New 
York—had to reach Washing¬ 
ton by way of Annapolis. The 
Seventh, under Colonel Lefferts, 
was the first home regiment to 


EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ALEXANDRIA, VA. 

General George Washington and General Robert Lee attended this church. 


PROVOST-MARSHAL’S OFFICE, ALEXANDRIA, VA. 


leave New York City, 
and nothing could ex¬ 
ceed the enthusiasm of 
the demonstrations 
that accompanied its 
march down Broadway. 
To greet its passage 
out of the city to the 
front, all business was 
suspended, and the 
population turned en 
masse into the streets. 
Boxes of cigars and 
other luxuries were 
thrust into the hands of 
the. men as they passed 
down Broadway in a 
triumphal march such 
as has never been sur¬ 
passed in the annals of 
the city. There was a 
certain dramatic ele¬ 
ment, new at the time, 
and scarcely repeated 
during the war, in this 
departure of a regiment 
composed literally of 
the flower of a great 
and wealthy city, representing 
its best elements, social and 
commercial. W h e n General 
(then Major) McDowell mus¬ 
tered them in at Washington, 
he said to one of the captains: 
“ You have a company of offi¬ 
cers, not privates;” and out of 
the less than one thousand men 
composing this command, over 
six hundred, mostly privates, 
afterward became officers in the 
Union army. Among these 
were such names as Abram 
Duryea, who organized “ Dur- 
yea’s Zouaves ; ” Egbert L. 
Vicle, Noah L. Farnam, Edward 
L. Molineux, Alexander Shaler, 
Louis Fitzgerald, Philip Schuy¬ 
ler, Fitzjames O’Brien ; Robert 
G. Shaw, who fell at Fort Wag¬ 
ner, leading to the assault his 
Massachusetts regiment, which 
was the first colored regiment 
to be organized under State 
authority; and Theodore Win- 
throp, whose death at Big 
Bethel, as a brave officer and a 
man of letters, was one of the 
conspicuous casualties of the 
early days of the war. 

These troops were taken on 
transports from Philadelphia to 
Annapolis, another town of 





















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


/■> " 






Southern sympathies, where, except for the hospitality of the 
United States Naval Academy, they were most unwelcome. 
From that point they made their way, at first by train, and then, 
being obstructed by the destruction of railroads and railroad 
bridges, by forced marches, until they reached Annapolis Junc¬ 
tion, where they were met by a regiment sent out from Washing¬ 
ton to meet them, and thence 
proceeded by rail again. The 
strict discipline of Colonel Lef- 
ferts, to which they owed their 
successful pioneer work in open¬ 
ing the way to the capital, took 
them in review past President 
Lincoln at the White House be¬ 
fore they breakfasted, and they 
had no let-up on the hardship 
of their service until they were 
quartered in the House of Rep¬ 
resentatives, where they were 
subsequently sworn into the ser¬ 
vice of the Government. 

This episode is worth recount¬ 
ing, since it was the determined 
advance of these troops—the 
Eighth Massachusetts, unde r 
Colonel Hinks, accompanying 
them—in spite of rumors of a 
large secessionist force between 
them and Washington, that made 
access to the seat of govern¬ 
ment practicable for the regi- 


“bunked” all over the city, 
were quartered so far as practi¬ 
cable in the Government build¬ 
ings, and made the national 
capital festive with the pranks 
in which they let off the animal 


MARSHALL HOUSE, ALEXANDRIA. 
Where Colonel Ellsworth was killed 


m e n t s that 
promptly fol¬ 
lowed them, 
i n c ’ 

more men 
from Pennsyl- 
vania and 
Massachu¬ 
setts, the First 
Rhode Island, 
the Sixth, 
Eighth, Ninth, 
and Seventy- 
fi rst New 
York, the lat¬ 
ter regiments 

reaching Annapolis before the Seventh New York and Eighth 
Massachusetts left, thus keeping the way open. Had the 
rumored fifteen thousand rebels actually lain between Annapolis 
and Washington, it would have gone hard with the Government 
and the fortunes of the Union. 

Troops continued to pour into Washington, until it really 
became an embarrassment to know what to do with them. They 


THE DEATH OF ELLSWORTH. 


COLONEL ELMER E ELLSWORTH 

spirits they carried into 
the grand picnic they 
seemed to have started 
on. Among them, a 
regiment of Zouaves, 
recruited from the New 
York Fire Department 
by Col. Elmer E. Ells¬ 
worth, was conspicuous. 
They were the last of 
the old-time “ toughs,” 
and they made things 
lively in the capital. 
They swarmed over the 
Capitol building, scaling 
its walls and running 
about its cornices in true 
fire-laddie fashion, and 
once they rendered a 
distinct service to the 
city of Washington 
by saving a burning 
building adjoining 
Willard’s Hotel, display¬ 
ing a reckless daring that gave the District firemen some new 
;as. 

Ellsworth had attracted much attention in i860 by the admir¬ 
able work of a company of Chicago Zouaves, with which he had 
given exhibition drills in the East, and he was early commis¬ 
sioned a second lieutenant in the regular army. But he resigned 
this position in order to organize the Fire Zouaves, which he 
marched down Broadway under escort of the Fire Department, 
and entered upon active service only to sacrifice his life at the 
very beginning in a needless but tragic manner. As soon as 
troops arrived in Washington in sufficient numbers, the Govern¬ 
ment determined to make Washington secure by seizing its out¬ 
posts. Among these were Arlington Heights, across the Potomac, 
on the “ sacred soil of Virginia,” of which this occupation was 
termed the first “invasion.” Ellsworth’s regiment occupied the 
city of Alexandria ; and then, discovering a secession flag flying 
from the Marshall House, the colonel mounted to the roof in 
person and tore the flag down. Descending, he was met at the 
foot of the stairs by Jackson, the proprietor of the hotel, who 
shot him dead with a shot-gun. Ellsworth’s death was promptly 
avenged by Private Francis E. Brownell, who had accompanied 
him, and who put a bullet through Jackson’s head; but, as 
the first death of an officer, it created wide-spread excitement 



































JUDAH P. BENJAMIN, 
Attorney-General—War—State. 


JEFFERSON DAVIS AND HIS CABINET 


REAGAN 


Postmaster-General. 






STEPHEN R MALLORY, 


CHRISTOPHER G. MEMMINGER, 


ROBERT TOOMBS, 


Secretary of the Navy. 


Secretary of the Treasury. 


Secretary of State. 


LEROY P. WALKER, 
Secretary of War. 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


2 7 


throughout the North, not excelled by that over the Massachu¬ 
setts men who fell in Baltimore, and royal honors were shown to 
his remains. They lay in state in the White House, where he 
had been a great favorite with the President, and were conveyed 
to their last resting-place with every military distinction. Per¬ 
haps this incident, more than any that had yet occurred, brought 
home to the people of the North the reality of the war that was 
upon them. But it only stimulated recruiting; the death of 
Ellsworth weighing far less with the generous patriotism of the 
young men who filled up regiment after regiment, than the 
glory of Ellsworth, and the honor of Private Brownell. 

While the levies were coming into Washington, the Southern 
leaders had not 
been idle. Re¬ 
sponse to Jeffer¬ 
son Davis’s call 
for troops was 
general all over 
the States, and 
the week that 
intervened be¬ 
tween Sumter 
and the riot in 
Baltimore was a 
busy one. In 
Virginia, the 
Governor took 
into' his own 
hands measures 
for the defence 
of his State. As 
early as April 15 
he caused a 
number of mili¬ 
tia officers to be 
summoned to 
Richmond, and 
he placed in 
their hands the 
execution of a 
movement to 
capture the 
United States 
Arsenal at Har¬ 
per’s Ferry, at 
the junction of 
the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. Proceeding with a small 
command through an unfriendly country, these officers, among 
whom was the afterward famous Confederate general, John D. 
Imboden, reached their destination in the gray of the early 
morning of April 18, the day after the Virginia Legislature had 
passed the ordinance of secession. Instead of the resistance 
they had looked forward to 011 information that a Massachusetts 
regiment was guarding Harper’s Ferry, they were welcomed with 
the sight of buildings in flames, which told them, only too truly, 
that the United States garrison had abandoned the place on their 
approach, and had set fire to the arsenal and stores to save them 
from falling into the hands of the Confederates. 

Early warning of the attempted seizure of Harper’s Perry had 
been confided to a messenger who had volunteered to acquaint 
the Government with the impending peril, and word was sent 


that heavy reinforcements alone would save this property to the 
United States. But in those formative days, when many earnest 
men hesitated between loyalty to the Union and loyalty to their 
State, when officers like Lee abandoned the old service with re¬ 
luctance under a sense of paramount duty to their State, a man 
who was loyal one day would conclude overnight to secede with 
his State. And from some such cause as this, or through fear 
of the consequences, the messenger never delivered the message 
to the War Department, and the reinforcements, though anx¬ 
iously expected, never came. The arsenal had been left in charge 
of Lieut. Roger Jones, who had been ordered to Harper’s Ferry 
from Carlisle Barracks, Penn., with a small force of forty-five men. 
Hearing nothing from Washington in response to his request for 

aid, he made up 
his mind on the 
evening of April 
17, that the only 
course open to 
him was to save 
his garrison by 
retreat, and de¬ 
stroy the prop¬ 
erty thus aban¬ 
doned. This 
determ ination 
w a s confirmed 
by the n e w s 
brought to him, 
by a former su¬ 
perintendent of 
the arsenal, of 
the coming 
of the Virginia 
troops. Al¬ 
though this 
same man had 
loyally reported, 
so long before 
as January, that 
an attempt 
might be made, 
he now told the 
workmen en¬ 
gaged at the 
arsenal that 
within twenty- 
four hours the 

arsenal would be in the hands of the Virginia forces, and advised 
them to protect the property, cast their lot with the secessionists, 
and insure to themselves a continuance of work under the new 
regime. 

Lieutenant Jones immediately made secret preparations. He 
had trains of powder laid through the buildings, and when the force 
of thirteen hundred Virginians had approached to within a mile of 
the arsenal, at nine o’clock on the evening of April 17, the torch 
was applied, and the flames ran through the works, which were 
quickly burning. Some of the powder trains had been wet by 
the Southern sympathizers among the workmen, but the result 
was a practical destruction of nearly all that would have been 
valuable as munitions of war. The powder that was stored in 
the buildings exploded from time to time, effectually preventing 
serious efforts to put out the fire. The garrison was withdrawn 


gse 



JEFFERSON DAVIS'S RESIDENCE IN RICHMOND. 










28 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



THE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND. 


across the Potomac and marched back to Carlisle. When the 
Virginians came up the next morning, they found only the burn¬ 
ing arsenal buildings to greet them. 

Enough property was rescued from the destruction to make 
the capture a useful one to the Confederates, however ; and the 
possession of Harper’s Ferry gave them command of an import¬ 
ant line of communication with Washington, by the Baltimore 
and Ohio Railroad. Anticipating the use of this line for the 
transportation of Western troops to Washington, Gen. Kenton 
Harper, commanding the Virginians, stopped the first train 
through ; but his only capture was the person of Gen. William 
S. Harney, of the regular army, who was on his way to Wash¬ 
ington to resign his commission rather than engage in the civil 
war. Ide was made a prisoner and sent to Richmond, whence he 
was allowed to proceed on his errand. General Harney did not 
resign, but was presently sent to Missouri to command the 
Department of the West. But his conciliating method of deal¬ 
ing with the enemy, together with his uncertain loyalty, caused 
him to be relieved very soon. The strategic value of Harper’s 
Ferry was developed under Col. Thomas J. Jackson (after¬ 
ward the celebrated “ Stonewall ”), who was made colonel com¬ 
mandant of all the Virginia forces, superseding all the previously 
existing militia generals. Robert E. Lee had been given the 
general command of the State troops, with Jackson as his execu¬ 
tive officer, and by a legislative ordinance every militia officer 
above the grade of captain had been relegated to private life 
unless reappointed by the governor under the new dispensation. 

The bridge at Point of Rocks, a few miles down the Potomac 
toward Washington, was seized and fortified against a possible 
attack by General Butler, who was near Baltimore ; and by a 
clever ruse a great number of trains on the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad were “ bagged,” and the cars and engines side-tracked 
into Strasburg, greatly facilitating the Confederate train service 
in Virginia. Horses and supplies were secured from the neigh¬ 
boring country, and when Gen. Joseph E. Johnston superseded 
Jackson a month later at Harper’s Ferry, the Confederates were 
in good shape to confront an advance on their position from 
Maryland or Pennsylvania, or to send reinforcements, as they 


did, when the first considerable struggle of the war 
came at Bull Run, fifty miles south of them. 

Another destruction of Government property by 
Government officers, about this time, most un¬ 
necessary and unfortunate, deprived the Navy 
Department of ships and material that would have 
been incalculably precious, and furnished the Con¬ 
federates with three ships, one of which, the Mer- 
rimac , was to be heard from later in a signal 
manner. 

At the Gosport Navy Yard, opposite Norfolk, 
Va., there were, besides many munitions of war, 
no less than eleven fine war ships, a majority of 
which were armed and ready for sea. The Gov¬ 
ernment made prompt preparations to secure these 
after the fall of Sumter; and but for the delay of 
the commandant, Commodore Charles S. McCauley, 
in executing his orders, a number of the vessels, 
with stores, armament, and crews, would have been 
withdrawn into safe waters. But under the influ¬ 
ence of his junior officers, most of whom subse¬ 
quently joined the Confederacy, he deferred action 
until better prepared. This delay was fatal; for 
on April 18 he suddenly was confronted by a 
hostile force, though small in numbers, under General Taliaferro, 
which had seized Norfolk and threatened the navy yard. The 



ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 
Vice-President C S A 

























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


29 



action of the latter in waiting one day for expected reinforce¬ 
ments from Richmond, and Commodore McCauley’s promise 
not to move a vessel or fire a shot except in defence, gave the 
Union commander time to do what he could to destroy the prop¬ 
erty in his charge; and on April 20 he scuttled every ship in the 
harbor, sinking them just before the arrival of Capt. Hiram 
Paulding in the Pawnee with orders to relieve McCauley, and 
to save or destroy the property. Seeing that it would 
be possible for the enemy to raise the sunken 
vessels, and that after the ships 
had been rendered 
useless he could not 
hold the place with 
his small force, Pauld¬ 
ing decided to com¬ 
plete the w o rk of 
destruction as far as 
possible, and told off 
his men in detachments 
for this duty. Ships, 
ship-houses, barracks, 
wharves, were at the sig¬ 
nal (a rocket) set ablaze, 
and the display was mag¬ 
nificent as pyrotechnics, 
and discouraging to the 
enemy, which had expected 
to secure a ready-made navy 
for the taking of it. When 
to the roar of the flames was 
added the boom of the loaded 
guns as the fire reached them, 
the effect was tremendous. Under cover of all this, the Pawnee 
drew out of the harbor, accompanied by the steam-tug Yankee 
towing the Cumberland, which alone of the fleet had not been 
scuttled, and bearing the loyal garrison and crews. In the haste 
with which the work of destruction had been undertaken, the 
result was incomplete. The mine under the dry-dock did-not 
explode ; and that most useful appliance, together with many 
shops, cannon, and provisions, was secured by the Confederates, 
who also succeeded in raising and using three of the sunken and 
partially burned vessels—the Mcrrimac, Raritan, and Plymouth, 
under the guns of the first of which, from behind its armored sides, 
the Climber land afterward came to grief in Hampton Roads. 


CHAPTER III. 

THE BEGINNING OF BLOODSHED. 

Lincoln’s inaugural address—the struggle for Virginia— 

OPPOSING VIEWS EXPRESSED BY ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS—THE 

SLAVE-TRADE OF VIRGINIA-VIRGINIA DRAGOONED—THE FIRST 

CALL FOR TROOPS—LINCOLN’S FAITH IN THE PEOPLE—ORIGIN OF 
THE WORD “COPPERHEAD.” 

ABRAHAM Lincoln’s inaugural address was one of the ablest 
state papers recorded in American history. It argued the question 
of secession in all its aspects—the constitutional right, the reality 
of the grievance, the sufficiency of the remedy—and so far as law 
and logic went, it left the secessionists little or nothing to stand 
on. But neither law nor logic could change in a single day the 


. 0 to\nn s£N0, 


Assis- 




pre-determined purpose of a powerful combination, or allay the 
passions that had been roused by years of resentful debate. 
Some of its sentences read like maxims for statesmen: “ The 
central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.” “ Can 
aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? ” “ Why 

should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice 
of the people ? Is there any better or equal hope in the world ? ” 
With all its conciliatory messages it expressed a firm and 
unalterable purpose to maintain the Union 
at every hazard. “ I con¬ 
sider,” he said, 
“ that, in view of the 
Constitution and the 
laws, the Union is 
unbroken, and to the 
extent of my ability I 
shall take care, as the 
Constitution itself ex¬ 
pressly enjoins upon me, 
that the laws of the 
L T nion be faithfully exe¬ 
cuted in all the States. 
Doing this I deem to be 
only a simple duty on my 
part; and I shall perform 
it, so far as practicable, un- 
ess my rightful masters, the 
American people, shall with¬ 
hold the requisite means, or 
in some authoritative manner 
direct the contrary.” And in 
closing he said: “In your 
hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the 
momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail 
you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the 
aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy 
the Government, while I have the most solemn one to preserve, 
protect and defend 
it. . We are 

not enemies, but 
friends. We must 
not be enemies. 

Though passion may 
have strained, it must 
not break our bonds 
of affection. The 
mystic cords of mem¬ 
ory, stretching from 
every battlefield and 
patriot grave to every 
living heart and 
hearthstone all over 
this broad land, will 
yet swell the chorus 
of the Union when 
again touched, as 
surely they will be, 
by the better angels 
of our nature.” 

No such address 
had ever come from 
the lips of a Presi- 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM S. HARNEY. 












I 


SHERMAN AND HIS GENERALS. 

















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


3i 



GENERAL GRANTS BODYGUARD 



dent before. Pierce and Buchanan had scolded the abolitionists 
like partisans ; Lincoln talked to the secessionists like a brother. 
The loyal people throughout the 
country received the address with 
satisfaction. The secessionists 
bitterly denounced it. Over¬ 
looking all its pacific declarations, 
and keeping out of sight the fact 
that a majority of the Congress 
just chosen was politically op¬ 
posed to the President, they ap¬ 
pealed to the Southern people 
to say whether they would 
“ submit to abolition rule,” and 
whether they were going to look- 
on and “ see gallant little South 
Carolina crushed under the heel 
of despotism.” 

In spite of all such appeals, 
there was still a strong Union 
sentiment at the South. This 
sentiment was admirably ex¬ 
pressed by Hon. Alexander Id. 

Stephens in a speech delivered on 
November 14, i860, in the follow¬ 
ing words : “ This step of seces¬ 
sion, once taken, can never be 
recalled ; and all the baleful and 
withering consequences that 
must follow will rest on the con¬ 
vention for all time. 


GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT, WITH GENERALS RAWLINS AND BOWERS. 


What reasons can you give the nations of the earth to justify 
it? What right has the North assailed? What interest of the 

South has been invaded ? What 
justice has been denied? And 
what claim founded in justice 
and right has been withheld ? 
Can either of you to-day name 
one governmental act of wrong, 
deliberately and purposely done 
by the Government of Washing¬ 
ton, of which the South has the 
right to complain ? I challenge 
the answer. ... I declare 
here, as I have often done be¬ 
fore, and which has been repeated 
by the greatest and wisest of 
statesmen and patriots in this 
and other lands, that it is the 
best and freest Government—the 
most equal in its rights, the most 
just in its decisions, the most 
lenient in its measures, and the 
most inspiring in its principles 
to elevate the race of men—that 
the sun of heaven ever shone 
upon. Now, for you to attempt 
to overthrow such a Government 
as this, under which we have lived 
for more than three-quarters of a 
century, in which we have gained 
our wealth, our standing as a na- 




























32 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


tion, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around 
us, with peace and tranquillity accompanied with unbounded pros¬ 
perity and rights unassailed—is the height of madness, folly and 
wickedness, to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote.” 
In a speech by Mr. Stephens delivered in Savannah, March 22, 
1861, he expressed entirely different views; in expounding the 
new constitution, he said : “ The prevailing idea entertained by 
him [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at 
the time of the formation of the old Constitution was, that the 
enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature ; 
that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. 

. . . Our new Government is founded upon exactly the 
opposite idea. Its foundation was laid, and its corner-stone 


States were becoming uneasy. Said Mr. Gilchrist, of Alabama, 
to the Confederate Secretary of War: “You must sprinkle blood 
in the faces of the people! If you delay two months, Alabama 
stays in the Union ! ” Hence the attack on Fort Sumter, out of 
which the garrison were in peril of being driven by starvation. 
This certainly had a great popular effect in the South as well as 
in the North ; but Virginia’s choice appears to have been deter¬ 
mined by a measure that was less spectacular and more coldly 
significant. The Confederate Constitution provided that Con¬ 
gress should have the power to “prohibit the introduction of 
slaves from any State not a member of, or Territory not belong¬ 
ing to, this Confederacy,” and at the time when Virginia’s fate was 
in the balance it was reported that such an act had been passed 



THE SIXTH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT ATTACKED IN THE STREETS OF BALTIMORE, APRIL 19, 1861. 


rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the 
white man , that slavery, in subordination to the superior race, is 
his natural and normal condition.” Seven slave States had gone 
out, but eight remained, and the anxiety of the secessionists was 
to secure these at once, or most of them, before the excitement 
cooled. The great prize was Virginia, both because of her own 
power and resources, and because her accession to the Con federacy 
would necessarily bring North Carolina also. Her governor, 
John Letcher, professed to be a Unionist; but his conduct after 
the ordinance of secession had been passed appears to prove that 
:his profession was insincere. In electing delegates to a conven¬ 
tion to consider the question of secession, the Unionists cast a 
majority of sixty thousand votes; and on the 4th of April, when 
President Lincoln had been in office a month, that convention 
refused, by a vote of eighty-nine to forty-five, to pass an ordi¬ 
nance of secession. The leading revolutionists of the cotton 


by the Congress at Montgomery.* When Virginia heard this, 
like the young man in Scripture, she went away sorrowful ; for 
in that line of trade she had great possessions. The cultivation 
of land by slave labor had long since ceased to be profitable in 
the border States—or at least it was far less profitable than rais¬ 
ing slaves for the cotton States—and the acquisition of new 
territory in Texas had enormously increased the demand. The 

* It is now impossible to prove positively that such a law was actually passed ; for 
the officially printed volume of “ Statutes at Large of the Provisional Government of 
the Confederate States of America” (Richmond, 1861) was evidently mutilated before 
being placed in the hands of the compositor. The Acts are numbered, but here and 
there numbers are missing, and in some of the later Acts there are allusions to pre¬ 
vious Acts that cannot be found in the book. It is known that on the 6th of March, 
iS&I, the Judiciary Committee was instructed to inquire into the expediency of such 
prohibition, and it seems a fair conjecture that one of the missing numbers was an 
Act of this character. In a later edition (1864) the numbering is made consecutive, 
but the missing matter is not restored. 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


35 



DEPARTURE OF THE SEVENTH REGIMENT FROM NEW YORK ClTY, APRIL 19, 1861. 


■ . ~ 


greatest part of this business (sometimes estimated as high as 
one-half) was Virginia’s. It was called “ the vigintal crop,” as 
the blacks were ready for market and at their highest value about 
the age of twenty. As it was an ordinary business of bargain 
and sale, no statistics were kept ; but the lowest estimate of the 
annual value of the trade in the Old Dominion placed it in the 
tens of millions of dollars. President Dew, of William and Mary 
College, in his celebrated pamphlet, wrote: “Virginia is, in fact, 
a negro-raising State for other States.” The New York Journal 
of Commerce of October 12, 1835, contained a letter from a Vir¬ 
ginian (vouched for by the editor) in which it was asserted that 
twenty thousand slaves had been driven south from that State 
that year. In 1836 the Wheeling (Va.) Times estimated the 
number of slaves exported from that State during the preceding 
year at forty thousand, valued at twenty-four million dollars. The 
Baltimore Register in 1846 said: “ Dealing in slaves has become 
a large business; establishments are made in several places in 
Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like cattle.” The 
Richmond Examiner, before the war, said: “Upon an inside 
estimate, they [the slaves of Virginia] yield in gross surplus 
produce, from sales of negroes to go south, ten million dollars.” 
In the United States Senate, just before the war, Hon. Alfred 
Iverson, of Georgia, replying to Mr. Powell, of Virginia, said 
Virginia was deeply interested in secession : for if the cotton 
States seceded, Virginia would find no market for her slaves, 
without which that State would be ruined. 


After Sumter had been 
fired on, and the Confederate 
Congress had forbidden this 
traffic to outsiders, the Vir¬ 


ginia Convention again took 


up the ordinance of secession 
(April 17) and passed it in 
secret session by a vote of 
eighty-eight to fifty-five. It 
was not to take effect till 
approved by the people ; but 
the day fixed for their vot¬ 
ing upon it was six weeks 
distant, the last Thursday 
in May. I-ong before that 
date, Governor Letcher, 
without waiting for the ver¬ 
dict of the people, turned 
over the entire military force 
and equipment of the State 
to the Confederate authori¬ 
ties, and the seat of the Con¬ 
federate Government was 
removed from Montgomery to Richmond 


COLONEL MARSHALL LEFFERTS, 
Commanding Seventh Regiment 


David G. Farra- 


gut, afterwards the famous admiral, who was in Norfolk, Vir¬ 
ginia, at the time, anxiously watching the course of events, 






















(Showing photographer's outfit) 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


.35 





declared that the State “ had been dra¬ 
gooned out of the Union,” and he refused 
to be dragooned with her. But Robert 
E. Lee and other prominent Virginians 
resigned their commissions in the United 
States service to enter that of their 
States or of the Confederacy, and the 
soil of Virginia was overrun by soldiers 
from the cotton States. Any other re¬ 
sult than a vote for secession was there¬ 
fore impossible. Arkansas followed with 
a similar ordinance on the 6th of May, 
and North Carolina on the 21st, neither 
being submitted to a popular vote. 

Kentucky refused to secede. For Ten¬ 
nessee and Missouri there was a pro¬ 
longed struggle. 

When Fort Sumter was surrendered, 
the Confederates had already acquired 
possession of Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie in Charleston 
Harbor, Fort Pulaski at Savannah, P'ort Morgan at the entrance 
of Mobile Bay, Forts Jackson and St. Philip below New Orleans, 
the navy-yard and Forts McRae and Barrancas at Pensacola, 
the arsenals at Mount 
Vernon, Ala., and Little 
Rock, Ark., and the New 
Orleans M i n t . 1 he 

largest force of United 
States regulars was that 
in Texas, under com¬ 
mand of Gen. David 
E. Twiggs, who surren¬ 
dered it in February, 
and turned over to the 
insurgents one million 
two hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars’ worth 
'%{ military property. 

On the day w h e n 
Sumter fell, President 
Lincoln penned a proc- 




GENERAL JOSEPH G. TOTTEN. 

Chief of Engineers. 


powei 


go m cry 


GENERAL ALEXANDER 
SHALER. 


MAJOR THEODORE WINTHROP. 
Killed at Big Bethel. 


lamation, issued the 
next day (Monday, 
April 15), which 
declared “ that the 
laws of the United 
States have been 
for some time past, 
and now are, op¬ 
posed, and the exe¬ 
cution thereof 
obstructed, in the 
States of South 
Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama, Florida, 
Mississippi, Louisi¬ 


ana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to 
be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial 
proceedings or by the powers vested in the mar¬ 
shals by law,” and called for militia from the 
several States of the Union to the number of 
seventy-five thousand. It also called a special 
session of Congress, to convene on July 4. He 
appealed “ to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, 
and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the 
integrity, and existence of our National Union, 
and the perpetuity of popular government, and to 
redress wrongs already long enough endured.” 

With regard to the reception of this cele¬ 
brated proclamation in the South, Alex¬ 
ander H. Stephens writes as fol¬ 
lows, in his History of the 
war: “ The effect of 

this upon the 
public mind of 
the Southern 
States cannot be 
described or even 
estimated. Up to 
this time, a majority, 
I think, of even those 
who favored the policy 
of secession had done so 
under the belief and con-, 
viction that it was the surest 
way of securing a redress of 
grievances, and of bringing the 
Federal Government back to 
Constitutional principles. This 
proclamation dispelled all such 
hopes. It showed that the party in 
power intended nothing short of 
complete centralization. The prin¬ 
ciples actuating the Washington author¬ 
ities were those aiming at consolidated 
while the principles controlling the action of the Mont- 
authorities were those which enlisted devotion and 
attachment to the Federative system as established by the 
Fathers in 1778 and 1787. In short, the cause of the Confed¬ 
erates was States Sovereignty, or the sovereign right of local self- 
government on the part of the States severally. The cause of 
their assailants involved the overthrow of this entire fabric, and 
the erection of a centralized empire in its stead.” 

The effect of this proclamation in the North has already been 
referred to. Mr. Lincoln’s faith in the people had always been 
strong; but the response to this proclamation was probably a 
surprise even to him, as it certainly was to the secessionists, 
who had assured the Southern people that the Yankees would 
not fight. The whole North was thrilled with military ardor, 
and moved almost as one man. The papers were lively with 
great head-lines and double-leaded editorials ; and the local poet 
filled the spare space—when there was any—with his glowing 
patriotic effusions. The closing passage of Longfellow’s “ Build¬ 
ing of the Ship,” written a dozen years before, beginning : 

“ Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 

Sail on, O Union, strong and great! 

Humanity with all its fears, 

With all the hopes of future years, 

Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! ” 






















36 


CAMPFIRE AND 


BA TTLEFIELD 



was in constant demand, and was recited effectively by nearly 
every orator that addressed a war meeting. 

Eminent men of all parties and all professions spoke out for 
the Union. Stephen A. Douglas, who had long been Lincoln’s 
rival, and had opposed the policy of coercion, went to the White 
House the day before Sumter fell, had a long interview with the 
President, and promised a hearty support of the Administration, 
which was immediately telegraphed over the 
country, and had a powerful effect. Ex- 
President Pierce (who had made the direful 
prediction of blood in Northern streets), ex- 
President Buchanan (who had failed to find 
any authority for coercion), Gen. Lewis Cass 


were occupied every day by platoons of men, most of them not 
yet uniformed, marching and wheeling and countermarching, and 
being drilled in the manual of arms by officers that knew just a 
little more than they did, by virtue of having bought a handbook 
of tactics the day before, and sat up all night to study it. There 
was great scarcity of arms. One regiment was looking dubiously 
at some ancient muskets that had just been placed in their hands, 
when the colonel came up and with grim humor assured 
them that he had seen those weapons used in the Mexican 
War, and more men were killed in front of them than behind 
them. The boys had great respect for the colonel, but 
they wanted to be excused from believing his story. 

J J 


BURNING OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 


(a Democratic partisan since the war 
of 1812), Archbishop Hughes (the high¬ 
est dignitary of the Roman Catholic 
Church in America), and numerous 
others, all “ came out for the Union,” 
as the phrase went. The greater por¬ 
tion of the Democratic party, which 
had opposed Lincoln’s election, also, 

as individuals, sustained the Administration in its determination 
not to permit a division of the country. These were known as 
“war Democrats,” while those that opposed and reviled the 
Government were called “ Copperheads,” in allusion to the 
snake of that name. Some of the bolder ones attempted to 
take the edge off the sarcasm by cutting the head of Liberty 
out of a copper cent and wearing it as a scarf-pin ; but all they 
could say was quickly drowned in the general clamor. 

Town halls, schoolhouses, academies, and even churches were 
turned into temporary barracks. Village greens and city squares 


ARSENAL AT HARPER’S FERRY, VA 
18, 1861. 


BORDER STATES AND FOREIGN 
RELATIONS. 

GOVERNORS OF CERTAIN STATES RE¬ 
FUSE TROOPS-THE GOVERNOR OF 

MISSOURI DISLOYAL—EVENTS IN 

ST. LOUIS-LOYALTY OF GERMANS 

-BATTLE AT CARTHAGE—THE 

STRUGGLE FOR KENTUCKY, MARY¬ 
LAND AND TENNESSEE—ACTIONS 
IN WEST VIRGINIA—BATTLE OF RICH MOUNTAIN—BATTLE OF 
BIG BETHEL—HARPER’S FERRY. 

The disposition of the border slave States was one of the 
most difficult problems with which the Government had to deal. 
When the President issued his call for seventy-five thousand 
men, the Governors of Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, as 
well as those of North Carolina and Virginia, returned positive 
refusals. The Governor of Missouri answered: “It is illegal, 
unconstitutional, revolutionary, inhuman, diabolical, and cannot 


BURNING OF GOSPORT NAVY YARD, NORFOLK, 
VA., APRIL 21, 1861. 


CHAPTER IV. 











































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


3/ 



A BATTERY ON DRILL. 


be complied with.” The Governor of Kentucky said : “ Ken¬ 
tucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing 
her sister Southern States.” The Governor of Tennessee: 
“ Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty 
thousand, if necessary, for the defence of our rights and those of 
our brethren.” The 
Governor of North 
Carolina: “ I can be 
no party to this wicked 
violation of the laws of 
the country and to this 
war upon the liberties 
of a free people. You 
can get no troops from 
North Carolina.” The 
Governor of Virginia : 

“ The militia of Vir¬ 
ginia will not be fur¬ 
nished to the powers 
at Washington for any 
such use or purpose as 
they have in view.” 

Every one of these 
governors was a seces¬ 
sionist, with a strong 
and aggressive party at 
his back; and yet in 


each of these States the secessionists were in a minority. It 
was a serious matter to increase the hostility that beset the 
National arms on what in another war would have been called 
neutral ground, and it was also a serious matter to leave the 
Union element in the northernmost slave States without a 

powerful support and 
protection. The prob¬ 
lem was worked out 
differently in each of 
the States. 

At the winter session 
of the Missouri Legis¬ 
lature an act had been 
passed that placed the 
city of St. Louis under 
the control of police 
commissioners to be 
appointed by the Gov¬ 
ernor, Claiborne F. 
Jackson. Four of his 
appointees were seces¬ 
sionists, and three of 
these were leaders of 
bodies of “ minute- 
men,” half-secret armed 
organizations. The 
mayor of the city, who 
































3» 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 





RECRUITS TO THE FRONT. 


was also one of the commissioners, was 
known as a “ conditional Union man.” 

Other acts showed plainly the bent of 
the Legislature. One made it treason 
to speak against the authority of the 
Governor, and gave him enlarged 
powers, while another appropriated 
three million dollars for military pur¬ 
poses, taking the entire school fund 
for the year, and the accumulations 
that were to have paid the July interest 
on the public .debt. 

A State convention called to consider 
the question of secession met in Feb¬ 
ruary, and proved to be overwhelm¬ 
ingly in favor of Missouri’s remaining 
in the Union, though it also expressed 
a general sympathy with slavery, as¬ 
sumed that the South had wrongs, 
deprecated the employment of military 
force on either side, and repeated the 
suggestion that had been made many 
times in other quarters for a national 
convention to amend the Constitution 

so as to satisfy everybody. The State convention made its 
report in March, and adjourned till December. 

This proceeding appeared to be a great disappointment to 
Governor Jackson; but he failed to take from it any hint to give 
up his purpose of getting the State out of the Union. On the 
contrary, he proceeded to try what he could do with the powers 
at his command. He called an extra session of the Legislature, 
to convene May 2d, for the purpose of “ adopting measures to 
place the State in a proper attitude of defence,” and he called 
out the militia on the 3d of May, to go into encampment for six 
days. There was a large store of arms (more than twenty thou¬ 
sand stand) in the St. Louis arsenal ; but while he was devising a 
method and a pretext for seizing them, the greater part of them 
were suddenly removed, by order from Washington, to Spring- 
field, Illinois. The captain that had them in charge took them 
on a steamer to Alton, and there called the citizens together by 
rinsing- a fire-alarm, told them what he had, and asked their 
assistance in transferring the cargo to a train for Springfield, 




as he expected pursuit by a force of secessionists. The 
many hands that make light work were not wanting, 
and the train very soon rolled away with its precious 
freight. The Governor applied to the Confederate Gov¬ 
ernment for assistance, and a quantity of arms and 
ammunition, including several field-guns, was sent to 
him in boxes marked “ marble.” He also ordered a 
general of the State militia to establish a camp of in¬ 
struction near the city, and gathered there such volun¬ 
teer companies as were organized and armed. 

General Scott had anticipated all this by sending rein¬ 
forcements to the little company that held the arsenal, 
and with them Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, of the regular 
army, a man that lacked no element of skill, courage, or 
patriotism necessary for the crisis. The force was also 
increased by several regiments of loyal home guards, 
organized mainly by the exertions of Francis P. Blair, 
Jr., and mustered into the service of the United States. 

When the character and purpose of the 
force that was being concentrated by 
Jackson became sufficiently evident— 
rom the fact that the streets in the 
camp were named for prominent Con¬ 
federate leaders, and other indications 
—Lyon determined upon prompt and 
decisive action. This was the more 
important since the United States arse¬ 
nal at Liberty had been robbed, and 
secession troops were being drilled at 
St. Joseph. With a battalion of regu¬ 
lars and six regiments of the home 
guard, he marched out in the afternoon 
of May 10th, surrounded the camp, and 
trained six pieces of artillery on it, and 
then demanded an immediate sur¬ 
render, with no terms but a promise 
of proper treatment as prisoners of war. 
The astonished commander, a recreant 
West Pointer, surrendered promptly; 
and he and his brigade were disarmed 


CAPTAIN NATHANIEL LYON 
(Afterwards Brigadier-General.) 


A VILLAGE COMPANY ON PARADE. 






















































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


39 



THE BATTLE AT PHILIPPI, JUNE 3, 1861. 


and taken into the city. All the “ marble ” that had come 
up from Baton Rouge and been hauled out to the camp only 
two days before was captured and removed to the arsenal, be¬ 
coming once more the property of the United States. 

The outward march had attracted attention, crowds had 
gathered along the route, and when Lyon’s command were 
returning with their prisoners they had to pass through a throng 
of people, among whom were not a few that were striving to 
create a riot. The outbreak came at length ; stones were thrown 
at the troops and pistol-shots fired into the 
ranks, when one regiment levelled their mus¬ 
kets and poured a volley or two into the 
crowd. Three or four soldiers and about 
twenty citizens were killed in this beginning 
of the conflict at the West. William T. Sher¬ 
man (the now famous general), walking out 
with his little son that afternoon, found him¬ 
self for the first time under fire, and lay 
down in a gully while the bullets cut the 
twigs of the trees above him. 

Two days later, Gen. William S. Harney 
arrived in St. Louis and assumed command 
of the United States forces. He was a vet¬ 
eran of long experience; but ex-Governor 
Sterling Price, commanding the State forces, 
entrapped him into a truce that tied his 
hands, while it left Jackson and Price prac¬ 
tically at liberty to pursue their plans for 
secession. Thereupon the Government re¬ 
moved him, repudiated the truce, and gave general b. 


the command to Lyon, now made a brigadier-general. After an 
interview with Lyon in St. Louis (June 11), in which they found 
it impossible to deceive or swerve him, Price and Jackson went 
to the capital, Jefferson City, burning railway bridges behind 
them, and the Governor immediately issued a proclamation 
declaring that the State had been invaded by United States 
forces, and calling out fifty thousand of the militia to repel the 
invasion. Its closing passage is a fair specimen of many 
proclamations and appeals that were issued that spring and 
summer: “Your first allegiance is due to 
your own State, and you are under no obli¬ 
gation whatever to obey the unconstitutional 
edicts of the military despotism which has 
introduced itself at Washington, nor submit 
to the infamous and degrading sway of its 
wicked minions in this State. No brave- 
hearted Missourian will obey the one or sub¬ 
mit to the other. Rise, then, and drive out 
igqominiously the invaders who have dared 
to desecrate the soil which your labors have 
made fruitful and which is consecrated by 
your homes.” 

The very next day Lyon had an expedi¬ 
tion in motion, which reached Jefferson City" 
on the 15th, took possession of the place, and 
raised the National flag over the Capitol. 
At his approach the Governor fled, carrying 
with him the great seal of the State. Learn¬ 
ing that he was with Price, gathering a force 
f. kelley. at Booneville, fifty miles farther up Missouri 



















BOMB PROOF 













41 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


River, Lyon at once reembarked the greater part of his com¬ 
mand, arrived at Booneville on the morning of the 17th, fought 
and routed the force there, and captured their guns and sup¬ 
plies. The Governor was now a mere fugitive; and the State 
convention, assembling again in July, declared the State offices 
vacant, nullified the secession work of the Legislature, and made 
Hamilton R. Gamble, a Union man, provisional Governor. 
Among the citizens whose prompt personal efforts were con¬ 
spicuous on the Union side were John M. Schofield and Francis 
L. Blair, Jr. (afterward Generals), B. Gratz Brown (afterward 
candidate for Vice-President), Rev. Galusha Anderson (afterward 
President of Chicago University), William McPherson, and Clin¬ 
ton B. Fisk (afterward founder of Fisk University at Nashville). 

The puzzling part of the difficulty in 
Missouri was now over, for the contest 
was well defined. Most of the 
people in the northern part of the 
State, and most of the population 
of St. Louis (especially the Ger¬ 
mans), were loyal to the National 
Government ; but the secession¬ 
ists were strong in its southern 
part, where Price succeeded in 
organizing a considerable force, 
which was joined by men from 
Arkansas and Texas, under 
Gens. Ben. McCulloch and 
Gideon J. Pillow. Gen. Franz 
Sigel was sent against them, 
and at Carthage (July 5) with 
twelve hundred men encount¬ 
ered five thousand and inflicted a 
heavy loss upon them, though he 
was obliged to retreat. His sol¬ 
dierly qualities in this and other 
actions gave him one of the sud¬ 
den reputations that were made 
in the first year of the war, but 
obscured by the greater events 
that followed. His hilarious 
popularity was expressed in the 
common greeting: “You fights 
mit Sigel ? Den you trinks mit 
me ! ” Lyon, marching from 
Springfield, Mo., defeated McCul¬ 
loch at Dug Spring, and a week later (August 10) attacked him 
again at Wilson’s Creek, though McCulloch had been heavily 
reinforced. The national troops, outnumbered three to one, 
were defeated ; and Lyon, who had been twice wounded early 
in the action, was shot dead while leading a regiment in a des¬ 
perate charge. Major S. D. Sturgis conducted the retreat, and 
this ended the campaign. It was found that General Lyon, 
who was a bachelor, had bequeathed all he possessed (about 
thirty thousand dollars) to the United States Government, to 
be used for war purposes. 

In the days when personal leadership was more than it can 
ever be again, while South Carolina was listening to the teach¬ 
ings of John C. Calhoun, which led her to try the experiment of 
secession, Kentucky was following Henry Clay, who, though a 
slaveholder, was a strong Unionist. The practical effect was 
seen when the crisis came, after he had been in his grave nine 
Governor Beriah Magoffin convened the Legislature in 


January, 1861, and asked it to organize the militia, buy muskets, 
and put the State in a condition of armed neutrality ; all of which 
it refused to do. After the fall of Fort Sumter he called the 
Legislature together again, evidently hoping that the popular 
excitement would bring them over to his scheme. But the 
utmost that could be accomplished was the passage of a resolution 
by the lower house (May 16) declaring that Kentucky should 
occupy “ a position of strict neutrality,” and approving his re¬ 
fusal to furnish troops for the national army. Thereupon he 
issued a proclamation (May 20) in which he “ notified and warned 
all other States, separate or united, especially the United and 

Confederate States, that I sol¬ 
emnly forbid any movement upon 
Kentucky soil.” But two days 
later the Legislature repudiated 
this interpretation of neutrality, 
and passed a series of acts intended 
to prevent any scheme of secession 
that might be formed. It appro¬ 
priated one million dollars for arms 
and ammunition, but placed the 
disbursement of the money and 
control of the arms in the hands 
of commissioners that were all 
Union men. It amended the 
militia law so as to require the 
State Guards to take an oath 
to support the Constitution of 
the United States, and finally 
the Senate passed a resolution 
declaring that “ Kentucky will 
not sever connection with the 
National Government, nor take 
up arms with either belligerent 
party.” Lovell H. Rousseau (after¬ 
ward a gallant general in the na¬ 
tional service), speaking in his place 
in the Senate, said: “ The politi¬ 
cians are having their day; the 
people will yet have theirs. I 
have an abiding confidence in the 
right, and I know that this se¬ 
cession movement is all wrong. 
There is not a single substantial 
reason for it; our Government had 
never oppressed us with a feather’s weight.” The Rev. Robert 
J. Breckinridge and other prominent citizens took a similar 
stand ; and a new Legislature, chosen in August, presented a 
Union majority of three to one. As a last resort, Governor 
Magoffin addressed a letter to President Lincoln, requesting 
that Kentucky’s neutrality be respected and the national forces 
removed from the State. Mr. Lincoln, in refusing his request, 
courteously reminded him that the force consisted exclusively of 
Kentuckians, and told him that he had not met any Kentuckian, 
except himself and the messengers that brought his letter, who 
wanted it removed. To strengthen the first argument, Robert 
Anderson, of Fort Sumter fame, who was a citizen of Kentucky, 
was made a general and given the command in the State in 
September. Two months later, a-secession convention met at 
Russellville, in the southern part of the State, organized a pro¬ 
visional government, and sent a full delegation to the Confeder¬ 
ate Congress at Richmond, who found no difficulty in being 



CARING FOR THE DEAD AND WOUNDED. 


years. 

















BATTLE OF WILSON’S CREEK, NEAR SPRINGFIELD MO., AUGUST 10, 1861. 













CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


43 



MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER AND STAFF. 


admitted to seats in that body. Being now firmly supported by 
the new Legislature, the National Government began to arrest 
prominent Kentuckians who still advocated secession, whereupon 
others, including ex-Vice-President John C. Breckinridge, fled 
southward and entered the service of the Confederacy. Ken¬ 
tucky as a State was saved to the Union, but the line of separa¬ 
tion was drawn between her citizens, and she contributed to the 
ranks of both the great contending armies. 

Like the governor of Kentucky, Gov. Thomas II. Hicks, of 
Maryland, had at first protested against the passage of troops, 
had dreamed of making the State neutral, and had even gone so 
far as to suggest to the Administration that the British Minister 
at Washington be asked to mediate between it and the Confeder¬ 
ates. But, unlike Governor Magoffin, he ultimately came out 
in favor of the Union. The Legislature would not adopt an 
ordinance of secession, nor call a convention for that purpose; 
but it passed a bill establishing a board of public safety, giving 
it extraordinary authority over the military powers of the State, 
and appointed as such board six secessionists and the governor. 
A tremendous pressure was brought to bear upon the State. 
One of her poets, in a ringing rhyme to a popular air, told her 
that the despot’s heel was on her shore, and predicted that she 
would speedily “ spurn the Northern scum,” while the Vice- 
President of the Confederacy felt so sure of her acquisition that 
in a speech (April 30) he triumphantly announced that she* 1 ' had 
resolved, to a man, to stand by the South.” But Reverdy John¬ 
son and other prominent Marylanders were quite as bold and 


active for the national cause. A popular Union Convention was 
held in Baltimore ; General Butler with his troops restored the 
broken communications and held the important centres; and 
under a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus some of the more 
violent secessionists were imprisoned. The release of the citi¬ 
zens was demanded by Chief-Justice Taney, of the United States 
Supreme Court, who declared that the President had no right to 
suspend the writ ; but his demand was refused. In May the 
Governor called for four regiments of volunteers to fill the requi¬ 
sition of the National Government, but requested that they 
might be assigned to duty in the State. So Maryland remained 
in the Union, though a considerable number of her citizens 
entered the ranks of the Confederate army. 

In the mountainous regions of western North Carolina and 
eastern Tennessee, where few slaves were held, there was a strong 
Union element. In other portions of those States there were 
many enthusiastic secessionists. But in each State there was a 
majority against disunion. North Carolina voted on the ques¬ 
tion of calling a convention to consider the subject, and by a 
small majority decided for “ no convention.” Tennessee, on a 
similar vote, showed a majority of fifty thousand against calling 
a convention. After the fall of Sumter Gov. John W. Ellis, of 
North Carolina, seized the branch mint at Charlotte and the 
arsenal at Fayetteville, and called an extra session of the Legis¬ 
lature. This Legislature authorized him to tender the military 
resources of the State to the Confederate Government, and 
called a convention to meet May 20th, which passed an ordinance 









44 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




COMMISSARY QUARTERS. 


of secession by a unanimous vote. The conservative or Union 
party of Tennessee issued an address on the 18th of April, in 
which they declared their approval of the Governor’s refusal to 
furnish troops for the national defence, and condemned both 
secession and coercion, holding that Tennessee should take an 
independent attitude. This, with the excitement of the time, 
was enough for the Legislature. In secret session it authorized 
Gov. Isham G. Harris, who was a strong secessionist, to enter 
into a military league with the Confed¬ 
erate Government, which he immedi¬ 
ately did. It also passed an ordinance 
of secession, to be submitted to a pop¬ 
ular vote on the 8th of June. Before 
that day came, the State was in the 
possession of Confederate soldiers, and 
a majority of over fifty thousand was 
obtained for secession. East Ten¬ 
nessee had voted heavily against the H 
ordinance ; and a convention held at 
Greenville, June 17, wherein thirty-one 
of the eastern counties were repre¬ 
sented, declared, for certain plainly 
specified reasons, that it “ did not 
regard the result of the election as 
expressive of the will of a majority 
of the freemen of Tennessee.” Later, 
the people of those counties asked to 
be separated peaceably from the rest 
of the State and allowed to remain 
in the Union ; but the Confederate 
authorities did not recognize the prin¬ 
ciple of secession from secession, and 
the people of that region were sub¬ 
jected to a bloody and relentless per¬ 
secution, before which many of them 
fled from their homes. The most 


CULINARY DEPARTMENT. 


prominent of the Unionists were 
Andrew Johnson and the Rev. 
William G. Brownlow. 

That portion of the Old Dominion 
which lay west of the Alleghany 
Mountains held in i860 but one- 
twelfth as many slaves in propor¬ 
tion to its white population as the 
remainder of the State. And when 
Virginia passed her ordinance of 
secession, all but nine of the fifty- 
five votes against it were cast by 
delegates from the mountainous 
western counties. The people of 
these counties, having little interest 
in slavery and its products, and 
great interests in iron, coal and 
lumber, the market for which was in 
the free States, while their streams 
flowed into the Ohio, naturally ob¬ 
jected to being dragged into the 
Confederacy. Like the people of 
East Tennessee, they wanted to 
secede from secession, and one of 
their delegates actually proposed it 
in the convention. In less than a 
month (May 13) after the passage of the ordinance, a Union 
convention was held at Wheeling, in which twenty-five of the 
western counties were represented; and ten days later, when 
the election was held, these people voted against seceding. The 
State authorities sent recruiting officers over the mountains, 
but they had little success. Some forces were gathered, under 
the direction of Gen. Robert E. Lee and under the immediate 
command of Colonel Porterfield, who began burning the bridges 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


45 



on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Meanwhile Capt. George 
B. McClellan had been made a general and placed in command 
of Ohio troops. With four regiments he crossed the Ohio on 
the 26th and went in pursuit of the enemy. His movement 
at first was retarded by the burned bridges; but these were 
repaired, large reinforcements were brought over, and in small 
but brilliant engagements—at Philippi and at Rich Mountain- 
lie completely routed the Confederates. 

At Philippi the Confederates were completely surprised by 
Colonels Kelley and Dumont, and beat so hasty a retreat that 
the affair received the local name of the “ Philippi races.” The 
victory at Rich Mountain was the first instance of the capture by 
either side of a military position regularly approached 
and defended. A pass over this mountain was re¬ 
garded as so important that all the Confederate 
troops that could be spared were sent to defend 
it, under command of Gen. Robert S. Garnett 
with Colonel Pegram to assist him. The position 
was so strong that a front attack was avoided, and 
its speedy capture resulted from a flank attack 
skilfully planned and successfully executed by 
Gen. W. S. Rosecrans. On the retreat up the 
Cheat River Valley General Garnett was killed, 
and Pegram, with a considerable number of 

his men, sur¬ 
rendered to 
McClellan. 

The im¬ 


portance 
of this 


Delegates from the counties west of the Alleghanics met at 
Wheeling (June 11), pronounced the acts of the Richmond 
convention null and void, declared all the State offices vacant, 
and reorganized the Government, with Francis H. Pierpont as 
A legislature, consisting of members that had been 


governor. 


GENERAL BEN McCULLOCH, C. S A. 


ff • 
a ff a 1 r 

at Rich 
Mountain was 
really slight, not- 
withstanding it 
was successful in 
securing to the 
Union army a 
footing on this 
frontier that was 
not afterward 
seriously disturbed. But the significance of the action of July 11, 
and the campaign which it terminated, lies in the instant popu¬ 
larity and prominence it gave to General McClellan. lie reported 
the victory in a Napoleonic despatch, announcing the annihila¬ 
tion of “ two armies, commanded by educated and experienced 
soldiers, intrenched in mountain fastnesses fortified at their 
leisure;” and concluding, “Our success is complete, and seces¬ 
sion is killed in this country.” McClellan’s failure to accomplish 
more in this campaign has been indicated by military critics, but 
at the time nothing obscured the brilliancy of the victory. 1 he 
people took his own estimate of it, and “ Little Mac,” the young 
Napoleon, became a popular hero. The Government also took 
his view of it; and after the defeat at Bull Run, a few days 
later, he was given the command of the Army of the Potomac, 
and in the autumn succeeded to the command of the Armies of 
the United States. 


chosen on the 23d of May, met at Wheeling on the 1st of July, 
and on the 9th it elected two United States senators. The new 
State of Kanawha was formally declared created in August. Its 
constitution was ratified by the people in May, 1862, and in 
December of that year it was admitted into the Union. But, 
meanwhile, its original and appropriate name had been exchanged 
for that of West Virginia. 

The victory at Rich Moun¬ 
tain, announced in 
McClellan’s tri- 


GENERAL STERLING PRICE, C. S. A. 

umphant and resounding words, came in good 
time to arrest the depression caused by an un¬ 
fortunate affair of a few weeks before, at Big 
Bethel, on June loth ; though the popular clamor 
for aggressive warfare did not cease, but was even 
now driving the army into a premature advance on 
Manassas and the battle of Bull Run, for which the 
preparations were inadequate. 

Big Bethel has been called the first battle of the war, though 
it was subsequent to the affair of the “ Philippi races,” and at a 
later day would not have been called a battle at all. But among 
its few casualties there were numbered the deaths of Major 
Theodore Winthrop and the youthful Lieut. John T. Greble, 
and the painful impression caused by these losses converted the 
affair into a tragic national calamity. The movement was a 
conception of Gen. B. F. Butler’s, who commanded at Fortress 
Monroe. Annoyed by the aggressions of a body of Confederates, 
under General Magruder, encamped at Little Bethel, eight miles 
north of Newport News, he sent an expedition to capture them. 
It consisted of Col. Abram Duryea’s Fifth New York Zouaves, 
with Lieut.-Col. (afterward General) Gouverneur K. Warren second 
in command (the Confederates greatly feared these “ red-legged 
devils,” as they dubbed them), Col. Frederick Townsend’s Third 
New York, Colonel Bendix’s Seventh New York Volunteers, the 
First and Second New York, and detachments from other regi¬ 
ments, with two field-pieces worked by regulars under Lieutenant 
Greble ; Gen. E. W. Pierce in command. Duryea’s Zouaves were 
sent forward to attack from the rear; but a dreadful mistake of 
identity led Bendix’s men to fire into Townsend’s regiment, as 
these commands approached each other, which brought Duryea 
back to participate in the supposed engagement in his rear, and 
destroyed the chance of surprising the rebel camp. The Con- 




BATTLE OF BIG BETHEL VIRGINIA, JUNE 10, 1861. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


47 



fedeiates abandoned Little Bethel, and took a strong position at 
Big Bethel, where they easily repulsed the attack that was made, 
and pursued the retreating Unionists until checked by the Sec¬ 
ond New York Regiment. 

An important preliminary to the battle of Bull Run was the 
operations about Harper’s Ferry in June and July, resulting, as 
they did, in the release from that point of a strong Confederate 
reinforcement, which joined Beauregard at Bull Run at a critical 
time, and turned the fortunes of the day against the Union army. 

Harper’s Ferry, as we have seen, had been 
occupied by a Confederate force under Stone¬ 
wall Jackson, who became subordinate to the 
superior rank of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston 
when that officer arrived on the scene. On 
both sides a sentimental importance was 
given to the occupation of Harper’s Ferry, 
which was not warranted by its significance 
as a military stronghold. It did, indeed, 
afford a control of the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad, so long as the position could be 
maintained. But it derived its importance in 
the public mind from the fact that it had 
been chosen by John Brown as the scene of 
his projected negro uprising in 1859, and was 
presumed from that to be a natural fortress, a 
sort of Gibraltar, which, once gained, could be 
held forever by a small though determined 
body of men. The Confederate Government 
and military staff at Richmond so regarded it, 
and they warned General Johnston that he 
must realize, in defending it, that its abandon¬ 
ment would be depressing to the cause of 
the South. General Patterson, whose army 
gathered in Pennsylvania was to attack it, 
impressed on the War Department the para¬ 
mount importance of a victory, and predicted that the first 
great battle of the war, the results of which would be decisive in 
the contest, would be fought at Harper’s Ferry. He begged for 
the means of success, and offered his life as the price of a failure 
on Ids part. The Washington authorities, though they did not 
exact the penalty, took him at his word as to the men and means 
required, and furnished him with between eighteen and twenty- 
two thousand men (variously estimated), sending him such 
commanders as Major-General Sandford, of New York (who 
generously waived his superior rank, and accepted a subordinate 
position), Fitz John Porter, George Cadwalader, Charles P. Stone, 
and others. Both sides, then, prepared for action at Harper’s 
Ferry, as for a mighty struggle over an important strategic 
position. 

The Confederates were the first to realize that this was an 
error. However desirable it might be to hold Harper’s Ferry as 
the key to the Baltimore and Ohio, and to Maryland, General 
Johnston quickly discovered that, while it was secure enough 
against an attack in front, across the Potomac, it was an easy 
capture for a superior force that should cross the river above or 
below it, and attack it from the Virginia side. For its defence, 
his force of six thousand five hundred men would not suffice 
against Patterson’s twenty thousand, and he requested permis¬ 
sion to withdraw to Winchester, twenty miles to the southwest. 
This suggestion was most unpalatable to the Confederate author¬ 
ities, who understood well that the popular interpretation of the 
movement would be detrimental to the cause. But the fear that 


McClellan would join Patterson from West Virginia, and that the 
loss of an army of six thousand five hundred would be even more 
depressing than a retreat, they reluctantly consented to John¬ 
ston's plan. He destroyed everything at Harper’s Ferry that 
could be destroyed, on June 13th and 14th; and when Patterson, 
after repeated promptings from Washington, arrived there on 
the 15th, he found no determined enemy and no mighty battle 
awaiting him, but only the barren victory of an unopposed occupa¬ 
tion of a ruined and deserted camp. 


A RAILROAD BATTERY. 


CHAPTER V. 

ARMY ORGANIZATION NORTH AND SOUTH. 

CONFEDERATE ADVANTAGES—THE LEADING GENERAL OFFICERS- 

GRADUATES OF WEST POINT JOIN THE CONFEDERACY-CAPITAL 

REMOVED FROM MONTGOMERY—PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S CALL FOR 

SOLDIERS AND SAILORS—SOUTHERN PRIVATEERS-“ ON TO 

RICHMOND ! ” 

ALTHOUGH up to this time no important engagements between 
the troops had taken place, the war was actually begun. The 
Sumter affair had been the signal for both sides to throw away sub¬ 
terfuge and disguise, and it became thenceforth an open struggle 
for military advantage. The South no longer pleaded State 
rights, but military necessity, for seizing such Government posts 
and property as were within reach ; the North no longer acted 
under the restraint of hesitation to commit an open breach, for 
the peace was broken irrevocably, and whatever it was possible 
to do, in the way of defence or offence, was now become politic. 

The two contending powers were entering on the struggle 
under very different conditions and with unequal advantages. 
Before taking up the military operations which ensued, it will be 
interesting to look at these conditions. » 

On both sides there were many experienced army and navy 
officers, who had seen service, had been educated at the United 
States Military and Naval Academies, and had either remained 









































































48 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


in the service or, having withdrawn to civil 
life, were prompt to offer their swords to 
the side to which they adhered. Assuming 
the number and quality of these officers to 
have been equally divided, there were sev¬ 
eral respects in which the Confederates had 
the advantage in their preliminary organi¬ 
zation, apart from the studied care with 
which disloyal cabinet officers had scattered 
the Federal regular army and had stripped 
Northern posts of supplies and of trust¬ 
worthy commandants. President Lincoln / 
came on from his Western home without 
knowledge of war, acquaintance with mili¬ 
tary men, or familiarity with military mat¬ 
ters, and was immediately plunged into 
emergencies requiring in the Executive an 
intimate knowledge of all three. He be¬ 
came the titular commander-in-chief of an 
army already officered, but not only ignorant 

as to whether he had the right man in the right place, but 
powerless to make changes even had he known what changes 
to make, by reason of the law and the traditions governing 
the personnel of the service, in which promotion and personal 
relations were fixed and established. He found a military 
establishment that had been running on a peace footing for 
more than a decade and was not readily adaptable to war con¬ 
ditions ; and officers in high command, who, as their States 
seceded, followed them out of the Union, carrying with them 
the latest official secrets and leaving behind them vacancies 
which red-tape and tradition, and not the free choice of the 
commander-in-chief, were to fill. His near advisers, particularly 
those in whose hands were the details of military administration, 
were scarcely better informed than himself, possessing political 
shrewdness and undoubted loyalty, but none of the professional 
knowledge of which he stood so sorely in need. 

Th e President of the Southern Confederacy, on the other 
hand, was Jefferson Davis, a man whose personal instrumentality 
in bringing about the rebellion gave him both knowledge and 
authority ; an educated soldier and veteran of the Mexican war, 





FRANCIS H 
Governor of 


. PIERPONT, 
West Virginia 


in which he held a high command ; familiar, 
through long service as Secretary of War 
and on the Senate Military Committee, not 
only with all the details of military admin¬ 
istration, but with the points of strength 
and weakness in the military establishment 
of the enemy he was about to grapple with. 
Placed at the head of a new government, 
with neither army nor navy, nor law nor 
tradition for their control, he was free to 
exercise his superior knowledge of military 
matters for the best possible use of the 
men at his command in organizing his mili¬ 
tary establishment. None of the political 
conditions surrounding him forced on Presi¬ 
dent Davis the appointment of political 
generals—an unavoidable evil which long 
postponed the effectiveness of President 
Lincoln’s army administration. Whatever 
his judgment, guided by his professional 
military experience, approved of, he was free to do. It was 
President Lincoln's difficult task to learn something about mili¬ 
tary matters himself, and then to untie or cut the Gordian knot 
of hampering conditions; and if, in doing this, an occasional 
injustice was done to an individual officer, it is a cause for 
wonder far less significant than that by the exercise of his 
extraordinary faculty of common-sense he progressed as rapidly 
as he did toward the right way of accomplishing the ends he 
had in view. 

The beffinninu of trouble in 1861 found the administration of 

o o 

the War Department in the hands of Secretary Joseph Holt, who 
had succeeded the secessionist Floyd, and was in turn succeeded 
by Simon Cameron, the war secretary of Lincoln's first cabinet, 
who remained there until the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton, 
the great “ war secretary ” of the remaining years of the struggle. 
Cameron was a shrewd politician, but was uninformed on military 
matters, for advice on which President Lincoln relied principally 
on other members of the cabinet*and on General Scott. The 
cabinet of 1861 contained also John A. Dix, in the Treasury— 
whence issued his celebrated “ shoot him on the spot ” despatch 



CAMP OF THE FORTY-FOURTH NEW YORK INFANTRY, NEAR ALEXANDRIA, VA. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


49 



—who took a general’s commission when he retired in favor of Salmon P. Chase, the 
Secretary of the 1 leasuiy during most of the war. Gideon Welles was Secretary of the Navy. 

Among the staff officers of the army were Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General; E. D. 
1 ownsend, who as Assistant Adjutant-General was identified with this important office 
throughout the war; Montgomery G. Meigs, Quartermaster-General; and Joseph G. Totten, 
Chief of Engineers. 

The general in command of the army was YV infield Scott, whose conduct of the Mexican 
wai had made him a conspicuous military and political figure, an able officer and a most loval 
Unionist, but alieady suffering from the infirmities of age, which soon compelled him to 
relinquish to younger hands the command of the army. But until after the battle of Bull 
Run, his was the directing mind. His immediate subordinates were Brig.-Gens. John E. 
Wool, also a veteran in service; William S. Harney, whose reluctance to take part in 
civil war soon terminated his usefulness; and David E. Twiggs, who 
surrendered his command to the Confederates in Texas, and soine 
with the South, was replaced by Edwin V. Sumner. 

1 he command of the main Union force, organized from the volun¬ 
teers who were pouring into Washington, devolved on Irvin McDowell, 
a major in the regular army, now promoted to be brigadier-general, who 
established his headquarters at Alexandria, across the Potomac from 
Washington, there directing the defence 
of the capital, and thence advancing to 
Bull Run. In this command he succeeded 
Gen. Joseph K. E. Mansfield. Under 
him, during this campaign, were many 
officers who rose to eminence during the 
war. 11 is corps commanders at Bull Run 
were Gens. Daniel Tyler, David Hunter, 

Samuel P. Heintzelman, Theodore 
Runyon, and D. S. Miles; and 
among the brigade com¬ 
manders were Gens. 

Erasmus D 
Keyes, 

Robert 
C. Schenck, 

William T 
Sherman, 

Israel B. Rich¬ 
ardson, Andrew 
Porter, Ambrose 
E. Burnside, Wil¬ 
liam B. Franklin 






GENERAL SAMUEL P 
HEINTZELMAN. 


rr l0^ 5 




MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH K 
MANSFIELD. 


MAJOR-GENERAL W. B. FRANKLIN. 


Oliver O. Howard, 
Louis Blenker, 
and Thomas 
A. Davies. 

Threatening 
the approach 
^ to Richmond from 

the ] ower Chesapeake, 
was Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, 
at Fortress Monroe. 

Among the Confederate generals who pre¬ 
pared to defend Virginia, were Robert E. 
Lee, then in command of the Virginia State 
troops, Samuel Cooper, Joseph E. Johnston, 
P. G. T. Beauregard, James Longstreet, Jubal 
A. Early, Richard S. Ewell, Thomas J. 
(“Stonewall”) Jackson, Robert S. Garnett, 
John C. Pegram, Benjamin Huger, John B. 
Magruder, and others. 

The seventy-five thousand troops called for in President Lincoln’s 
proclamation of April 15th, were three-months men. On the 3d 
of May, 1861, he issued another proclamation, calling for forty- 
two thousand volunteers for three years, and authorizing the raising of 
ten new regiments for the regular army. He also called for eighteen thousand 
volunteer seamen for the navy. The ports of the Southern coasts had been already 
(April 19th) declared in a state of blockade, and it was not only desirable but absolutely 
necessary to make the blockade effectual. The Confederate Government had issued letters 
of marque for privateers almost from the first ; and its Congress had authorized the raising of 
an army of one hundred thousand volunteers for one year. 

When Congress convened on the 4th of July, President Lincoln asked for four hundred 
thousand men and four hundred million dollars, to suppress the insurrection ; and in response 
he was authorized to call for five hundred thousand men and spend five hundred million 
dollars. What he had already done was approved and declared valid; and on the 15th of 
July the House of Representatives, with but five dissenting votes, passed a resolution (intro¬ 
duced by John A. McClernand, a Democrat) pledging any amount of money and any number 
of men that might be necessary to restore the authority of the National Government. 

The seat of the Confederate Government was removed from Montgomery, Ala., to Rich¬ 
mond, Va., on the 20th of May. 


4 

























BATTLE OF BULL RUN, JULY 21, 1861. 

























BRIGADIER-GENERAL McDOWELL AND STAFF 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 

THE ADVANCE INTO VIRGINIA—FORTIFICATIONS ON THE POTOMAC—POPULAR DEMAND FOR OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS—CONFEDERATES FORTIFY 

MANASSAS JUNCTION—THEIR LINE OF DEFENCE AT BULL RUN—McDOWELL'S DEPARTURE FOR BULL RUN — A CHANGE OF PLAN-FIGHTING 

AT BLACKBURN'S FORD—DETOUR FROM CENTREVII.LE AND FLANK ATTACK FROM SUDLEY FORD—UNION SUCCESS IN THE MORNING— 
DISASTROUS BATTLE OF THE AFTERNOON—LOSS OF THE BATTERIES—A REAR ATTACK—DISORDER AND RETREAT—RESULTS OF THE BATTLE. 

TlIE first serious collision of the opposing armies occurred at Bull Run, in Virginia, on July 18 and 21, 1861. It was a battle 
between raw troops on both sides, and at a later period in the war a few well-led veterans might have turned it at almost any time 
into a victor)- for the losers and a defeat for those who won it. It developed the strength and weakness of the men, the com¬ 
manders, and the organization of the army. It opened the eyes of the North to what was before them in this conflict, and it gave 


















52 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


pause to military operations for a better preparation. Up to 
Bull Run, the war might have been terminated by a single great 
battle. After it, the struggle was certain to be a long one. 

Up to May 24th, the Union troops had been kept strictly on 
the Washington side of the Potomac. On that date, Gen. Joseph 
K. F. Mansfield sent three columns of troops across the river 
into Virginia, to drive back the Confederate pickets which were 
within sight of the capital. From Washington to Alexandria, a 
few miles down the river, a line of fortifications was established, 
which, with the approaches to Washington from Maryland in 
Union control, seemed to assure the safety of the city. 

Troops from all the loyal States had continued to arrive at 


retrieve the national honor, tarnished and unavenged since Sum¬ 
ter, and should justify the military establishment, which to the 
non-military mind seemed already enormous. Brigadiers and 
gold lace and regiments playing “high jinks” in their camps 
convenient to the attractions of Washington became a by-word, 
and “On to Richmond !” became the cry of those who wanted 
to see some fighting, now there was an army, and wanted to see 
secession rebuked and rebellion nipped in the bud. Under the 
stimulus of this public demand, which, however erroneous from 
a military point of view, could not be ignored, a forward move¬ 
ment was decided on. 

The Confederate forces were established on what was known 



FAIRFAX COURT-HOUSE. 


w ashington. The ninety thousand men who had responded to 
the first call of the President had enlisted for three months. 
While these troops predominated in the service it was not the 
expectation of General Scott to undertake any serious operations. 
He proposed to utilize these for the defence of Washington; the 
garrisoning of Fortress Monroe, with possibly the recovery of the 
Norfolk Navy Yard ; the reinforcement of Patterson at Harper’s 
Ferry and of McClellan in the Shenandoah ; and the control of 
the border States. When the half million of three-years men 
called out in May and July should be equipped with the half 
billion of dollars voted by Congress, and instructed and drilled 
during a summer encampment, larger military operations were 
to ensue ; but not before. 

But after the mishap to Butler's men at Big Bethel, and the 
ambushing of a troop train at Vienna, near Washington, there was 
a public demand for some kind of vigorous action which should 


as the “ Alexandria line,” with its base at Manassas Junction, 
about thirty miles east of Alexandria. Early in June, General 
Beauregard, still wearing the laurels of his Sumter victory, was 
sent in person to command, relieving the Confederate General 
Bonham. Manassas Junction stood on a high plateau, dropping 
off toward the east into the valley of the little stream called Bull 
Run, running from northwest to southeast some three miles dis¬ 
tant. The Confederates had begun to intrench and fortify this 
elevated position ; but Beauregard’s quick and educated military 
judgment at once decided that a better defence could be made 
by moving his line forward to Bull Run, where the stream 
afforded a natural barrier, except at certain fords, where his men 
could be posted more effectively. Here he established himself, 
the right of his line being at Union Mills Ford, nearly due east 
from Manassas, and his left just above Stone Bridge, by which 
Bull Run is crossed on the Warrenton Turnpike leading from 













CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


53 



Centreville to Gainesville. His commanders (after Johnston’s 
arrival), from left to right, were: Ewell, supported by Holmes; 
Jones and Longstreet, supported by Early; Bonham, supported 
by Jackson; Cocke, supported by Bee, each guarding a ford; 
and, at Stone Bridge, Evans. The Bull Run line of defence 
requiring a larger force, Beauregard was liberally 
reinforced from Richmond, so that his army 
numbered nearly twenty-two thousand men and 
twenty-nine guns, before he was joined by John¬ 
ston with about eight thousand men and twenty- 
eight guns. 

Against this force advanced General McDowe 
who had succeeded 
Mansfield in com¬ 
mand of operations 
south of the Poto¬ 
mac, with something 
less than twenty- 
nine thousand men 
and forty-nine guns. 

With his army under 
the commanders al¬ 
ready named, he was 
ready and started 
from Washington on 
July 16th, within a 
week of the date he 
had planned, not¬ 
withstanding the 
slow operations of 
the Government’s 
military machinery, 
rusted by long dis¬ 
use and not as yet in 

smooth working order. The departure of his column was a 
strange spectacle. The novelty of warfare and the general im¬ 
pression that the war was to be ended with one grand, brilliant 
stroke—an impression largely derived from the confidence at 
headquarters that the expedition would be successful—turned 
the march into a sort of festive picnic. Citizens accompanied the 
column on foot; Congressmen, newspaper correspondents, sight¬ 


participation in the four years’ fighting that brought him high 
rank, great honor, and a distinguished reputation. 

On July 18th the army arrived in front of the enemy at Bull 
Run. An army of seasoned campaigners, accustomed to self- 
denial, would have done better, for they would not have stopped 

along the way to 
pick blackberries 
and change stale 
water for fresh in 
their canteens at 
every wayside well 


UNITED STATES MILITARY RAILROAD, BULL RUN. 


spn 


ne 


Th 


e 


plan agreed upon by 
Generals Scott and 
McDowell had been 
for an attempt to 
turn the enemy’s 
right from the south; 
and to conceal his 
purpose McDowell 
ordered an advance, 
directly along the 
Warrenton Turnpike, on Centreville, as 
though that were to be his point of attack. 
But Washington was full of Confederate 
spies, and Beauregard was well informed as 
to what to expect. Tyler, whose division 
led the way, found Centreville evacuated 
and the enemy strongly posted along Bull 
Run, as he could see from his elevated 
position at Centreville, looking across the 
Bull Run valley with Manassas looming 
up beyond. It was McDowell’s intention 
that Tyler should limit himself to making 
the feint on Centreville, without bringing on any engagement, 
while diverging to the left behind him the main army attacked 
Beauregard’s right. But neither Tyler nor his men were as yet 
schooled to find an enemy flying before their advance and not 
yearn to be after them for a fight. Discovering the position of 
the enemy across the stream at Blackburn’s and Mitchell’s fords, 
he brought up some field pieces and sent forward his skirmishers; 



GENERAL AMBROSE E, BURNSIDE. 


seers, went along in 
carriages. There was a 
tremendous turnout of 
non-combatants, eager to 
see the finishing stroke 
to the rebellion. These 
were destined to share in 
the general rout that fol¬ 
lowed and to come pour¬ 
ing back into the security 
of Washington, all mixed 
in with the disorganized 
and flying troops. One 
member of Congress, 
John A. Logan, of Illi¬ 
nois, a veteran of the 
Mexican War, followed 
the army from the House 
of Representatives, 
armed with a musket, 
and began as a civilian a 


and as the enemy con¬ 
tinued to retire before his 
successive increase of 
both troops and artillery, 
he presently found that 
the reconnoissance he had 
been ordered to make had 
assumed the proportions 
of a small engagement 
with the brigades of Bon¬ 
ham, Longstreet, and 
Early, which he drove 
back in confusion, with a 
loss of about sixty men 
on each side. 

After this engagement, 
McDowell abandoned his 
attack from the south in 
favor of a flank attack 
from the north, where the 
roads were better. His 



GENERAL LOUIS BLENKER. 



































54 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



army was now concentrated at Ccntreville, whither the com¬ 
manders had been attracted by the sound of the engagement at 
Blackburn’s Ford, and there he divulged to his commanders the 
new plan of attack. Richardson’s brigade was continued at 
Blackburn’s Ford to keep up the 
appearance of an attack in front, 
and the next two days, Friday 
and Saturday, July 19th and 
20th, were occupied in looking 
for an undefended crossing of 
Bull Run north of the Confeder¬ 
ate line, in resting the men, and 
provisioning them from the sup¬ 
ply trains, which were slow in 
reaching the rendezvous at 
Ccntreville. 

The engineers reported late 
on Saturday, the 20th, a practi¬ 
cable crossing of the stream at 
Sudley Ford, accessible by a de¬ 
tour of five or six miles around 
a bend of Bull Run turninc 
sharply from the west. McDow¬ 
ell determined to send Hunter’s 
and Heintzelman’s divisions to 
make this flank movement over 
a route which took them north, 
then west, and brought them 
upon the enemy’s left, as they 
crossed Bull Run at Sudley 
Ford and moved due south by 
the Sudley Road toward Man¬ 
assas. Meanwhile Tyler was 
ordered to proceed from Centre- 


villc to the Stone Bridge at Bull Run, there to feign attack until 
he heard Hunter and Heintzelman engaged, when he would 
cross and join their attack on the Confederate left, or push on 
to Gainesville, west of Bull Run, and head off Johnston, who 

McDowell was certain was com¬ 
ing from Winchester, with or 
without “ Patterson on his 
heels,” as General Scott had 
promised. 

But during McDowell’s en¬ 
forced two days of inactivity at 
Ccntreville there had been por¬ 
tentous happenings within the 
Confederate lines. Johnston 
had already left Winchester on 
the 18th ; one detachment of his 
army had joined Beauregard on 
the morning of the 20th; John¬ 
ston in person arrived at noon 
with a second detachment, and 
the remainder of his force ar¬ 
rived on the 21st in time to take 
part in the battle, the brunt of 
which was borne by Johnston’s 
army, which McDowell had 
hoped not to meet at all ! 
Johnston, as the ranking officer, 
assumed command, and lie and 
Beauregard turned their atten¬ 
tion to defending themselves 
against the attack now initiated 
by McDowell. 

Hunter and Heintzelman, 
whose brigades were coiti¬ 


on THE ROAD TO BULL RUN. 







































CAMPFIRE AND BA 


55 


LD. 



manded by Cols. Andrew Porter, Ambrose E. Burnside, W. B. 
Pranklin, Orlando B. Willcox, and Oliver O. Howard, reached 
Sudley Ford after an unexpectedly long march, and crossed it 
unopposed about nine in the morning. Tyler, who had been 
expected to hold the Confederate Evans at Stone Bridge by a 
sharp attack, betrayed the incidental character of his demon¬ 
stration by the feebleness of his operations ; and Evans, suspect¬ 
ing from this an attack from some other direction, was soon 
rendered certain of it by the clouds of dust which he saw toward 
the north. Immediately, of his own motion and in the absence 
of orders from his superiors, he informed his neighboring com¬ 
mander, Cocke, of his intention, and leaving only a few com- 
panics to deceive Tyler at Stone Bridge, he turned his command 


the advance long enough for Johnston to order a general move¬ 
ment to strengthen the new line of defence which was then 
formed on a hill half a mile south of Young’s Branch, under the 
direction of Jackson, who with his own brigade of Johnston’s 
army met and rallied the retreating Confederates. It was right 
here that Stonewall Jackson acquired his sobriquet. To encour¬ 
age his own men to stop and rally, Bee called out to them : 
“Look at Jackson’s brigade! It stands there like a stone 
wall.” And Jackson never was called by his own name again, 
but only “ Stonewall.” Tyler did send Keyes’ and 
W. T. Sherman’s brigades across Bull 
Run by the ford 




L0 "GSTR Eet 


G£ne Ral 

above Stone 
Bridge in time to join in the 
pursuit, Sherman pushing toward Hunter and 
Keyes remaining near Bull Run ; but Schenck’s brigade he did 
not send across at all. 

As a result of the morning’s fighting the whole Union line was 
pushed forward past the Warrenton Turnpike, extending from 
Keyes’ position on Bull Run to where Porter and Willcox were 
posted, west of the Sudley Road. The Union troops felt not 
only that they had the advantage, but that they had won the 
battle; and this confidence, added to the fact that they were 
weary with marching and fighting, prepared them ill to meet 
the really serious work of the day, which was still before them. 


GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON, C. S. A, 


to the rear and marched it to a strong position on 
Young’s Branch, where he faced the enemy approaching 
from his left. This action has commended itself to military 
critics as the finest tactical movement of the entire battle. 
Evans was even momentarily successful in repulsing the troops 
of Burnside’s brigade, which he pursued for a short distance. 
At the outset, General Hunter was severely wounded. Porter 
came to Burnside’s support, and Bee and Bartow, of Johnston s 
army, aligned their brigades with that of Evans. I here was 
sharp fighting for two hours; but the arrival of fresh supports 
for Burnside and Porter, including Sykes regiment of regulars 
and the regular batteries of Griffin and Ricketts, and the exten¬ 
sion of the Union line by Heintzelman’s division beyond the 
Sudley Road, proved too much for the Confederates, who re¬ 
treated downhill out of the Young’s Branch valley before a 
Union charge down the Sudley Road. But they had checked 








INTERIOR OF CONFEDERATE FORTIFICATION 










CAMPFIRE AND 


BA TTLEFIELD. 


57 



Johnston and Beaure¬ 
gard came up in person 
to superintend the dispo¬ 
sitions for defence. The 
line was formed on the 
edge of a semicircular piece 
of woods, with the concave 
side toward the Union ad¬ 
vance, on an elevation some 
distance south of the first 
position. The Confederate 
artillery commanded both 
the Warrenton Turnpike and 
the Sudlcy Road (the latte 
passing through the woods 
and the plateau between them 
was subject to a cross fi 
Across this plateau the Un 
advance had to be made, an 
it was made under great disad¬ 
vantages. 


many 
panies that 
organization. 


regiments 


ion 




dis effective fighting 
force reduced by casualties, by the retirement of Burnside’s 
brigade after a hard morning’s fighting, and by the separa¬ 
tion from the main army of Keyes’ brigade, which made an 
ineffectual attempt to cross Young’s Branch and get at the 
enemy’s right, McDowell was no longer superior in numbers, as 
in the morning. His weary men had not only to fight, but to 
advance on an enemy in position—to advance over open ground 
on an enemy concealed in the woods, invisible even while their 
sharpshooters picked off his gunners at their batteries. The 
formation of the ground gave him no comprehensive view of 
the whole field, except such as lie got by going to the top of 
the Henry house, opposite the Confederate centre; nor could 
his subordinate commanders see what the others were doing, and 
there was a good deal of independence of action among the 
Union troops throughout the remainder of the day. 

For his afternoon attack on the new Confederate position 
McDowell had under his immediate 


control the brigades of 
Andrew Porter, Franklin, 
Willcox, and Sherman, 
with Howard in reserve, 
back of the Warrenton 
Turnpike. These com¬ 
mands were not available 
up to their full strength, 
r or they included a good 
and corn- 
had lost their 
From t h e i 1 
sheltered positions along the 
sunken turnpike and the valley 
of Young’s Branch he brought 
them forward for an attack on 
the centre and left of the enemy. 
With splendid courage they ad¬ 
vanced over the open ground and 
made a succession of determined 
assaults, which carried a portion of 
the position attacked. About the middle of the afternoon the 
regular batteries of Captains Griffin and Ricketts were brought 
forward to a position near the Henry house. But though their 
effectiveness from this point was greatly increased, so also was 
their danger; and after long and courageous fighting by both 
infantry and artillery, it was the conflict that surged about these 
guns that finally gave the victory to the Confederates. 

Two regiments had been detailed to support the batteries, 
but the inexperience of these regiments was such that they were 
of little service. The batteries had scarcely taken up their 
advanced position when the gunners began to drop one by one 
under the fire of sharpshooters concealed in the woods before 
them. Sticking pluckily to their work, the artillerymen did 
effective firing, but presently the temptation to secure guns so 
inefficiently protected by supporting infantry proved strong 
enough to bring Confederate regiments out from the cover of 

the woods; and keeping out of the 


Ty l-ER. 



MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES GR'FFIN. 


MAJOR-GENERAL O. 0. HOWARD. 


MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. RICKETTS. 

























STONE HOUSE, WARRENTON TURNPIKE, BULL RUN. 












































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


59 


line of fire, they stole nearer and nearer to the batteries. A 
Confederate cavalry charge scattered one of the supporting 
regiments, and a volley from a Confederate regiment, that had 
gotten up to within seventy yards, sent the other off in con¬ 
fused retreat. So close an approach had been permitted by 
Captain Griffin under the mistaken impression, communicated 
to him by the chief of artillery, that the troops approaching 
so steadily were his own supports. He realized hfs error too 
late; and when a volley of musketry had taken off nearly every 
one of his gunners, had killed Lieutenant Ramsay, and seriously 
wounded Captain Ricketts, the Confederates rushed in and 
captured the guns. 


They had not as yet become machines, as good soldiers must be. 
“They were not soldiers,” said one officer, “ but citizens—inde¬ 
pendent sovereigns—in uniform.” It was impossible, of course, 
to get strong, concerted action out of such a mass-meeting of 
individual patriots; and the constant disintegration of regiments 
and brigades gradually reduced the effectiveness of McDowell’s 
army. 

Meanwhile the Confederate reinforcements from the lower 
fords were arriving. The remainder of Johnston’s army from 
Winchester had already arrived ; and though the Union army 
did not know that they had been fighting the biggest half of 
Johnston’s army all day, they realized that they were dealing 



STAND OF THE UNION TROOPS AT THE HENRY HOUSE. 


Then ensued a series of captures and recaptures of these same 
guns, first by one side and then by the other. At the same time 
there was a general fight all along the line of battle, which did 
not dislodge the Confederates while it wore out the Union 
troops. They lacked both the experience and the discipline 
necessary to keep them together after a repulse. The men lost 
track of their companies, regiments, brigades, officers, in the con¬ 
fusion, and little by little the army became disorganized, and 
that at a time when there was still remaining among them both 
strength and courage enough to have won after all. It has been 
said that at one time there were twelve thousand individual 
soldiers wandering about the field of battle who did not know 
“ where they belonged.” The strong individuality of the early 
recruits of the war was in a measure accountable for this. 


with Johnston now. During the fight of the day the Union 
right wing had faced around almost to the east, and the com- 
bined attack of the new Johnston brigades and Early’s re¬ 
inforcements from the fords was delivered almost squarely on 
the rear of its right flank. 

A blow so strong and from such an unexpected quarter had 
a serious effect on the troops that received it. But not as 
yet was the conviction of defeat general in the Union army. 
The contest had been waged with such varying results in 
different parts of the field, one side successful here, another 
there, and again and again the local advantage turning the 
other way under some bold movement of an individual com¬ 
mand, that neither army realized the full significance of what 
had happened. The Unionists had begun the afternoon’s work 































6o 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 




under the impression that 
the victory was already 
theirs and that they had only 
to push on and secure the 
fruits of it. In some parts 
of the field their successes 
were such that it seemed as 
though the Confederate line 


was breaking. 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL JUBAL A. EARLY, C. S. A. 


Many of the 
Confederates had the same 
idea of it, and Jefferson 
Davis, coming up from Ma¬ 
nassas on his way from Rich¬ 
mond, full of anxiety for the 
result, found the roads al¬ 
most impassable by reason 
of crowds of Confederates 
escaping to the rear. His 
heart sank within him.' 
“ Battles are not won,” he 
remarked, “ where two or 
three unhurt men are seen leading away one that is wounded.” 
But he continued on, only to find that the field from which his 
men were retreating had been already won, and that McDowell’s 
army were in full retreat. 

McDowell himself did not know how the retreat had begun. 
He had not ordered it, for he inferred from the lull in the fight¬ 
ing that his enemy was giving way. But it had dawned on the 
men, first that their victory was in doubt, then that the Con¬ 
federates had a fighting 
chance, and finally that 
the battle was lost; and 
by a sort of common 
consent they began to 
make their way to the 
rear in retreat. A 
curious thing happened 
which dashed McDow¬ 
ell’s hope of mak- 
a stand 
at Stone 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL BARNARD 


lUg 


A - 


Bridge 


though the Warrenton 
Turnpike was open, and 
Stone Bridge had been freed 
from the obstructing abattis 
of trees, offering a straight 
road from the battlefield to 
the rendezvous at Centre- 
ville, the troops all withdrew 
from the field by the same di¬ 
rections from which they had 
approached it in the morn 
ing. And so, while the bri¬ 
gades near the Stone Bridge 
and the ford above it crossed 
directly over Bull Run, the 
commands which had made 
the long detour in the morn¬ 
ing made the same detour in 
retreat, adding many miles to 
the route they had to travel 
to reach Centreville. 

McDowell accepted the situation, and made careful disposi¬ 
tions to protect the rear of his retreating army. Stuart’s pursu¬ 
ing cavalry found a steady line of defence which they could not 
break. The rearmost brigades were in such good order that the 
Confederate infantry dared not strike them. The way over the 
Stone Bridge was well covered by the reserves cast of Bull Run, 
under Blenker. But now occurred an incident that greatly re¬ 
tarded the orderly retreat and broke it into confusion. 

There had been 
some fighting during 
the day between the 
reserves left east of 
Bull Run and Con¬ 
federate troops who 
sallied out from the 
lower fords. As a re¬ 
sult of this a Con¬ 
federate battery had 
been posted on an 
elevation command¬ 
ing the Warrenton 









RUINS OF THE HENRY HOUSE. 

























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


61 


Turnpike where it crossed Cub Run, a little stream between 
Bull Run and Centreville, on a suspension bridge. When 
the retreating brigades which had made the long detour from 
Sudley Ford reached this bridge they were met with a shower 
of fire from this battery. Finally, the horses attached to a 
wagon were killed, and the wagon was overturned right on 
the bridge, completely obstructing it. The remainder of the 
wagon train was reduced to ruin, and the thirteen guns which 
had been brought safely out of the battle were captured. A 
panic ensued. Horses were cut from wagons, even from ambu¬ 
lances bearing wounded men, and ridden off. Even while 
McDowell and his officers were deliberating as to the expediency 
of making a stand at Centreville, the disorganized men took 
the decision into their own hands and made a bee-line for 
Washington. 

Portions of the army, however, maintained their organization, 
and partly successful attempts were made to stop the flight. 
The Confederates had but little cavalry, and were in no condition 
to pursue. There was a black-horse regiment from Louisiana 
that undertook it, but came upon the New York Fire Zouaves, 
and in a bloody fight lost heavily. The retreat was well con¬ 


ducted; but this was due largely to the fact that the Confeder¬ 
ates were too exhausted and too fearful to continue the pursuit. 
It is not to be denied that on both sides, in the battle of Bull 
Run, there was displayed much bravery, and not a little skill. 
Never before, perhaps, was such fighting done by comparatively 
raw and inexperienced men. 

It was a motley crowd that thronged the highway to the 
capital. Intermixed were soldiers and civilians, privates and 
members of Congress, worn-out volunteers and panic-stricken 
non - combatants, “ red - legged - devil ” Zouaves, gray - coated 
Westerners, and regular army blue-coats. They pressed right 
on, fearing the pursuit which, unaccountably, did not follow. 
Some of the men since morning had marched twenty-five 
miles, from Centreville and back, and that night they marched 
twenty miles more to Washington. 

All the next day the defeated army straggled into Washing¬ 
ton city—bedraggled, foot-sore, wounded, hungry, wet through 
with the drizzling rain, exhausted. The citizens turned out to 
receive and succor them, and the city became a vast soup- 
house and hospital. On the streets, in the shelter of house- 
areas, under stoops, men dropped down and slept. 



FORT LINCOLN, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



























62 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




EXAMINING PASSES AT THE GEORGETOWN FERRY. 

CHAPTER VII. 

EFFECTS OF THE BATTLE OF BULL RLTN. 

PARALYSIS OF THE UNION CAUSE —FORTIFYING THE APPROACHES TO 

THE CAPITAL-WHY THE CONFEDERATES DID NOT ATTEMPT 

THE CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON—EFFECT OF UNION DEFEAT IN 
ENGLAND AND FRANCE—SLIDELL AND MASON—CAPTURE OF THE 

“ TRENT ”-HENRY WARD BEECHER IN ENGLAND—SYMPATHY OF 

THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT FOR THE NORTH. 

The battle of Bull Run was undertaken with precipitation, 
fought with much valor on both sides, and terminated with 
present ruin to the Federal cause. For the moment the Union 
seemed to stagger under the blow. On the Confederate side 
there was corresponding exultation; a spirit of defiance flamed 
up throughout the South. 

It is in the nature of things that the initial battle of a war 
consolidates and crystallizes the sentiments of both the con¬ 
testants. After Bull Run there was no further hope of peace¬ 
able adjustment, but only an increasing and settled purpose to 
fight out with the sword the great issue which was dividing the 
Union. For a brief season after the battle there was a paralysis 


of the Union cause. It was as much as the authorities 
at Washington could do to make themselves secure 
against further disaster. Indeed, the Potomac River now 
gave positive comfort to the Government, since it fur¬ 
nished in some measure a natural barrier to the north¬ 
ward progress of the exultant Confederates. Immediate 
steps were taken to fortify the approaches to the capital; 
but while this work was in progress the Government 
seemed to stand, like an alarmed sentry, on the Long 
Bridge of the Potomac. 

In the South as well as in the North there was much 
surprise that the Confederates did not pursue the routed 
Union forces at the battle of Bull Run and capture Wash¬ 
ington. Perhaps Gen. Joseph E. Johnston is the best 
witness on this subject on the Southern side. He says: 
“ All the military conditions, we knew, forbade an attempt 
on Washington. The Confederate army was more dis¬ 
organized by victory than that of the United States by 
defeat. The Southern volunteers believed that the ob¬ 
jects of the war had been accomplished by their victory, 
and that they had achieved all their country required of them. 
Many, therefore, in ignorance of their military obligations, left 
the army—not to return. . . . Exaggerated ideas of the 

victory, prevailing among our troops, cost us more than the 
Federal army lost by defeat.” In writing this passage General 
Johnston probably took no account of the effect produced in 
Europe. The early narratives sent there, in which the panic of 
retreat was made the principal figure, gave the impression that 
the result arose from constitutional cowardice in Northern men 
and invincible courage in Southerners. They also gave the 
impression that the Confederates were altogether superior in 
generalship ; and the effect was deep and long-enduring. The 
most notable of these was by a correspondent of the London 
Times , who had apparently been sent across the Atlantic for 
the express purpose of writing down the Republic, writing up 
the South, and enlisting the sympathies of Englishmen for the 
rebellion. In his second letter from Charleston (April 30, 1861) 
he had written that men of all classes in South Carolina declared 
to him : “ If we could only get one of the royal race of England 
to rule over us, we should be content.” “The New Englander 
must have something to persecute ; and as he has hunted down 
all his Indians, burnt all his witches, persecuted all 

his opponents to the death, he invented abolitionism 


FORT IN FRONT OF WASHINGTON. 





















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


^3 



THE "SAN JACINTO" STOPPING THE "TRENT." 


as the sole resource left to him for the 
gratification of his favorite passion. 

Next to this motive principle is his 
desire to make money dishonestly, trick¬ 
ily, meanly, and shabbily. He has acted 
on it in all his relations with the South, 
and has cheated and plundered her in 
all his dealings, by villanous tariffs.” 

Many an Englishman, counting his 
worthless Confederate bonds, and try¬ 
ing to hope that he will yet receive 
something for them, knows he would, 
never have made that investment but 
for such writing as this, and the ac¬ 
counts from the same pen of the battle 
of Bull Run. 

At the North the spectacle of McDow¬ 
ell’s army streaming back in disorder to 
the national capital produced first a 
shock of surprise, then a sense of dis¬ 
grace, and then a calm determination 
to begin the war over again. It was 
well expressed by a Methodist minister 
at a camp-meeting in Illinois, the Rev. 

Henry Cox. The news of the battle 
came while he was preaching, and he 
closed his sermon with the words: 

“ Brethren, we’d better adjourn this 
camp-meeting and go home and drill.” 

The effect of this over-discussed bat¬ 
tle upon the more confident and boast¬ 
ful of the Southerners was perhaps 
fairly expressed by an editorial utter¬ 
ance of one of their journals, the Louis¬ 
ville, Ky., Courier'. “As our Norman 
kinsmen in England, always a minority, 
have ruled their Saxon countrymen in 
political vassalage up to the present 
day, so have we, the ‘slave oligarchs,’ 
governed the Yankees till within a 
twelvemonth. We framed the Consti¬ 
tution, for seventy years moulded the 
policy of the government, and placed 
our own men, or ‘ Northern men with 
Southern principles,’ in power. On the 
6th of November, i860, the Puritans 
emancipated themselves, and are now 
in violent insurrection against their 
former owners. This insane holiday 
freak will not last long, however; for, 
dastards in fight and incapable of self- 
government, they will inevitably again 
fall under the control of a superior race. A few more Bull Run 
thrashings will bring them once more under the yoke, as docile 
as the most loyal of our Ethiopian chattels.” 

France and England had made all haste to recognize the Con¬ 
federates as belligerents, but had not granted them recognition 
as an established nation, and never did. There was a constant 
fear, however, that they would ; and the Confederate Govern¬ 
ment did its utmost to bring about such recognition. Messrs. 
James M. Mason, of Virginia, and John Slidell, of Louisiana, 
were sent out by that Government, as duly accredited ministers 


to London and Paris, in 1861. They escaped the blockaders at 
Charleston, reached Havana, and there embarked on the British 
mail steamer Trent for Europe. But Capt. Charles Wilkes (who 
had commanded the celebrated exploring expedition in Antarc¬ 
tic waters twenty years before) was on the watch for them with 
the United States steam frigate San Jacinto, overhauled the 
Trent in the Bahama Channel (November 8), took off the Con¬ 
federate commissioners, and allowed the steamer to proceed on 
her way. He carried his prisoners to Boston, and they were 
incarcerated in Fort Warren. This action, for which Wilkes 





















































































































































FORTIFICATION IN FRONT OF WASHINGTON. 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


es 


received the thanks of Congress, 
was denounced as an outrage on 
British neutrality. The entire 
British public bristled up as one 
lion, and their Government de¬ 
manded an apology and the libera¬ 
tion of the prisoners. The Ameri¬ 
can public was unable to see any 
way out of the dilemma, and was 
considering whether it would choose 
humiliation or a foreign war, when 
our Secretary of State, William H. 

Seward, solved the problem in a 
masterly manner. In his formal 
reply he discussed the whole ques¬ 
tion with great ability, showing 
that such detention of a vessel was 
justified by the laws of war, and 
there were innumerable British 
precedents for it ; that Captain 
Wilkes conducted the search in 
a proper manner; that the com¬ 
missioners were contraband of war ; and that the commander 
of the Trent knew they were contraband of war when he took 
them as passengers. But as Wilkes had failed to complete the 
transaction in a legal manner by bringing the Trent into port 
for adjudication in a prize court, it must be repudiated. In 
other words, by his consideration for the interests and conven¬ 
ience of innocent persons, he had lost his prize. In summing up, 
Mr. Seward said : “ If I declare this case in favor of my own 
Government, I must disavow its most cherished principles, and 
reverse and forever abandon its most essential policy. 

We are asked to do to the British nation just what we have 
always insisted all nations ought to do to us.” The commis¬ 
sioners were released, and sailed for England in January ; but 
the purpose of their mission had been practically thwarted. 
This was a remarkable instance of eating one’s cake and keep¬ 
ing it at the same time. 

But though danger of intervention was thus for the time 


averted, and the relations between 
the British Government and our 
own remained nominally friendly, 
so far as moral influence and bit¬ 
terness of feeling could go the Re¬ 
public had no more determined 
enemies in the cotton States than 
in the heart of England. The 
aristocratic classes rejoiced at any¬ 
thing that threatened to destroy 
democratic government or make its 
stability doubtful. They con¬ 
fidently expected to see our country 
fall into a state of anarchy like that 
experienced so often by the Span- 
ish-American republics, and were 
willing to do everything they safely 
could to bring it about. The fore¬ 
most English journals had been 
predicting such a disaster ever since 
the beginning of the century, had 
announced it as in progress when 
a British force burned Washington in 1814, and now were surer 
of it than ever. Almost our only friends of the London press 
were the Daily News and Weekly Spectator. The commercial 
classes, in a country that had fought so many commercial wars, 
were of course delighted at the crippling of a commercial rival 
whom they had so long hated and feared, no matter what it mi ght 
cost in the shedding of blood and the destruction of social order. 
Among the working classes, though they suffered heavily when 
the supply of cotton was diminished, we had many firm and 
devoted friends, who saw and felt, however imperfectly, that the 
cause of free labor was their own cause, no matter on which side 
of the Atlantic the battlefield might lie. 

To those who had for years endured the taunts of Englishmen 
who pointed to American slavery and its tolerance in the Ameri¬ 
can Constitution, while they boasted that no slave could breathe 
on British soil, it was a strange sight, when our country was at 
war over the question, to see almost everything that had power 




JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CAPTAIN CHARLES WILKES, afterward Rear-Admiral.) 



JOHN SLIDELL 


5 












66 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


and influence in England arrayed on the side of the slaveholders. 
A few famous Englishmen—notably John Bright and Goldwin 
Smith—were true to the cause of liberty, and did much to instruct 
the laboring classes as to the real nature and significance of the 
conflict. Henry Ward Beecher, then at the height of his powers, 
went to England and addressed large audiences, enlightening them 
as to the real nature of American affairs, concerning which most of 
them were grossly ignorant, and produced an effect that was prob¬ 
ably never surpassed by any orator. The Canadians, with the usual 
narrowness of provincials, blind to their own ultimate interests, 
were in the main more bitterly hostile than the mother country. 

Louis Napoleon, then the despotic ruler of France, was 
unfriendly to the United States, and did his utmost to persuade 
the English Government to unite with him in a scheme of inter¬ 


vention that would probably have secured the division of the 
country. How far his plans went beyond that result, can only 
be conjectured; but while the war was still in progress (1864) 
he threw a French force into Mexico, and established there an 
ephemeral empire with an Austrian archduke at its head. That 
the possession of Mexico alone was not his object, is suggested 
by the fact that, when the rebellion was subdued and the seces¬ 
sion cause extinct, he withdrew his troops from Mexico and left 
the archduke to the fate of other filibusters. 

The Russian Government was friendly to the United States 
throughout the struggle. The imperial manifesto for the aboli¬ 
tion of serfdom in Russia was issued on March 3, 1861, the day 
before President Lincoln was inaugurated, and this perhaps 
created a special bond of sympathy. 




FORT MONROE. 


THE FIRST UNION VICTORIES. 


FEDERAL NAVY-BLOCKADE-RUNNING—BALLS, POW¬ 
DER, AND EQUIPMENTS BROUGHT FROM ENG¬ 
LAND FOR CONFEDERATES—THE FIRST HATTERAS 

EXPEDITION-CAPTURE OF FORT HATTERAS 

AND FORT CLARK—CAPTURE OF HILTON HEAD 
AND PORT ROYAL—GENERAL BURNSIDE’S EXPE¬ 
DITION TO ROANOKE ISLAND—FEDERAL VIC¬ 
TORY AT MILL SPRINGS, KY.-CAPTURE OF FORT 

HENRY BY FEDERAL FORCES UNDER GENERAL 
GRANT—FALL OF FORT DONELSON—BATTLE OF 
PEA RIDGE. 


WHEN the war began, the greater part of 
the small navy of the United States was in 




h am. 


er »ard ft 


ea '-Ad 


^nal 


MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. 


distant waters—off the coast of Africa, in the Mediterranean, on the Asiatic station—and for some of the ships to receive the 
news and return, many months were required. Twelve vessels were at home—four in Northern and eight in Southern ports. 
The navy, like the army, lost many Southern officers by resignation or dismissal. About three hundred who had been educated 


CHAPTER VIII. 























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


67 


for its service went over to the Confederacy; but none of them 
took with them the vessels they had commanded. The Govern¬ 
ment bought all sorts of merchant craft, mounting guns on 
some and fitting up others as transports, and had gunboats 
built on ninety-day contracts. It was a most miscellaneous fleet, 
whose principal strength consisted in the weakness of its adver¬ 
sary. The first purpose was to complete the blockade of 


often barefoot and ragged, and sometimes hungry, he never lacked 
for the most improved weapons that English arsenals could pro¬ 
duce, nor was he ever defeated for want of powder. A very large 
part of the bullets that destroyed the lives and limbs of National 
troops were cast in England and brought over the sea in block¬ 
ade-runners. Clothing and equipments, too, for the Confederate 
armies came from the same source. Often when a burial party 



ON BOARD THE FIRST BLOCKADE-RUNNER CAPTURED. 


Southern ports. Throughout the war this was never made so 
perfect that no vessels could pass through ; but it was gradu¬ 
ally rendered more and more effective. The task was simplified 
as the land forces, little by little, obtained control of the shore% 
when a few vessels could maintain an effective blockade from 
within. But an exterior blockade of a port in the hands of the 
enemy required a large fleet, operating beyond the range of 
the enemy’s fire from the shore, in a line so extended as to offer 
occasional opportunities for the blockade-runners to slip past. 
But blockade-running became exceedingly dangerous. Large 
numbers of the vessels engaged in it were captured or driven 
ashore and wrecked. The profit on a single cargo that passed 
either way in safety was very great, and special vessels for block¬ 
ade-running were built in England. The Confederate Govern¬ 
ment enacted a law providing that a certain portion of every 
cargo thus brought into its ports must consist of arms or ammu¬ 
nition, otherwise vessel and all would be confiscated. This in¬ 
sured a constant supply; and though the Southern soldier was 


went out, after a battle, as they turned over one after another of 
the enemy’s slain and saw the name of a Birmingham manufact¬ 
urer stamped upon his buttons, it seemed that they must have 
been fighting a foreign foe. To pay for these things, the Con¬ 
federates sent out cotton, tobacco, rice, and the naval stores 
produced by North Carolina forests. It was obvious from 
the first that any movement that would shut off a part of this 
trade, or render it more hazardous, would strike a blow at the 
insurrection. Furthermore, Confederate privateers were already 
out, and before the first expedition sailed sixteen captured 
merchantmen had been taken into the ports of North Carolina. 

Vessels could enter Pamlico or Albemarle Sound by any one 
of several inlets, and then make the port of Newbern, Washing¬ 
ton, or Plymouth ; and the first of several naval and military 
expeditions was fitted out for the purpose of closing the most 
useful of these openings, Hatteras Inlet, thirteen miles south of 
Cape Hatteras. Two forts had been erected on the point at 
the northern side of this inlet, and the project was to capture 














68 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



them ; but, so new was everybody to the art of war, it was not 
at first intended to garrison and hold them. 

The expedition, which originated with the Navy Department, 
was fitted out in Hampton Roads, near Fortress Monroe, and 
was commanded by Flag-officer Silas H. Stringham. It num¬ 
bered ten vessels, all told, carrying one hundred and fifty-eight 
guns. Two were transport steamers, having on board about 
nine hundred troops commanded by Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, 


the shot from the fort could not reach them. Afterward the 
larger work, Fort Hatteras, was bombarded, but with no prac¬ 
tical effect, though the firing was kept up till sunset. But 
meanwhile the troops that had landed through the surf had 
taken possession of the smaller work, Fort Clark. They also 
threw up a small earthwork, and with their field-pieces fired 
upon some Confederate vessels that were in the Sound. The 
next morning (the 28th) the frigates anchored within reach of 
Fort Hatteras, and began a deliberate and steady bombardment. 
As before, the shot from the fort fell short of the ships, and 
neither could that from the smooth-bore broadside guns reach 
the fort ; but the pivot-guns and the rifled pieces of one vessel 
wrought great havoc. One plunging shell went down through 
a ventilator and narrowly missed exploding the magazine. At 
the end of three hours the fort surrendered. Its defenders, who 
were commanded by Samuel Barron, formerly of the 

United States navy, had suf- 


LAND FORCES STORMING THE FORTIFICATIONS AT FORT CLARK. 

(Two views.) 


and two were schooners carrying iron surf-boats. It 
sailed on the 26th of August, 1861, with sealed orders, 
arrived at its destination before sunset, and anchored 
off the bar. Early the next morning an attempt was 
made to land the troops through the surf, at a point 
three miles from the inlet, whence they might attack 
the forts in the rear. But it was not very successful. The heavy 
surf dashed the clumsy iron boats upon the shore, drenching the 
men, wetting the powder, and endangering everything. About 
one-third of the troops, however, were landed, with two field- 
guns, and remained there under protection of the fire from the 
ships. The forts were garrisoned by about six hundred men, and 
mounted twenty-five guns; but they were not very strong, and 
their bomb-proofs were not constructed properly. Stringham’s 
flag-ship, the frigate Minnesota , led off in the attack, followed 
by the Susquehaitna and Wabash, and the guns of the smaller 
fort were soon silenced. The frigates were at such a distance 
that they could drop shells into it with their pivot-guns, while 


about fifty in killed and wounded. They 

had been reinforced in the night, but a steamer was seen taking 
away a load of troops just before the surrender. The seven 
hundred prisoners were sent on board the flag-ship and carried 
to New York. The victors had not lost a man. There had 
been some intention of destroying the forts and blocking up 
the channels of the inlet ; but it was determined instead to 
leave a garrison and establish a coaling station for the blockading 
fleet. Two of the frigates remained in the Sound, and within a 
fortnight half a dozen blockade-runners entered the inlet and 
were captured. 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


69 






GUNBOAT “ MENDOTA." 

A much larger expedition sailed from Hampton Roads on one of the last days of 
October. It consisted of more than fifty vessels—frigates, gunboats, transports, tugs, 
steam ferry-boats, and schooners—carrying twenty-two thousand men. The fleet was 
commanded by Flag-officer Samuel F. Du Pont, the troops by Gen. Thomas W. Sherman 
(who must not be confounded with Gen. William T. Sherman, famous for his march 
to the sea). The expedition had been two months in preparation, and though it sailed 
with sealed orders, and every effort had been made to keep its destination secret, the 
information leaked out as usual, and while it was on its way the Confederate Secretary 
of War telegraphed to the Governor of South Carolina and the commander at Hilton 
Head where to expect it. Bull’s Bay, St. Helena, Port Royal, and Fernandina had all 
been discussed, and the final choice fell upon Port Royal. 

A tremendous gale was encountered on the passage ; the fleet was scattered, one 


COMMANDER C. R. P. RODGERS. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.) 
COMMANDER JOHN RODGERS. (Afterward Rear-Admiral,) 


m*- 


feA- 



























BOMBARDMENT OF FORT WALKER, HILTON HEAD, PORT ROYAL HARBOR, S. C, BY UNITED STATES FLEET, NOVEMBER 7, 1861 


















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


7 i 


transport was completely wrecked, with a loss of seven lives, 
one gunboat was obliged to throw her broadside battery over¬ 
board, a transport threw over her cargo, and one store-ship was 
lost. When the storm was over, only a single gunboat was in 
sight from the flag-ship. But the fleet slowly came together 
again, and was joined by some of the frigates that were 
blockading Charleston Harbor, these being relieved by 
others that had come down for the purpose. They arrived 
off the entrance to Port Royal harbor on the 5th and 6th 
of November. This entrance was protected by two earth¬ 
works—Fort Walker on Hilton Head (the south side), and 
Fort Beauregard on St. Helena Island (the north side). 

These forts were about two and a half miles apart, and 
were garrisoned by South Carolina troops, commanded by 
Generals Drayton and Ripley. A brother of General 
Drayton commanded a vessel in the attacking fleet. 

On the morning of the 7th the order of battle was 
formed. The bar was 
ten miles out from the 
entrance, and careful 
soundings had been 
made by two gunboats, 
under the fire of three 
Confederate vessels 
that ran out from the 
harbor. The main 
column consisted of ten 
vessels, led by the flag¬ 
ship Wabash, and was 
ordered to attack Fort 
Walker. Another col¬ 
umn of four vessels was 
ordered to fire upon 
Fort Beauregard, pass 
in, and attack the Con¬ 
federate craft. All were 
under way soon after 

breakfast, and were favored by a tranquil sea. 

The main column, a ship’s length apart, 
steamed in steadily at the rate of six miles 
an hour, passing Fort Walker at a distance 
of eight hundred yards, and delivering a 
fire of shells and rifled shot. Every gun 
in the fort that could be brought to bear 
was worked as rapidly as possible, in a 
gallant defence. After the line had 
passed the fort, it turned and steamed 
out again, passing this time within 
six hundred yards, and delivering 
fire from the guns on the other side 
of the vessels. Three times they thus 
went around in a long ellipse, each time keep¬ 
ing the fort under fire for about twenty minutes. 

Then the Bienville , which had the heaviest guns, and was 
commanded by Captain Steadman, a South Carolinian, sailed 
in closer yet, and delivered a fire that dismounted several guns 
and wrought dreadful havoc. Meanwhile two or three gunboats 
had taken a position from which they enfiladed the work, and 
the flag-ship came to a stand at short range and pounded away 
steadily. This was more than anything at that stage of the 
war could endure, and from the mast-head the troops were seen 
streaming out of the fort and across Hilton Head Island as if 


in panic. A flag of truce was sent on shore, but there was no 
one to receive it, and soon after two o’clock the National colors 
were floating over the fort. The flanking column of vessels had 
attacked Fort Beauregard; and when the commander of that 
work saw that Fort Walker was abandoned by its defenders, he 



also retreated with his force. The Con¬ 
federate vessels escaped by running up 
a shallow inlet. The loss in the fleet 
was eight men killed and twenty-three 
wounded ; that of the Confederates, as re¬ 
ported by their commander, was eleven 
killed and fifty-two wounded or missing. 
General Sherman said : “ Many bodies were 
buried in the fort, and twenty or thirty were 
found half a mile distant.” The road across 
Hilton Head Island to a wharf whence the 
retreating troops were taken to the mainland 
was strewn with arms and accoutrements, and 
two howitzers were abandoned. The surgeon of 
the fort had been killed by a shell and buried by 
a falling parapet. The troops were debarked and 
took possession of both forts, repaired and strength¬ 
ened the works, formed an intrenched camp, and thus 
gave the Government a permanent foothold on the 
soil of South Carolina. 

Roanoke Island, N. C., lies between Roanoke Sound and 
Croatan Sound, through which the channels lead to Albemarle 
Sound, giving access to the interior of the State. This island, 
therefore, was fortified by the Confederates, in order to com¬ 
mand these approaches. The island is about as large as that 
which is occupied by New York City—ten miles long, and some¬ 
what over two miles wide. In January, 1862, an expedition was 
fitted out to capture it, and the command was given to Gen. 












































































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


72 


Ambrose E. Burn¬ 
side, who had about 
fifteen thousand men, 
with a battery of six 
guns, carried on forty 
transports. The 
naval part of the ex¬ 
pedition, consisting 
of twenty-eight ves¬ 
sels, none of them 
very large, carrying 
half a hundred guns, 
was under the imme¬ 
diate command of 
C a p t. Louis M . 
Goldsboro ugh. 
Among his subordi¬ 
nate officers were 
Stephen C. Rowan 
and John L. Worden. 
Burnside’s three bri¬ 
gade commanders— 
all of whom rose to eminence before the war was over—were 
John G. Foster, Jesse L. Reno, and John G. Parke. 

The expedition sailed from Hampton Roads on January 11, 
and almost immediately encountered a terrific storm, by which 
the fleet was far scattered, some of the vessels being carried out 
to sea and others driven ashore. Five were wrecked, and a con¬ 
siderable number of men were lost. By the 28th, all that had 
weathered the gale passed through Hatteras Inlet into the 
sounds. The fortifications on the island mounted forty guns; 
and in Croatan Sound a Confederate naval force of eight vessels 
lay behind a line of obstructions across the channel. 

On February 7th, the National gunboats, advancing in three 
columns, shelled Fort Bartow—the principal fortification, on the 
west side of the island—and the Confederate gunboats. The 
latter were soon driven off, and in four hours the fort was 
silenced. The transports landed the troops on the west side of 
the island, two miles south of the fort, and in the morning of 
the 8th they began their march to the interior, which was made 
difficult and disagreeable by swamps and a lack of roads, and 
by a cold storm. On the 9th, the Confederate skirmishers were 
driven in, and the main line was assaulted, first with artillery, 
and then by the infantry. The Confederate left wing was 
turned; and when the national troops had nearly exhausted 
their ammunition they made a brilliant bayonet charge, led by 
Hawkins’s New York zouave regiment, and stormed the works, 
which were hastily abandoned by the Confederates, who at¬ 
tempted to reach the northeast shore and Cross to Nag’s Head, 
but more than two thousand of them were captured. Fort Bar¬ 
tow still held out, but it was soon taken, its garrison surrender¬ 
ing. In this action the national loss was two hundred and thirty- 
five men killed or wounded in the army, and twenty-five in the 
navy. 

On the 10th, a part of the fleet, under Captain Rowan, pursued 
the Confederate fleet up Albemarle Sound, and after a short 
engagement defeated it. The Confederates set fire to their 
vessels and deserted them, destroying all but one, which was 
captured. Rowan then took possession of Elizabeth City and 
Edenton. The flying Confederates had set fire to the former; 
but Rowan’s men, with the help of the colored people who 
remained, put out the fire and saved the city. 


In this naval battle one of the first medals of honor won in 
the war was earned by a sailor named John Davis. A shell 
thrown by the Confederates entered one of the vessels and set 
fire to it. This was near the magazine, and there was an open 
barrel of powder from which Davis was serving a gun. He at 
once sat down on the barrel, and remained there covering it 
until the fire was put out. 

General Burnside next planned an expedition in the opposite 
direction, to attack Newbern. His forces, numbering about 
eight thousand men, sailed from Hatteras Inlet in the morning 
of March I2th, and that evening landed within eighteen miles of 
Newbern. The next day they marched toward the city, while 
the gunboats ascended the river and shelled such fortifications 
and Confederate troops as could be seen. The roads were miry, 
and the progress of the troops was slow. After removing elab¬ 
orate obstructions and torpedoes from the channel, the fleet 
reached and silenced the forts near the city. The land forces 
then came up and attacked the Confederates, who were about 
five thousand strong and were commanded by General Branch. 
After hard fighting, the works were carried, and the enemy fled. 
They burned the railroad bridge over the Trent River, and set 
fire to the city; but the sailors succeeded in extinguishing the 
flames in time to save the greater part of the town. Burnside’s 
loss in this battle was about five hundred and fifty killed or 
wounded; that of the Confederates, including prisoners, was 
about the same. Fifty-two guns and two steamers were cap¬ 
tured. 

Ten days later, Beaufort, N. C., and Morehead City were occu¬ 
pied by the National troops without opposition. Burnside’s army 
was now broken up into comparatively small bodies, holding 
the various places that had been taken, which greatly diminished 
the facilities for blockade-running on the North Carolina coast. 

The year 1862 opened with indications of lively and decisive 



MAJOR-GENERAL AMBROSE E BURNSIDE. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL T. F. DRAYTON. C. S. A. 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


73 



m *JOr 


JOHN 


-GENEr al 


MAJOR-GENERAL JESSE L. RENO. 

work west of the moun¬ 
tains, and many move¬ 
ments were made that 
cannot be detailed 
here. One of the most 
gallant was in the region of the Big 
Sandy River in eastern Kentucky, where 
phrey Marshall had gathered a Confederate force 
of about two thousand five hundred (mostly Ken¬ 
tuckians) at Paintville. Col. James A. Garfield 
(afterward President), in command of one thousand 
eight hundred infantry and three hundred cavalry, 
drove him out of Paintville, pursued him beyond 
Prestonburg, came up with him at noon of January 


p ark £ 


Hum- 


ioth, 


and fou ght 


him till night, when Marshall 

his 


retreated under cover of the darkness, leaving 
dead on the field. 

In the autumn of 1861 a Confederate force, 
under Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer, had been pushed 
forward byway of Knoxville to eastern Kentucky, 
but was defeated at Camp Wildcat, October 
21st, by seven thousand men under General Schoepff, and fell 
back to Mill Springs at the head of steamboat navigation on 
the Cumberland. Zollicoffer soon crossed to the northern bank, 
and fortified a position at Beech Grove, in the angle between the 
river and Fishing Creek. The National forces in the vicinity 
were commanded by Gen. George H. Thomas, who watched 
Zollicoffer so closely that when the latter was told by his supe¬ 
riors he should not have crossed the river, he could only answer 
that it was now too late to return. As Zollicoffer was only a 
journalist, with more zeal than military knowledge, Gen. George 
B. Crittenden was sent to supersede him. Thomas was slowly 
advancing, through rainy weather, over heavy roads, to drive 
this force out of the State, and had reached Logan’s Cross-roads, 
within ten miles of the Confederate camp, when Crittenden 
determined to move out and attack him. The battle began 
early on the morning of January 19, 1862. Thomas was on 
the alert, and when his outposts were driven in he rapidly 
brought up one detachment after another and threw them into 


VICE-ADMIRAL S. C. ROWAN. 

line. The attack was di¬ 
rected mainly against the 
National left, where the 
fighting was obstinate and 
bloody, much of the firing 
being at very close quar¬ 
ters. Here Zollicoffer, 
thinking the Fourth Ken¬ 
tucky was a Confederate 
regiment firing upon its 
friends, rode forward to 
correct the supposed mis¬ 
take, and was shot dead by 
its colonel, Speed S. Fry. 
When, at length, the right 
of the Confederate line had 
been pressed back and 
broken, a steady fire hav¬ 
ing been kept up on the 
centre, the Ninth Ohio 
Regiment made a bayonet charge on its left flank, and the 
whole line was broken and routed. The Confederates took 
refuge in their intrenchments, where Thomas swiftly pursued 
and closely invested them, expecting to capture them all the 
next morning. But in the night they managed to cross the 
river, leaving behind their wounded, twelve guns, all their 
horses, mules, and wagons, and a large amount of stores. In 
the further retreat two of the Confederate regiments disbanded 
and scattered to their homes, while a large number from other 
regiments deserted individually. The National loss in killed and 
wounded was two hundred and forty-six ; that of the Confed¬ 
erates, four hundred and seventy-one. Thomas received the 
thanks of the President for his victory. This action is vari¬ 
ously called the Battle of Fishing Creek and the Battle of Mill 
Springs. 

When Gen. Henry W. Halleck was placed in command of the 
Department of Missouri, in November, 1861, he divided it into 
districts, giving to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant the District of Cairo, 


REAR-ADMIRAL LOUIS M. GOLDSBOROUGH. 



















BURNSIDE’S EXPEDITION OFF FORT MONROE. 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


75 






OiR/niet (dosed; 


oh. ATE 

'FT HUGER 

M\2Gup3 , 


^ LATE 

HARD ^ 
*4 Guns 


a jh.e P l 15 

FORREST 

■g CURLEW- 
JURW^ajT FE.B 8. 


'^Steamers 

Sur >kerK\ ess ~7~ 


BATTEFTY 2 Gutt^T 


TT FOSTE-R LATE^. 
FTBARTOW^W 
^9 Guns BAT 

Formed rtB r 8£ 


Boats 


Thickly ' 
"flooded/ 
Swamp 


Wood&d 

Swcunp 


Fleetwood. P* 


As/toy's Ht 


irniy^Tronsports 


r Baums Cr 




i 








—- 


"Nr- 










3 ^ 


mm. 


THE BURNSIDE EXPEDITION CROSSING HATTERAS BAR. 


= Oregon, 
= Inlet/ 


Due 


STATUTE. MILES 


which included Southern Illinois, the counties of Missouri 
south of Cape Girardeau, and all of Kentucky that lies 
west of Cumberland River. Where the Tennessee and the 
Cumberland enter Kentucky from the south they are about 
ten miles apart, and here the Confederates had erected two 
considerable works to command the rivers—Fort Henry 
on the east bank of the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson on 
the west bank of the Cumberland. They had also fortified 
the high bluffs at Columbus, on the Mississippi, twenty 
miles below the mouth of the Ohio, and Bowling Green, 
on the Big Barren. The general purpose was to establish 
a military frontier with a strong line of defence from the 
Alleghany Mountains to the Mississippi. 

A fleet of iron-clad gunboats had been prepared by the 
United States Government for service on the Western 
rivers, some of them being built new, while others were 
altered freight-boats. 

After a reconnoissance in force by Gen. C. F. Smith, 
General Grant asked Halleck’s permission to capture Fort 
Henry, and, after considerable delay, received it on the 
30th of January. That work was garrisoned by three 
thousand men under Gen. Lloyd Tilghman. Its position 
was strong, the ravines through which little tributaries 
reached the river being filled with slashed timber and 
rifle-pits, and swampy ground rendering approach from 


ROANOKE ISLAND, N. C., AND CONFEDERATE FORTS. 


















































;6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


the land side difficult. But the work itself was rather poorly 
built, bags of sand being largely used instead of a solid earth 
embankment. 

On the morning of February 2d the fleet of four iron-clad and 
two wooden gunboats, commanded by Flag-officer Andrew H. 
Foote, left Cairo, steamed up the Ohio to Paducah, thence up 
the Tennessee, and by daylight the next morning were within 

sight of the fort. Grant’s land 
force was to cooperate by 
an attack in the rear, 
but it did not ar- 



artillerists; and, after serving a gun with his own hands as long 
as possible, he ran up a white flag and surrendered. The regret 
of the victors at the escape of the garrison was more than 
counterbalanced by their gratification at the behavior of the 
gunboats in their first serious trial. After the surrender, three 
of the gunboats proceeded up the Tennessee River to the head 
of navigation, destroyed the railroad bridge, and captured a 
large amount of stores. 

In consequence of the battle of Mill Springs and the fall of 
Fort Henry, the Confederate Gen. Simon B. Buckner, who 
was at Bowling Green with about ten thousand men, abandoned 

that place and joined his forces to 
those in Fort Donelson. Gen. Ormsby 
M. Mitchel, by a forced march, 
promptly took possession of Bowl¬ 
ing Green with National 
troops; and General Grant 
immediately made disposi¬ 
tions for the capture of Fort 
Donelson. This work, situ¬ 
ated at a bend of the river, 
was on high ground, enclosed 
about a hundred acres, and 
had also a strong water- 
battery on the lower river 


rive in time. The gunboats moved 
up to within six hundred yards, and 
opened a bombardment, to which 
the guns of the fort immediately 
responded, and the firing was kept 
up for an hour. The Essex received 
a shot in her boiler, by which many 
men were wounded or scalded, in¬ 
cluding Capt. William D. Porter, 
son of Commodore David Porter 
who had won fame in another Essex 
in the war of 1812-15. Otherwise 
the fleet, though struck many times, 
was not seriously injured. On the 
other hand, the fire from the gun¬ 
boats knocked the sand-bags about, 
dismounted seven guns, brought 
down the flagstaff, and, together 
with the bursting of a rifled gun in 
the fort, created a panic. All but 
about one hundred of the garrison 
fled, leaving General Tilghman with 
the sick and a single company of 


BURNING OF AMERICAN MERCHANTMAN "HARRY BIRCH" IN BRITISH CHANNEL, BY CONFEDERATE STEAMER "NASHVILLE . 1 



























































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


77 



immediate sortie, and so perhaps ultimately saved the victory 
for Grant. 

That night a council of war was held within the fort, and it 
was determined to attack the besiegers in the morning with the 
entire force, in hopes either to defeat them completely or at 
least to turn back their right wing, and thus open a way for 
retreat toward the south. The fighting began early in the 
morning. Grant’s right wing, all but surprised, was pressed 
heavily and borne back, the enemy passing through and plunder¬ 
ing McClernand’s camps. Buckner sallied out and attacked on 
the left with much less vigor and with no success but as a 

diversion, and the 
___ fighting extended all 

^ along the line, while 

the Confederate cav¬ 
alry were endeavor- 
ing to gain the Na¬ 
tional rear. Grant 
was imperturbable 
through it all, and 
when he saw that 
the attack had 
reached its height, 
he ordered a counter 


e- 


front. The land side was protected by slashed timber and rifle- 
pits, as well as by the naturally broken ground. The gunboats 
went down the Tennessee and up the Cumberland, and with 
them a portion of Grant’s force to be used in attacking the 
water front. The fort contained about twenty thousand men, 
commanded by Gen. John B. Floyd, who had been President 
Buchanan’s Secretary of War. Grant’s main force left the 
neighborhood of Fort Henry on the morning of February 12th, 
a portion marching straight on Fort Donelson, while the re¬ 
mainder made a slight detour to the south, to come up on the 
right, strike the Confederate left, and prevent escape in that 


A FEDERAL CAVALRY CHARGE 

direction. They chose positions around the fort un¬ 
molested that afternoon, and the next morning the 
fighting began. After an artillery duel, an attempt 
was made to storm the works near the centre of the 
line, but it was a failure and entailed severe loss. The 
gunboats and the troops with them had not yet come up, 
and the attack was suspended for the day. A cold storm 
set in, with sleet and snow, and the assailants spent the night 
without shelter and with scant rations, while a large part of the 
defenders, being in the trenches, were equally exposed. 

Next morning the fleet appeared, landed the troops and 
supplies three miles below the fort, and then moved up to 
attack the batteries. These were not so easily disposed of as 
Fort Henry had been. It was a desperate fight. The plunging 
shot from the fort struck the gunboats in their most vulnerable 
part, and made ugly wounds. But they stood to the work 
manfully, and had silenced one battery when the steering 
apparatus of two of the gunboats was shot away, while a gun on 
another had burst and the flag-officer was wounded. The flag¬ 
ship had been struck fifty-nine times, and the others from 
twenty to forty, when they all dropped down the stream and 
out of the fight. They had lost fifty-four men killed or 
wounded. But the naval attack had served to prevent an 




COLONEL SPEED S. FRY. 


(Afterward Brigadier-General.) 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 

felix k. zollicoffer, c. s. a. attack and recovery of the lost ground 

on the right, which was executed by 
the division of Lew Wallace, while that of C. F. Smith stormed 
the works on the left. Smith rode beside the color-bearer, and, 
in the face of a murderous fire that struck down four hundred 
men, his troops rushed forward over every obstruction, brought 
up field guns and enfiladed the works, drove out the defenders, 
and took possession. 

Another bitterly cold night followed, but Grant improved the 
time to move up reinforcements to the positions he had gained, 
while the wounded were looked after as well as circumstances 
would permit. Within the fort another council of war was 
held. Floyd declared it would not do for him to fall into the 
































BATTLE OF MILL SPRINGS, LOGAN CROSS ROADS, KENTUCKY, JANUARY 19, 1862. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


79 



war: "No terms other than an 
unconditional and immediate sur¬ 
render can be accepted. I pro¬ 
pose to move immediately upon 
your works.” Buckner, in a pet¬ 
ulant and ill-considered note, at 
once surrendered the fort and his 
entire command. This numbered 
about fourteen thousand men; 
and four hundred that were sent 
to reinforce him were also cap¬ 
tured. 

General Pillow estimated the 
Confederate loss in killed and 
wounded at two thousand. No 
undisputed figures are attainable 
on either side. Grant began the 
siege with about fifteen thousand 

men, which reinforcements had increased to twenty-seven thousand at 
the time of the surrender. Iiis losses were about two thousand, and 
many of the wounded had perished of cold. The long, artificial line of 
defence, from the mountains to the Mississippi, was now swept away, 
and the Confederates abandoned Nashville, to which Grant might have 
advanced immediately, had he not been forbidden by Halleck. 

Wher the news was flashed through the loyal States, and bulletins 
were posted up with enumeration of prisoners, guns, and small arms 
captured, salutes were fired, joy-bells were rung, flags were displayed, 
and people asked one another, “ Who is this Grant, and where did he 
come from ? ”—for they saw that a new genius had suddenly risen upon 
the earth. 

Both before and after the defeat and death of General Lyon at Wil¬ 
son’s Creek (August, 1861), there was irregular and predatory warfare 
in Missouri. Especially in the western part of the State half-organized 


COLONEL JAMES A. GARFIELD 
(Afterward Major-General ) 


hands of the Government, as he was accused of defrauding it while in 
office. So he turned over the command to Gen. Gideon J. Pillow. But 
that general said he also had strong reasons for not wanting to be a 
prisoner, so he turned it over to Gen. Simon B. Buckner. With as 
many cf their men as could be taken on two small steamers, Floyd and 
1 illow embarked in the darkness and went up the river to Nashville. 
The cavalry, under Gen. N. B. Forrest, also escaped, and a 
considerable number of men from all the commands managed to 
steal away unobserved. In the morning Buckner hung out a 

white flag, and sent a 


bands of men would come into existence, sometimes 
make long marches, and on the approach of a strong 
enemy disappear, some scattering to their homes and 
others making their way to and joining the bodies of 


regular troops 


In Missouri and northern 
Arkansas guerilla war¬ 
fare was extensively car¬ 
ried on for more than 
a year. Many terrible 
stories are told of the 
engeful spirit with 
which both sides in 
this warfare were act¬ 
uated. It is quite 
possible these stories 
were exaggerated, 
but it is certain that 
many cold-blooded 
murders were com¬ 
mitted. Very few 

of the guerillas 
were Unionists. 

Gen. John C. 

F r emont, w h o 
— sN " TH ' commanded the 

major department, believing that 

Price was near Springfield, gave orders for 
the concentration at that place of all the National 
forces in Missouri. But Price was not there, and 

in November Fremont was superseded by General 
Halleck, some of whose subordinate commanders, 
especially Gen. John Pope, made rapid movements 
and did good service in capturing newly recruited 
regiments that were on their way to join Price. 


CAPTAIN CUSTER, U. S. A., AND LIEUTENANT WASHINGTON, A CONFEDERATE. 

PRISONER. 

Late in December Gen. Samuel R. Curtis took com¬ 
mand of twelve thousand National troops at Rolla, and 
advanced against Price, who retreated before him to the 


MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY W. HALLECK. 




















8 o 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



northwestern corner of Arkansas, where his force was joined by 
that of General McCulloch, and together they took up a posi¬ 
tion in the Boston Mountains. Curtis crossed the line into 
Arkansas, chose a strong place on Pea Ridge, in the Ozark 

Mountains, intrenched, and awaited 
attack. Because of serious 
disagreements between 
rice and McCulloch, 
Gen. Earl Van Dorn, 
who ranked them 
both, was sent to 
take command of 
the Confederate 
force, arriving late 
in January. There 
is no authentic 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 
SIMON B. BUCKNER, C S A 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
JOHN B FLOYD C S. A 

statement as to the size of 
his army. He himself de¬ 
clared that he had but 
fourteen thousand men, 
while no other estimate gave 
fewer than twice that num¬ 
ber. Among them was a 
large body of Cherokee In¬ 
dians, recruited for the Con¬ 
federate service by Albert 
Pike, who thirty years before 

had won reputation as rr poet. On March 5, 1862, Van 
Dorn moved to attack Curtis, who knew of his coming 
and formed his line on the bluffs along Sugar Creek, 
facing southward. His divisions were commanded by 
Gens. Franz Sigel and Alexander S. Asboth and Cols. 
Jefferson C. Davis and Eugene A. Carr, and he had 
somewhat more than ten thousand men in line', with 
forty-eight guns. The Confederates, finding the position 
too strong in front, made a night march to the west, with 
the intention of striking the Nationals on the right flank. 

But Curtis discovered their movement at dawn, promptly faced 
his line to the right about, and executed a grand left wheel. 
His army was looking westward toward the approaching foe, 
Carr’s division being on the right, then Davis, then Asboth, anc> 
Sigel on the left. But they were not fairly in position when the 
blow fell. Carr was struck most heavily, and, though reinforced 
from time to time, was driven back a mile in the course of the 
day. Davis, opposed to the corps of McCulloch, was more suc¬ 
cessful ; that general was killed, and his troops were driven from 
the field. In the night Curtis re-formed and strengthened his 
lines, and in the morning the battle was renewed. This day 
Sigel executed some brilliant and characteristic manoeuvres. To 


bring his division into its place on the left wing, he pushed a 
battery forward, and while it was firing rapidly its infantry sup¬ 
ports were brought up to it by a right wheel; this movement 
was repeated with another battery and its supports to the left of 
the first, and again, till the whole division had come into line, 
pressing back the enemy’s right. Sigel was now so far advanced 
that Curtis’s whole line made a curve, enclosing the enemy, and 
by a heavy concentrated artillery fire the Confederates w r ere soon 
driven to the shelter of the ravines, and finally put to rout. The 
National loss in this action—killed, wounded, and missing— 
was over thirteen hundred, Carr and Asboth being among the 
wounded. The Confederate loss is unknown. Generals Mc¬ 
Culloch and McIntosh were killed, and Generals Price and Slack 
wounded. Owing to the nature of the ground, any effective 
pursuit of Van Dorn's broken forces was impracticable. 

The Confederate Government had made a treaty with some 
of the tribes in the Indian Territory, and had taken 
into its service more than four thousand Indians, 
whom the stories of Bull Run and Wilson’s Creek- 
had apparently impressed with the belief that they 
would have little to do but scalp the wounded and 
rob the dead. At Pea Ridge these red men exhib¬ 
ited their old-time terror of artillery, and though 
they took a few- scalps they were so disgusted at 

being asked to face 
half a hundred well- 
servedcannon that they 
were almost useless to 
their allies, and thence¬ 
forth they took no 
further part in the war. 
It is a notable fact that 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
G J. PILLOW. C S A. 

in the wars on this 
continent the Indians 
have only been employed 
on the losing side. In the 
French and English struggle major-general bushrod johnson. c. s. a 
for the country, which ended 

in 1763, the French had the friendship of many of the tribes, 
and employed them against the English settlers and soldiers, 
but the French were conquered nevertheless. In the Revolu¬ 
tion and the war of 1812, the British employed them to some 
extent against the Americans, but the Americans were victori¬ 
ous. In the great Rebellion, the Confederate Government 























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


81 



VAN DORN, C. S. A. 


SA.M'-lEA- 


action, and at 
first favored neu 


MAJOR-GENERAL EARL 

R cnR T ' s ' 

attempted to use 
them as allies in the West 
and Southwest, and in that very 
section the Confederate cause was first defeated. All of which 
appears to show that though savages may add to the horrors 
of war, they cannot determine its results for civilized people; 
nor can irresponsible guerilla bands, of which there were many 
at the West, nearly all in the service of the Confederacy. 

“At the close of Mr. Buchanan’s administration nearly all 
the United States Indian agents in the Indian Territory were 
secessionists, and the moment the Southern States commenced 
passing ordinances of secession, these men exerted their influ¬ 
ence to get the five tribes committed to the Confederate cause. 
Occupying territory south of the Arkansas River, and having 
the secessionists of Arkansas on the east and those of Texas on 
the south for neighbors, the Choctaws and Chickasaws offered 
no decided opposition to the scheme. With the Cherokees, the 
most powerful and most civilized tribes of the Indian Territory, 
it was different. Their chief, John Ross, was opposed to hasty 


As Bot a 


and in the summer of 1861 issued 
a proclamation enjoining his people to observe a strictly neutral 
attitude during the war between the United States and the 
Southern States. In June, 1861, Albert Pike, a commissioner 
of the Confederate States, and Gen. Ben. McCulloch, command¬ 
ing the Confederate forces in Western Arkansas and the Depart¬ 
ment of Indian Territory, visited Chief Ross, with the view of 
having him make a treaty with the Confederacy. But he 
declined to make a treaty, and in the conference expressed 
himself as wishing to occupy, if possible, a neutral position dur¬ 
ing the war. A majority of the Cherokees, nearly all of whom 
were full-bloods, were known as Pin Indians, and were opposed 
to the South.” (Battles and Leaders , Vol. I., pp. 335-336.) 

After the battle of Wilson’s Creek had been fought, General 
Lyon killed, and the Union army defeated, Chief Ross was 
easily convinced that the South would succeed, and entered 
into a treaty with the Confederate authorities. 



BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE, MARCH 6, 1662. 













GALLANT CHARGE ON OUTWORKS OF FORT DONELSON, FEBRUARY 13, 1862. 











THE FRIGATE •' CUMBERLAND " RAMMED BY THE " MERRIMAC.” 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE “MONITOR” AND THE » MERRIMAC.” 

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE “MONITOR” AND “MERRIMAC”-EFFECT UPON NAVAL ARMAMENTS OF THE WORLD—IDEA OF REVOLVING TOWER 

NOT ORIGINAL WITH ERICSSON — DESTRUCTION OF THE “CUMBERLAND”-PUBLIC EXCITEMENT AT PROSPECT OF AN ATTACK ON WASH¬ 
INGTON—THE “ MONITOR ” SAILS FROM NEW YORK HARBOR MARCH 6TH-GREAT NAVAL BATTLE IN HAMPTON ROADS. 

WHILE the great naval expedition was approaching New Orleans, the waters of Hampton Roads, from which it had sailed, 
were the scene of a battle that revolutionized the naval armaments of the world. When at the outbreak of the war the 
navy yard at Norfolk, Va., was abandoned, with an attempt at its destruction, the steam frigate Merrimac was set on fire at the 
wharf. Her upper works were burned, and her hull sunk. There had been long hesitation about removing any of the valuable 
property from this navy yard, because the action of Virginia was uncertain, and it was hoped that a mark of confidence in her 
people would tend to keep her in the Union. The day that Sumter was fired upon, peremptory orders had been issued for 
the removal of the Merrimac to Philadelphia, and steam was raised and every preparation made for her sailing. But the officer 
in command, for some unexplained reason, would not permit her to move, and two days later she was burned. Within two 
months the Confederates were at work upon her. They raised the hull, repaired the machinery, and covered it with a steep 
roof of wrought iron five inches thick, with a lining of oak seven inches thick. The sides were also plated with iron, and the 
bow was armed with an iron ram, something like a huge ploughshare. In the water she had the appearance of a house submerged 
to the eaves, with an immense gun looking out at each of ten dormer windows. 

But all this could not be done in a day, especially where skilled workmen were scarce, and it was March, 1862, before 
she was ready for action. The command was given to Franklin Buchanan, who had resigned a commission in the United States 
navy. On the 8th of March, accompanied by two gunboats, she went out to raise the blockade of James and Elizabeth Rivers by 
destroying the wooden war vessels in Hampton Roads. Her first victim was the frigate Cumberland , which gave her a broad- 












8 4 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




side that would have riddled a wooden vessel through and 
through. Some of the shot entered her open ports, killed or 
wounded nineteen men, and broke two of her guns ; but all that 
struck the armor bounded off like peas. Rifled shot 
from the Mcrrimac raked the Cumberland , and then she 
ran into her so that her iron prow cut a great gash in 
the side. The Cumberland at once began to settle; but 
the crew stood by their guns, firing broadside after 
broadside without producing any impression on the 
iron monster, and received in return shells and solid 
shot that made sickening havoc. The commander, 
Lieutenant Morris, refused to surrender; and at the 
end of forty-five minutes, when the water was at the 
gun-deck, the crew leaped overboard and with the help 
of the boats got ashore, while the frigate heeled over 
and sank to the bottom. Her topmasts projected 
above the surface, and her flag was flying. While this 
was going on, three Confederate steamers came down 
and attacked the Congress with such effect that her 
commander tried to run her ashore. Having finished 
the Cumberland , the Mcr¬ 
rimac came up and opened 
a deliberate attack on the 
Congress , and finally set 
her on fire, when the crew 
escaped in their boats. 

She burned for several 
hours, and in the night 
blew up. Of the other Na¬ 
tional vessels in the Roads, 
one got aground in water 
too shallow for the Mcrri¬ 
mac to approach her, and 
the others were not drawn 
into the fight. 

The next morning the 
Mcrrimac came down 
again from Norfolk to fin¬ 
ish up the fleet in Hamp¬ 
ton Roads, and after that 
—to do various unheard-of 
things. The more sanguine 
expected her to go at 
once to Philadelphia, New 
York, and other seaboard 
cities of the North, and 
either bombard them or 
lay them under heavy con¬ 
tribution. The National Administration 
entertained a corresponding apprehension, 


manding an 
tugboat. 


LIEUTENANT 
G. U. MORRIS 


JOHN ERICSSON. 
Inventor of the " Monitor." 


Commander of the 
" Cumberland." 


and expected to see the Mcrrimac ascend 
the Potomac and attack Washington first. 

A part of these expectations were well founded, 
and the rest were such exaggerations as com¬ 
monly arise from ignorance. The Merrimac could 
not have reached New York or Philadelphia, because 
she was not a sea-going vessel. With skilful manage¬ 
ment and good luck, she might have ascended the 
Potomac to Washington, but she would have had to run the 
gantlet of numerous dangers. There is a place in the Potomac 
called “ the kettle-bottoms,” where a great many conical mounds, 
composed of sand and oyster-shells, rise from the channel till 


REAR-ADMIRAL J. SMITH. 

Commander at the Washington 
Navy Yard. 


their peaks are within a few feet of the surface ; and their 
positions were so imperfectly known at this time that the 
National vessels frequently ran aground upon them. Several 

devices were in wait¬ 
ing; to make trouble 
for the iron-clad cham¬ 
pion at this point, 
perhaps the most 
dangerous of which 
was that prepared by 
Captain Love, corn- 
armed 
He pro¬ 
cured a seine three- 
quarters of a mile 
long, took off its floats, 
and stretched it across 
the channel in such a 
way that the Mcrri¬ 
mac could hardly have 
passed over it without 
fouling her propeller, 
which would have ren¬ 
dered her helpless. 

But the dangerous 
enemy was destined 
to be disposed of in 
a more novel and 
dramatic way. In 
August, 1861, the 
Navy Department 
had advertised for plans for steam batteries, to be iron¬ 
clad and capable of fighting the Merrimac and other 
similar armored vessels that the Confederates were 
known to be constructing. The plan adopted was 
that presented by Capt. John Ericsson. Its 
essential features were an iron-clad hull, with 
an “overhang” to protect the machinery, 
all of which was below the waterline, sur¬ 
mounted by a round revolving tower or 
turret, in which were two heavy guns. 
The idea of a revolving tower was not 
Ericsson’s ; it had been put forth by 
several inventors, especially by Abra¬ 
ham Bloodgood in 1807. But this 
special adaptation of it, with the appli¬ 
cation of steam power, was his. The 
vessel was built in Brooklyn, and was 
launched January 30, 1862, one hundred 
days after the laying of the keel. She was 
named Monitor , for the obvious significance 
of the word. The extreme length of her 
upper hull was one hundred and seventy-two 
feet, with a breadth of forty-one feet, while her 
lower hull was one hundred and twenty-two feet long 
and thirty-four feet broad. Her depth was eleven 
feet, and when loaded she drew ten feet of water, her 
deck thus rising but a single foot above the surface. 
The turret was twenty feet in diameter and nine feet high. The 
only conspicuous object on the deck, besides the turret, was a 
pilot-house about five feet square and four feet high. This was 
built of solid wrought-iron beams, nine by twelve inches, laid 















85 


CAMPFIRE AND 

one upon another and bolted together. At a point near the top 
a slight crack was left between the beams all round, through 
which the commander and the pilot could see what was SToinp - 
on outside and get their bearings. The guns threw solid shot 
eleven inches in diameter. The advantage of presenting so small 
a surface as a target for the enemy, having all the machinery 
beyond reach of any hostile shot, carrying two large guns, and 
being able to revolve the turret that contained them, so as to 
bring them to bear in any direction and keep the ports turned 
away from danger except at the moment of firing, is apparent. 

This novel war-machine sailed from the harbor of New York 
on March 6, in command of Lieut. John L. Worden, destined 
for Hampton Roads. She was hardly out at sea when orders 


BA TTLEFIELD . 

and then steered straight for the Merrimac, which was now 
coming down the channel. 

The Confederates had known about the building of the Moni¬ 
tor (which they called the Ericsson), just as the authorities at 
Washington had known all about the Merrimac. When their 
men first saw her, they described her as “ a cheese-box on a 
raft,” and were surprised at her apparently diminutive size. 
Buchanan had been seriously wounded in the action of the pre¬ 
vious day, and the Confederate iron-clad was now commanded 
by Lieutenant Jones. 

Worden stationed himself in the pilot-house, with the pilot 
and a quartermaster to man the wheel, while his executive 
officer, Lieut. Samuel D. Greene, was in the turret, commanding 



BATTLE BETWEEN THE "MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC," HAMPTON ROADS, VIRGINIA, MARCH 9 1862. 


came changing her destination to Washington; but fortunately 
she could not be reached, although a swift tugboat was sent 
after her. She had a rough passage of three days, the perils of 
which were largely increased by the fact that her crew did not 
as yet understand all her peculiarities. They neglected to stop 
the hawse-hole where the anchor-chain passed out, and large 
quantities of water came in there, besides what poured down the 
low smoke-stacks when the waves broke over her. 

Outriding all dangers, she arrived in Hampton Roads on 
Saturday evening, March 8, where the mournful condition of 
things did not diminish the dispiriting effect of the voyage upon 
her crew. The Cumberland was sunk, the Congress was burn¬ 
ing, the Minnesota was aground, and everybody was dismayed. 
But Worden seems to have had no lack of confidence in his ves¬ 
sel and his crew. He took on a volunteer pilot, and promptly in 
the morning went out to his work. He first drove away the 
wooden vessels that were making for the helpless Minnesota, 


the guns, which were worked by chief engineer Stimers and 
sixteen men. The total number of men in the Monitor was 
fifty-seven ; the Merrimac had about three hundred. 

The Merrimac began firing as soon as the two iron-clads were 
within long range of each other, but Worden reserved his fire 
for short range. Then the battle was fairly open, the National 
vessel firing solid shot, about one in eight minutes, while the 
Confederates used shells exclusively and fired much more 
rapidly. The shells struck the turret and made numerous scars, 
but inflicted no serious damage, except occasionally when a man 
was leaning against the side at the moment of impact and was 
injured by the concussion. Worden had his eyes at the sight- 
hole when a shell struck it and exploded, temporarily blinding 
him, and injuring him so severely that he turned over the com¬ 
mand to Lieutenant Greene and took no further part in the 
action. Each vessel attempted to ram the other, but always 
without success. Once when the Monitor made a dash at the 


























































































SSi§ 




THE FIGHT OF THE "MONITOR” AND " MERRI MAC,” HAMPTON ROADS. FEDERAL FLEET IN THE FOREGROUND. 




















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


87 




Times de¬ 
clared : “ There 

is not now a ship 
in the English 

navy, apait from lieutenant s. dana greene. 

these two [the 

. Executive Officer of the “ Monitor." 

Warrior and the 
Ironside ], that it 

would not be madness to trust to an engagement with that little 
Monitor." The United States Government ordered the building 
of more monitors, some with two turrets, and they did excellent 
service, notably in the battle of Mobile Bay. 

In May, when Norfolk was captured, an attempt was made to 
take the Merrimac up the James River; but she got aground, 
and was finally abandoned and blown up. When the Con¬ 
federates refitted her they rechristened her Virginia , but the 
original name sticks to her in history. In December of that 
year the Monitor attempted to go to Beaufort, N. C., towed by 
a steamer; but she foundered in a gale off Cape Hatteras and 
went to the bottom, carrying with her a dozen of the crew. 


Merrimac s stern, to disable her steering-gear, the two guns were 
discharged at once at a distance of only a few yards. The two 
ponderous shots, striking close together, crushed in the iron 
plates several inches, and produced a concussion that knocked 
over the entire crews of the after guns and caused many of them 
to bleed at the nose and ears. The officers of the 
Monitor had received peremptory orders to use but 
fifteen pounds of powder at a charge. Experts say 
that if they had used the normal charge of thirty 
pounds their shots would undoubtedly have pene¬ 
trated the Merrimac and either sunk her or 
compelled her surrender. The Monitor had an 
advantage in the fact that she drew but half as 
much water as the Merrimac and co-uld move 
with much greater celerity. The fight con¬ 
tinued for about four hours, and the Confeder¬ 
ate iron-clad then returned to Norfolk, and 


she 

never came 
down to fight 
again till the 
nth of April, 
when no battle 
took place be¬ 
cause both ves¬ 
sels had orders 
to remain on 
the defensive, 
each Govern¬ 
ment being 

afraid to risk the loss of its only iron-clad in those waters. The 
indentations on the Monitor showed that she had been struck 
twenty-two times, but she was not in any way disabled. Twenty 
of her shots struck the Merrimac, some of which smashed the 
outer layers of iron plates. It was claimed that the Merrimac 
would have sunk the Monitor by ramming, had she not lost her 
iron prow when she rammed the Cumberland the day before; 
but a description of the prow, which was only of cast iron and 
not very large, makes this at least doubtful. 


CAPTAIN JOHN L. WORDEN. (Afterward Rear-Admiral.) 
Commanding the " Monitor." 


Just what damage the Merrimac received in the fight is not 
known. But it was observed that she went into it with her bow 
up and her stern down, and went out with her bow down and 
her stern up; that on withdrawing she was at once surrounded 
by four tugs, into which her men immediately jumped; and she 
went into the dry-dock for repairs. 

The significance of the battle was not so much 
in its immediate result as in its 
effect upon all naval armaments, 
and because of this it attracted 
world-wide attention. The London 












LOSS OF THE " MONITOR " IN A STORM OFF CAPE HATTERAS, DECEMBER 30, 1862.-GALLANT EFFORTS TO RESCUE THE CREW. 


CHAPTER X. 

THE CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 

NEW ORLEANS THE LARGEST SOUTHERN CITY—FORTS ON THE MISSISSIPPI—CAPT. DAVID G. FARRAGUT CHOSEN COMMANDER-GEN. 

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER IN COMMAND OF LAND FORCES-TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT OF THE FORTS—CUTTING THE CHAIN ACROSS THE 

MISSISSIPPI-THE GREAT NAVAL BATTLE IN THE NIGHT-ALL THE FORTS AND THE CONFEDERATE FLEET CAPTURED BY FARRAGUT- 

SURRENDER OF NEW ORLEANS-GENERAL BUTLER’S CELEBRATED “WOMAN ORDER.” 

The Crescent City was by far the largest and richest in the Confederacy. In i860 it had a population of nearly one hundred 
and seventy thousand, while Richmond, Mobile, and Charleston together had fewer than two-thirds as many. In 1860—61 it 
shipped twenty-five million dollars’ worth of sugar and ninety-two million dollars’ worth of cotton, its export trade in these articles 
being larger than that of any other city in the world. Moreover, its strategic value in that war was greater than that of any other 
point in the Southern States. The many mouths of the Mississippi, and the frequency of violent gales in the Gulf, rendered 
it difficult to blockade commerce between that great river and the ocean ; but the possession of this lowest commercial point 
on the stream would shut it off effectively, and would go far toward securing possession all the way to Cairo. This would cut 
the Confederacy in two, and make it difficult to bring supplies from Texas and Arkansas to feed the armies in Tennessee and 
Virginia. Moreover, a great city is in itself a serious loss to one belligerent and a capital prize to the other. 

As soon as it became evident that war was being waged against the United States in dead earnest, and that it was likely to 
be prolonged, these considerations presented themselves to the Government, and a plan was matured for capture of the largest 
city in the territory of the insurgents. 

The defences of New Orleans against an enemy approaching from the sea consisted of two forts, on cither side of the stream, 





PANORAMIC VIEW OF NEW ORLEANS,—FEDERAL FLEET AT ANCHOR IN THE RIVER 























90 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


come 



FROM PENSACOLA TO THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

thirty miles above the head of the five great passes through 
which it flows to the Gulf. The smaller, Fort St. Philip, on the 
left bank, was of earth and brick, with flanking batteries, and all 
its guns were en barbette —on the top, in plain sight. These 
numbered about forty. Fort Jackson, on the right bank, 
mounted seventy-five guns, fourteen of which w r ere in bomb¬ 
proof casemates. Both of these works had been built by the 
United States Government. They were now garrisoned by 
about one thousand five hundred Confederate soldiers, com¬ 
manded by Gen. Johnson K. Duncan. Above them lay a Con¬ 
federate fleet of fifteen vessels, including an iron-clad ram and a 
large floating battery that was covered with railroad iron. Just 
below the forts a heavy chain was stretched across the river— 
perhaps suggested by the similar device employed to keep the 
British from sailing up the Hudson during the Revolutionary 
war. And it had a similar experience; for, at first supported by 
a row of enormous logs, it was swept away by the next freshet. 
The logs were then replaced by hulks anchored at intervals across 
the stream, and the chain ran over their decks, while its ends 
Avere fastened to great trees. One thing more completed the 
defence—two hundred sharp-shooters patrolled the banks 
between the forts and the head of the passes, to give warning 
of an approaching foe and fire at any one that might be seen 
on the decks. 

The idea at Washington, probably originated by Commander 
(now Admiral) David D. Porter, was that the forts could be 
reduced by raining into them a sufficient shower of enormous 


shells, to be thrown high 
down almost perpendicularly, and explode on 
king. Accordingly, the first care was to make 
mortars and shells, and provide the craft to carry 
them. Twenty-one mortars were cast, which were 
mounted on twenty-one schooners. They threw shells 
thirteen inches in diameter, weighing two hundred and eighty- 
five pounds ; and when one of them was discharged, the con¬ 
cussion of the atmosphere was so great that no man could 
stand close by without being literally deafened. Platforms' 
projecting beyond the decks were therefore provided, for the 
gunners to step out upon just before firing. 

The remainder of the fleet, as finally made up, consisted of six 
sloops-of-war, sixteen gunboats, and five other vessels, besides 
transports carrying fifteen thousand troops commanded by Gen. 
B. F. Butler. 

The flagship Hartford was a wooden steam sloop-of-war, one 
thousand tons’ burden, with a length of two hundred and twenty- 
five feet, and a breadth of forty-four feet. She carried twenty- 
two nine-inch guns, two twenty-pounder Parrott guns, and 
a rifled gun on the forecastle, while her fore and main tops were 
furnished with howitzers and surrounded with boiler iron to 
protect the gunners. The Brooklyn , Richmond , Pensacola, Ports¬ 
mouth, and Oneida were similar to the Hartford. The Colo¬ 
rado was larger. The Mississippi was a large side-wheel steamer. 

This was the most power- 
ful expedition that had 
ever sailed under the Amer¬ 
ican flag, and the man that 
Avas chosen to command it, 

Capt. David G. Farragut, 
was as unknown to the 
public as Ulysses S. Grant 
had been. But he Avas not 
unknown to his fellow- 
officers 

sixty years of age, 
one of the oldest men that 
took part in the Avar, and 
he had been in the navy 
half a century. He sailed 
the Pacific Avith Commodore 
Porter years before Grant 
and Sherman Avere born, 
and participated in the 
bloody encounter of the 

Essex and Phoebe in the liar- commander david d. porter. 

boi'of Valparaiso, He was (Afterward Rear-Admiral.) 




Farragut Avas now 
being 


































































































C A M P FI RE AND BATTLE ElE L D . 


91 


especially familiar with the Gulf of Mexico, and had pursued 
pirates through its waters and hunted and fought them on its 
islands. There was nothing to be done on shipboard that he 
could not do to perfection, and he could have filled the place of 
any man in the fleet—except perhaps the surgeon’s. He was 
born in Tennessee, and married twice in Virginia; and if there 
had been a peaceable separation he would probably have made 
his home in the South. He was at Norfolk, waiting orders, 
when Virginia seceded, but he considered that his first duty 
was to the National Government, which had educated him for 
its service and given him rank and employment. When he said 
that “Virginia had been dragooned out of the Union,” and that 
he thought the President was justified in calling for troops after 
the firing on Sumter, he was told by his angry neighbors that 
a person holding such sentiments could not live in Norfolk. 


the United States Government, and shoot down those who war 
against the Union ; but cultivate with cordiality the first return¬ 
ing reason which is sure to follow your success.” In a single 
respect Farragut was not satisfied with his fleet. He had no 
faith in the mortars, and would rather have gone without them ? 
but they had been ordered before he was consulted, and were under 
the command of his personal friend Porter. Perhaps his distrust 
of them arose from his knowledge that, in 1815, a British fleet 
had unavailingly thrown a thousand shells into a fort at this 
very turn of the river where he was now to make the attack. 

The mortar schooners were to rendezvous first at Key West, 
and sail then for Ship Island, off Lake Borgne, where the trans¬ 
ports were to take the troops and the war-vessels were to meet 
as soon as possible. 

A considerable portion of March was gone before enough of 



INGENIOUS METHOD OF DISGUISING COMMANDER PORTER'S MORTAR FLOTILLA. 


“ Very well, then,” said he, “ I can live somewhere else.” So 
he made his way North with his little family, and informed the 
Government that he was ready and anxious for any service that 
might be assigned to him. 

This was in April, 1861 ; but it was not till January, 1862, 
that he was appointed to command the New Orleans expedition 
and the Western gulf blockading squadron. He sailed from 
Hampton Roads P'ebruary 2, in the flag-ship Hartford. Some 
sentences from the sailing-orders addressed to him by the Sec¬ 
retary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, arc significant and sugges¬ 
tive. “ As you have expressed yourself perfectly satisfied with 
the force given to you, and as many more powerful vessels will 
be added before you can commence operations, the department 
and the country require of you success. . . . There are 

other operations of minor importance which will commend them¬ 
selves to your judgment and skill, but which must not be allowed 
to interfere with the great object in view, the certain capture of 
the city of New Orleans. . . . Destroy the armed barriers 

which these deluded people have raised up against the power of 


the fleet had reached the rendezvous to begin operations. The 
first difficulty was to get into the river. The Eads jetties did 
not then exist, and the shifting mud-banks made constant sound¬ 
ings necessary for large vessels. The mortar schooners went in 
by Pass a l’Outre without difficulty ; but to get the Brooklyn, 
Mississippi , and Pensacola over the bar at Southwest Pass re¬ 
quired immense labor, and occupied two or three weeks. The 
Mississippi was dragged over with her keel ploughing a furrow a 
foot deep in the river bottom, and the Colorado could not be 
taken over at all. 

The masts of the mortar schooners were dressed off with 
bushes, to render them indistinguishable from the trees on shore 
near the forts. The schooners were then towed up to a point 
within range, and moored where the woods hid them, so that 
they could not be seen from the forts. Lieut. F. H. Gerdes 
of the Coast Survey had made a careful map of that part of the 
river and its banks, and elaborate calculations by which the mor¬ 
tars were to be fired with a computed aim, none of the gunners 
being able to see what they fired at. They opened fire on April 





















92 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



SHIP ISLAND. 


18, and kept up the bombardment steadily for six days and 
nights. Six thousand enormous shells—eight hundred tons of 
iron—were thrown high into the air, and fell in and around the 
forts. For nearly a week the garrison saw one of Porter’s aero¬ 
lites dropping upon them every minute and a half. They de¬ 
molished buildings, they tore up the ground, they cut the levee 
and let in water, and they killed and mangled men ; but they 
did not render the forts untenable nor silence their guns. The 
return fire sank one of the mortar boats and disabled a steamer. 
Within the forts about fifty men were killed or wounded—one 
for every sixteen tons of iron thrown. 

While the fleet was awaiting the progress of this bombardment, 
a new danger appeared. The Confederates had prepared several 
flat-boats loaded with dry wood smeared with tar and turpentine ; 
and they now set fire to them one after another, and let them 
float down the stream. Rut Farragut sent out boats’ crews to 
meet them, who grappled them with hooks, and either towed 
them ashore or conducted them past the fleet, and let them float 
down through the passes and out to sea. 

In his General Orders, Farragut gave so many minute direc¬ 
tions that it would seem as if he must have anticipated every 
possible contingency. Thus: “Trim your vessel a few inches 
by the head [that is, place the contents so that she will sink a 
little deeper at the bow than at the stern], so that if she touches 
the bottom she will not swing head down the river.” “ Have 
light Jacob-ladders made, to throw over the side for the use of 
the carpenters in stopping shot-holes, who are to be supplied 
with pieces of inch-board, lined with felt, and ordinary nails.” 
“ Have a kedge in the mizzen chains on the quarter, with a 
hawser bent and leading through in the stern chock, ready for 
any emergency ; also grapnels in boats, ready to tow off fire¬ 
ships.” “ Have many tubs of water about the decks, both for 


extinguishing fire and for drinking.” “You will have a spare 
hawser ready, and when ordered to take in tow your next astern 
do so, keeping the hawser slack so long as the ship can maintain 
her own position, having a care not to foul the propeller.” It 
was this minute knowledge and forethought, quite as much as 
his courage and determination, that insured his success. In 
addition to his own suggestions he called upon his men to exer¬ 
cise their wits for the occasion, and the crews originated many 
wise precautions. As the attack was to be in the night, they 
painted the decks white to enable them to find things. They 
got out all the spare chains, and hung them up and down the 
sides of the vessels at the places where they would protect the 
machinery from the enemy’s shot. Farragut’s plan was to run 
by the forts, damaging them as much as possible by a rapid fire 
as he passed, then destroy or capture the Confederate fleet, and 
proceed up the river and lay the city under his guns. 

The time fixed upon for starting was just before moonrise 
(3:30 o’clock) in the morning of April 24. On the night of 
the 20th two gunboats went up the river, and a boat’s crew from 
one of them, under Lieut. Charles H. B. Caldwell, boarded one 
of the hulks and cut the chain, under a heavy fire, making an 
opening sufficient for the fleet to pass through. Near midnight 
of the 23d the lieutenant went up again in a gunboat, to make 
sure that the passage was still open, and this time the enemy 
not only fired on him, but sent down blazing rafts and lighted 
enormous piles of wood that they had prepared near the ends of 
the chain. The question of moonrise was no longer of the 
slightest importance, since it was as light as day for miles 
around. Two red lanterns displayed at the peak of the flag-ship 
at two o’clock gave the signal for action, and at half-past three 
the whole fleet was in motion. 

The sloop Portsmouth and Porter’s gunboats moved up to a 










CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


93 




point where they could engage 
the water-battery of Fort Jack- 
son while the fleet was coins 
by. The first division of eight 
vessels, commanded by Capt. 

Theodorus Bailey, who was 
almost as old and as salt as 
Farragut, passed through the 
opening in deliberate fashion, 
unmindful of a fire from Fort 
Jackson, ran over to the east 
bank, and poured grape and 
canister into Fort St. Philip as 
they sailed by, and ten minutes 
afterward found themselves en¬ 
gaged at close quarters with 
eleven Confederate vessels. 

Bailey’s flag-ship, the Cayuga. 
was attacked by three at once, 
all trying to board her. He sent 
an eleven-inch shot through one 
of them, and she ran aground 
and burst into a blaze. With 
the swivel gun on his forecastle 
he drove off the second ; and 
he was preparing to board the 
third when the Oneida and Va¬ 
nina came to his assistance. 

The Oneida ran at full speed 
into one Confederate vessel, 
cutting it nearly in two, and in 
an instant making it a shape¬ 
less wreck. She fired into 
others, and then went to the 
assistance of the Vanina, which 
had been attacked by two, rammed by both of them, and was 
now at the shore, where she sank in a few minutes. But she 
had done effective work before she perished, crippling one 
enemy so that she surrendered to the Oneida , driving another 
ashore, and exploding a shell in the boiler of a third. 

The Pensacola steamed slowly by the 
forts, doing great execu¬ 
tion with her rifled guns, 
and in turn sustaining 
the heaviest loss in the 
fleet — thirty-seven men. 

In an open field men can 
dodge a cannon-ball; but 
when it comes bouncing 
in at a port-hole unan¬ 
nounced, it sometimes de¬ 
stroys a whole gun’s-crcw 
in the twinkling of an eye. 

In such an action men are 
under the highest possible 
excitement; every nerve is 
awake, and every muscle 
tense ; and when a ball strikes 
one it completely shatters 
him, as if he were made of 
glass, and the shreds are scat¬ 
tered over the ship. The 


' ->■ 




CAPTAIN DAVID 
(Afterward 


(Afte^a-d R*« 


Mississippi sailed up in hand¬ 
some style, encountered the 
Confederate ram Manassas, and 
received a blow that disabled 
her machinery. But in turn 
she riddled the ram and set it 
on fire, so that it drifted away 
and blew up. The other ves¬ 
sels of this division, with vari¬ 
ous fortune, passed the forts 
and participated in the naval 
battle. 

The second division consisted 
of three sloops of war, the flag¬ 
ship leading. The Hartford 
received and returned a heavy 
fire from the forts, got aground 
on a shoal while trying to avoid 
a fire-raft, and a few minutes 
later had another raft pushed 
against her, which set her on 
fire. A portion of the crew 
was detailed to extinguish the 
flames, and all the while her 
guns were loaded and fired as 
steadily as if nothing had hap¬ 
pened. Presently she was got 
afloat again, and proceeded up 
the river, when, suddenly, 
through the smoke, as it was 
lighted by the flashes of the 
guns, she saw a steamer filled 
with men bearing down upon 
her, probably with the inten¬ 
tion of carrying her by board¬ 
ing. But a ready gun planted a huge shell in the mysterious 
stranger, which exploded, and she disappeared—going to the 
bottom, for aught that anybody knew. The Brooklyn, after get¬ 
ting out of her course and running upon one of the hulks, finally 
got through, met a large Confederate steamer, 
and gave it a broadside that 
set it on fire, and then 
poured such a rain of 
shot into St. Philip that 
the bastions were cleared 
in a minute, and in the 
flashes the gunners could 
be seen running to shelter. 
A Confederate gunboat 
that attacked her received 
eleven shells from her, all 
of which exploded, and it 
then ran ashore in flames. 
The Richmond sailed through 
steadily and worked her 
guns regularly, meeting with 
small loss, because she was 
more completely provided 
w i t h splinter-nettings than 
her consorts, as well 
as because she came after 
them. 


G. FARRAGUT. 
Admiral.) 


Rear-, 


Ad m, 


bailey. 

iral.j 






PASSAGE OF THE SECOND DIVISION OF THE FEDERAL SQUADRON BY FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


95 


The third division consisted of six gunboats. Two of them 
became entangled among the hulks, and failed to pass. Another 
received a shot in her boiler, which compelled her to drop down 
stream and out of the fight. The other three went through in 
gallant style, both suffering and inflicting considerable loss from 
continuous firing, and burned two steamboats and drove another 
ashore before they came up with the advance divisions of the fleet. 
The entire loss had been thirty-seven killed and one hundred 
and forty-seven wounded. 

Captain Bailey, in the Cayuga, still keeping the lead, found 


instance of the fatuity that grasps at a shadow after the sub¬ 
stance is gone. 

A letter written by Lieutenant Perkins at the time gives a 
vivid description of this incident, which is interesting in that it 
exhibits the effect upon the first people of the South who 
realized the possibility of their being conquered. “Among the 
crowd were many women and children, and the women were 
shaking rebel flags and being rude and noisy. As we advanced, 
the mob followed us in a very excited state. They gave three 
cheers for Jeff Davis and Beauregard, and three groans for 



CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 


a regiment encamped at Quarantine Station, and compelled 
its surrender. On the morning of the 25th the Chalmette 
batteries, three miles below the city, were silenced by a fire 
from the sloops, and a little later the city itself was at the 
mercy of their guns. At noon Captain Bailey, accompanied 
only by Lieut. George H. Perkins, with a flag of truce, 
went ashore, passed through an excited crowd that apparently 
only needed a word to be turned into a mob, and demanded 
of the Mayor that the city be surrendered unconditionally 
and the Louisiana State flag at once hauled down from the 
staff on the City Hall. Bailey raised the stars and stripes 
over the Mint ; but the Mayor at first refused to strike his 
colors, and set out upon an elaborate course of letter-writing, 
which was of no consequence except as it furnished another 


Lincoln. Then they began to throw things at us, and shout, 
‘ Hang them ! Hang them ! ’ We reached the City Hall in 
safety, and there found the Mayor and Council. They seemed 
in a very solemn state of mind ; though I must say, from what 
they said, they did not impress me as having much mind about 
anything. The Mayor said he had nothing to do with the city, 
as it was under martial law, and we were obliged to wait till 
General Lovell could arrive. In about half an hour this gentle¬ 
man appeared. He was very pompous in his manner, and silly 
and airy in his remarks. He had about fifteen thousand troops 
under his command, and said he would ‘never surrender,’ but 
would withdraw his troops from the city as soon as possible, 
when the city would fall into the hands of the Mayor, and he 
could do as he pleased with it. The mob outside had by this 












































































g6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




OLD CITY HALL, NEW ORLEANS. WHERE THE SURRENDER OF THE CITY WAS 

DEMANDED. 


time become perfectly infuriated. They kicked at the doors, 
and swore they would have us out and hang us. Every person 
about us who had any sense of responsibility was frightened for 
our safety. As soon as the mob found out that General Lovell 
was not going to surrender, they swore they would have us out 
any way ; but Pierre Soule and some others went out and made 
speeches to them, and kept them on one side of the building, 
while we went out at the other end and were driven to the 
wharf in a close carriage. The Mayor told the Flag-officer this 
morning that the city was in the hands of the mob, and was at 
our mercy, and that he might blow it up or do with 
it as he chose.” 

On the night of the 24th, by order of the authorities 
in the city, the torch was applied to everything, except 
buildings, that could be of use to the victors. Fifteen 
thousand bales of cotton, heaps of coal and wood, dry- 
docks, a dozen steamboats and as many cotton-ships, 
and an unfinished ironclad ram were all burned. Barrels 
were rolled out and broken open, the levee ran with 
molasses, and the poor people carried away the sugar in 
their baskets and aprons. The Governor called upon the 
people of the State to burn their cotton, and two hundred 
and fifty thousand bales were destroyed. 

Butler had witnessed the passage of the forts, and he 
now hurried over his troops and invested St. Philip on the 
land side, while Porter sent some of his mortar-boats to 
a bay in the rear of Fort Jackson, and in a few days both 
works were surrendered. Farragut sent two hundred and fifty 
marines into the city to take formal possession and guard the 
public buildings. Butler arrived there with his forces on the 
1st of May, and it was then turned over to him, and it remained 
in Federal possession throughout the war. His administration 


of the captured city, from May to December, was the subject 
of much angry controversy ; but no one denies that he reduced 
its turbulence to order, made it cleaner than it had ever been 
before, and averted a pestilence. He also caused provisions to 
be issued regularly to many of the needy inhabitants. 

The most famous incident of his administration was what 
became known as “ the woman order.” Many of the women of 
New Orleans, even while they were living on food issued to them 
by the National commissary, took every possible pains to flaunt 
their disloyalty and to express contempt for the wearers of the 
blue uniform. If an officer entered a street car, all the women 
would immediately leave it. If a detachment of soldiers passed 
through a residence street, many windows were thrown open 
and “ Dixie ” or the “ Bonny Blue Flag ” was loudly played on 
the piano. If the women met an individual soldier on the side¬ 
walk, they drew their skirts closely around them and passed at 
its extreme edge. And all the while they took every opportunity 
to display small rebel flags on their bosoms and to proclaim loudly 
that their city was “ captured but not conquered.” These things 
were borne with patience; but when one woman, enraged at the 
imperturbable calmness of the city’s captors, stepped up to two 
officers in the street and spat in their faces, General Butler judged 
that the time for putting a stop to such proceedings had come. 
Accordingly, he issued General Orders No. 28, which read thus : 

“As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been 
subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves 
ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous non¬ 
interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter 
when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or 
show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, 
she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of 
the town plying her avocation.” 

This immediately produced two effects. It put an end to the 
annoyances, and it raised an uproar of denunciation based upon 
the assumption that the commanding officer had ordered his 
soldiers to insult and assault the ladies of New Orleans. Of 
course no such thing was intended, or could be implied from any 
proper construction of the words of the order; but in war, as in 
politics, it is sometimes considered good strategy to misrepre¬ 


sent an opponent. 


However honest any Confederate 




THOS. O. MOORE, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA. 























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


97 



GROUP OF SAILORS ON A GUNBOAT. 



citizen or editor may have been in his misconstruction of it, no 
soldier misunderstood it, and no incivility was offered to the 
women who were thus subdued by the wit and moral courage of 
perhaps the most successful man that ever undertook the task 
of ruling a turbulent city. 

One other incident attested the 
firmness of General Butler’s pur¬ 
pose, and assured the citizens of 
the presence of a power that was 
not to be trifled with. After Far- 
ragut had captured the city and 
raised the National colors over the 
Mint, four men were seen to ascend 
to the roof and tear down the flag, 
and it was only by a lucky acci¬ 
dent that the gunners of the fleet 
were prevented from instantly dis¬ 
charging a broadside into the 
streets. The act was exploited in 
the New Orleans papers, which 
ostentatiously published the names 
of the four men and praised their 
gallantry. General Butler caused 
the leader of the four, a gambler, 


to be arrested and tried by a court-martial. He was sentenced 
to death, and in spite of every solicitation the General refused to 
pardon him. He was hanged in the presence of an immense 
crowd of citizens, the gallows being a beam run out from one 

of the windows of the highest 
story of the Mint building. 

At the first news of this achieve¬ 
ment the people of the North 
hardly appreciated what had been 
accomplished ; many of their news¬ 
papers told them that the fleet 
“ had only run by the forts.” But 
as they gradually learned the par¬ 
ticulars, and saw that in fighting 
obstructions, fire-rafts, forts, rams, 
and fleet, and conquering them 
all, Farragut had done what 
neither Nelson nor any other 
great admiral had ever done be- 
fore, they felt that the country 
had produced a worthy companion 
for the victor of Donelson, and 
was equal to all emergencies, afloat 
or ashore. 


GENERAL BUTLER'S HEADQUARTERS, NEW ORLEANS. 















VIOLENT HURRICANE, APRIL 1, 1862. 










CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


99 



CONSTRUCTING MILITARY ROAD THROUGH SWAMP 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE CAMPAIGN OF SHILOH. 

OPERATIONS AT ISLAND NO. 10 AND NEW MADRID-NAVAL BATTLE 

ON THE MISSISSIPPI-THE BLOODIEST BATTLE WEST OF THE 

ALLEGHANIES-COMMENCEMENT OF BATTLE OF SHILOH, SUNDAY, 

APRIL 6, 1862-TERRIBLE LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES—TRAGIC 

DEATH OF GENERAL ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON-GENERALS 

WALLACE, HINDMAN, AND GLADDEN KILLED—GENERAL GRANT 

LEADING A REGIMENT-PUBLIC MISUNDERSTANDING REGARDING 

THIS GREAT BATTLE—INTERESTING INCIDENTS OF THE FIGHT 
—FATE OF CONFEDERACY DETERMINED AT SHILOH. 

WHEN the first line that the Confederates had attempted to 
establish from the mountains to the Mississippi was broken by 
the battle of Mill Springs and the fall of Forts Henry and Don- 
elson, their forces at Columbus were withdrawn down the river 
to the historic latitude of 36° 30'. Here the Mississippi makes 
a great sigmoid curve. In the first bend is Island No. 10 (the 
islands are numbered from the mouth of the Ohio southward) ; 
and at the second bend, on the Missouri side, is New Madrid. 
Both of these places were fortified, under the direction of Gen. 
Leonidas Polk, who had been Bishop of the Protestant Episco¬ 
pal diocese of Louisiana for twenty years before the war, but 
entered the military service to give the Confederacy the benefit 
of his West Point education. A floating dock was brought 


up from New Orleans, converted into a floating battery, and 
anchored near the island ; and there were also eight gunboats 
commanded by Commodore George N. Hollins. The works on 
the island were supplemented by batteries on the Tennessee 
shore, back of which were impassable swamps. Thus the Mis¬ 
sissippi was sealed, and a position established for the left (or 
western extremity) of a new line of defence. 

Early in March, 1862, a National army commanded by Gen. 
John Pope moved down the west bank of the Mississippi against 
the position at New Madrid. A reconnoissance in force demon¬ 
strated that the place could be carried by storm, but could not 
be held, since the Confederate gunboats were able (the river 
being then at high water) to enfilade both the works and the 
approaches. General Pope went into camp two miles from the 
river, and sent to Cairo for siege-guns, meanwhile sending three 
regiments and a battery, under Gen. J. B. Plummer, around to a 
point below New Madrid, where in the night they sunk trenches 
for the field-guns and placed sharp-shooters at the edge of the 
bank, and next day opened a troublesome fire on the passing 
gunboats and transports. Four guns were forwarded promptly 
from Cairo, being taken across the Mississippi and over a long 
stretch of swampy ground where a road had been hastily pre¬ 
pared for the purpose, and arriving at dusk on the 12th. That 
night Pope’s forces crowded back the Confederate pickets, dug 
trenches, and placed the guns in position. The enemy’s first 
intimation of what was going on was obtained from a bombard¬ 
ment that opened at daylight. The firing was kept up through 
the day, and some damage was inflicted on both sides ; but the 
next night, in the midst of a heavy storm, New Madrid was 
evacuated. The National forces took possession, and immedi¬ 
ately changed the positions of the guns so as to command the 
river. On the 16th five Confederate gunboats attacked these 
batteries; but after one boat had been sunk and some of-the 
others damaged, they drew off. On the 16th and 17th the 
National fleet of gunboats, under Commodore Andrew H. Foote, 
engaged the batteries on Island No. 10, and a hundred heavy 
guns were in action at once. The ramparts in some places had 
been weakened by the wash of the river, and the great balls went 
right through them. But the artillerymen stood to their work 
manfully, many of them in water ankle deep ; and though enor¬ 
mous shells exploded within the forts, and one gun burst and 
another was dismounted, the works were not reduced. A gun 
that burst in the fleet killed or wounded fourteen men. The 
attack was renewed from day to day, and one of the batteries 
was cleared of troops, but with no decisive effect. 

At the suggestion of Gen. Schuyler Hamilton, a canal was 
cut across the peninsula formed by the bend of the river above 
New Madrid. This task was confided to a regiment of engineers 
commanded by Col. Josiah W. Bissell, and was completed in 
nineteen days. The course was somewhat tortuous, and the 
whole length of the canal was twelve miles. Half of the dis¬ 
tance lay through a thick forest standing in deep water ; but by 
an ingenious contrivance the trunks of the trees were sawed off 
four and a half feet below the surface, and a channel fifty feet 
wide and four feet deep was secured, through which transports 
could be passed. 

On the night of April 4th the gunboat Carondelct , Commander 
Henry Walke, ran down past the batteries of Island No. 10, 
escaping serious damage, and in the night of the 6th the Pitts¬ 
burg performed the same feat. With the help of these to 
silence the batteries on the opposite shore, Pope crossed in force 
on the 7th, and moved rapidly down the little peninsula. The 

















































IOO 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



SURRENDER OF CONFEDERATE FORCES 

AFTER RETREAT FROM ISLAND No. 10. 

greater part of the Confeder¬ 
ate troops that had been hold¬ 
ing the island now attempted 
to escape southward, but were 
caught between Pope’s army 
and an impassable swamp, and 
surrendered. General Pope’s 
captures in the entire campaign 
were three generals, two hun¬ 
dred and seventy-three officers, 
and six thousand seven hundred 
men, besides one hundred and 
fifty-eight guns, seven thousand 
muskets, one gunboat, a float¬ 
ing battery, six steamers, and a 
considerable quantity of stores. 

On the very day of this blood¬ 
less victory, a little log church in 
southwestern Tennessee gave 
name to the bloodiest battle that has been fought west of the 
Alleghanies—Chickamauga being rather in the mountains. At 
Corinth, in northern Mississippi, the Memphis and Charleston 
Railroad crosses the Mobile and Ohio. This gave that point 
great strategic importance, and it was fortified accordingly and 
held by a large Confederate force, which was commanded by 
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston (who must not be confounded 
with the Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston). His lieuten¬ 
ants were Gens. G. T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg, and William 
J. Hardee. General Grant, who had nearly forty thousand men 
under his command, and was about to be joined by Gen. Don 


REAR 


-ADMIRAL ANDREW 


H. FOOTE 


Carlos Buell com¬ 
ing from Nashville 
with as many more, 
proposed to move 
against Corinth and 
capture the place. 

On Sunday, April 
6th, Grant’s m a i n 
force was at Pittsburg 
Landing, on the west 
bank of the Tennessee, 
twenty miles north of 
Corinth. One division, 
under Gen. Lew Wal¬ 
lace, was at Crump’s 
Landing, five miles far¬ 
ther north. The advance 
division of Buell’s army 
had reached the river, opposite the landings, and the re¬ 
mainder was a march behind. Lor some days Johnston 
had been moving northward to attack Grant, and there had been 
skirmishing between the outposts. Early on the morning of the 
6th he came within striking distance, and made a sudden and 
heavy attack. Grant’s line was about two miles long, the left 
resting on Lick Creek, an impassable stream that flows into 
the Tennessee above Pittsburg Landing, and the right on Owl 
Creek, which flows in below. Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss’s 
division was on the left, Gen. John A. McClernand’s in the centre, 
and Gen. William T. Sherman’s on the right. Gen. Stephen A. 
Hurlbut’s was in reserve on the left, and Gen. C. F. Smith’s (now 
commanded by W. H. L. Wallace) on the right. There were no 


p OLK, 




































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


IOI 




intrenchments. The ground was undulating, with patches of 
woods alternating with cleared fields, some of which were under 
cultivation and others abandoned and overgrown with bushes. 
A ridge, on which stood Shiloh church, formed an important 
key-point in Sherman’s front. 

General Grant, in his headquarters at Savannah, down the 
river, heard the firing while he was at breakfast, and hurried up to 
Pittsburg Landing. He had expected to be attacked, if at all, 
at Crump’s Landing, and he now ordered Lew Wallace, with his 
five thousand men, to leave that place and march at once to the 
right of the line at Shiloh ; but Wallace took the wrong road, 
and did not arrive till dark. Neither did Gen. William Nelson’s 
advance division of General Buell's army cross the river till 
evening. 

The attack began at daybreak, and was made with tremendous 
force and in full confidence of success. The nature of the mound 

o 

made regularity of movement impossible, and the battle was 
rather a series of assaults by separate columns, now at one part 
of the line and now at another, which were kept up all day with 
wonderful persistence. Probably no army ever went into action 
with more perfect confidence in itself and its leaders than John¬ 
ston’s. Beauregard had told them they should sleep that night 
in the camps of the enemy, and they did. He also told them 
that he would water his horse in the Tennessee, but he did not. 
The heaviest attacks fell upon Sherman and McClernand, whose 
men stood up to the work with unflinching courage and disputed 
every inch of ground. But they were driven back by overwhelm¬ 
ing numbers, which the Confederate commanders poured upon 
them without the slightest regard to losses. The Sixth Missis¬ 
sippi regiment lost three hundred men out of its total of four 
hundred and twenty-five, and the Eighteenth Louisiana lost two 
hundred and seven. Sherman’s men lost their camps in the 
morning, and retired upon one new line of defence after another, 
till they had been crowded back more than a mile ; but all the 
while they clung to the road and bridge by which they were 
expecting Lew Wallace to come to their assistance. General 
Grant says of an open field on this part of the line, over which 
repeated charges were made, that it was “ so covered with dead 
that it would have been possible to walk across the clearing in 
any direction, stepping on dead bodies, without a foot touching 
the ground. On our side National and Confederate troops were 
mingled together in about equal proportions ; but on the remain¬ 
der of the field nearly all were Confederates. On one part, which 
had evidently not been ploughed for several years, bushes had 


A FEDERAL GUNBOAT, 


grown up, some to 
the height of eight or 
ten feet. Not one of 
these was left stand¬ 
ing unpierced by bul¬ 
lets. The smaller 
ones were all cut 
down.” 

Many of the troops 
were under fire for 


MAJOR-GENERAL 
SCHUYLER HAMILTON. 


the first time; but 
Sherman’s wonderful 
military genius largely 
made up for this defi¬ 
ciency. One bullet struck 
Sherman in the hand, an¬ 
other grazed his shoulder, 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE W. CULLUM. another went tllEOUgh llis 

hat, and several of his horses 
were killed. A bullet struck and shattered the scabbard of 
General Grant’s sword. Gen. W. H. L. Wallace was mortally 
wounded. On the other side, Gens. Adley H. Gladden and 
Thomas C. Hindman were killed ; at about half-past two o’clock 
General Johnston, placing himself at the head of a brigade that 
was reluctant to attempt another charge, was struck in the leg 
by a minie-ball. The wound need not have been mortal; but 
he would not leave the field, and after a time bled to death. 
The command then devolved upon General Beauregard. 

In the afternoon a gap occurred between General Prentiss’s 
division and the rest of the line, and the Confederates were 
prompt to take advantage of it. Rushing with a heavy force 
through this gap, and at the same time attacking his 
left, they doubled up both his flanks, and captured 
that general and two thousand two hundred of his 
men. On this part of the field the day was saved by 
Col. J. D. Webster, of General Grant’s staff, who 
rapidly got twenty guns into position and checked 
the Confederate advance. They then attempted to 
come in on the extreme left, along the river, by 
crossing a ravine. But more guns were brought up, 
and placed on a ridge that commanded this ravine, 
and at the same time the gunboats Tyler and Lexing¬ 
ton moved up to a point opposite and enfiladed it 
with their fire. The result to the Confederates was 
nothing but a useless display of valor and a heavy 
loss. 

The uneven texture of Grant’s army had been 
shown when two green colonels led their green 
regiments from the field at the first fire; and the 























FINAL STAND OF THE ARMY OF GENERAL GRANT, APRIL 6, 1862, NEAR PITTSBURG LANDING 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


103 


stragglers and deserters, having no opportunity to scatter over 
the country, necessarily huddled themselves together under the 
bank of the river at the landing, where they presented a pitiful 
appearance. General Grant says there were nearly five thousand 
of them. There was about an equal number of deserters and 
stragglers from Johnston’s army; but the nature of the ground 
was not such as to concentrate them where the eye could take 
them all in at one grand review. With the exception of the 
break when Prentiss was captured, Grant’s line of battle was 
maintained all day, though it was steadily forced back and 
thirty guns were lost. 

Beauregard discontinued the attack at nightfall, when his right 
was repelled at the ravine, intending to renew it and finish the 


mainly for the purpose of holding the road that ran by Shiloh 
church, by which alone he could conduct an orderly retreat. 
The complete upsetting of the Confederate plans, caused by the 
death of Johnston, the arrival of Buell, and Grant’s promptness 
in assuming the offensive, is curiously suggested by a passage 
in the report of one of the Confederate brigade commanders : “ I 
was ordered by General Ruggles to form on the extreme left, 
and rest my left on Owl Creek. While proceeding to execute 
this order, I was ordered to move by the rear of the main line to 
support the extreme right of General Hardee’s line. Having 
taken my position to support General Hardee’s right, I was again 
ordered by General Beauregard to advance and occupy the crest 
of a ridge in the edge of an old field. My line was just formed 



SHILOH LOG CHAPEL, WHERE THE BATTLE OF SHILOH COMMENCED APRIL 6, 1862. 


victory in the morning. He knew that Buell was expected, but 
did not know that he was so near. 

Lew Wallace was now in position on the right, and Nelson on 
the left, and all night long the boats were plying back and forth 
across the Tennessee, bringing over Buell’s army. A fire in the 
woods, which sprang up about dusk, threatened to add to the 
horrors by roasting many of the wounded alive; but a merciful 
rain extinguished it, and the two armies lay out that night in the 
storm. A portion of the Confederates were sheltered by the 
captured tents, but on the other hand they were annoyed by 
the shells constantly thrown among them by the gunboats. 

At daylight Grant assumed the offensive, the fresh troops on 
his right and left moving first to the attack. Beauregard now 
knew that Buell had arrived, and he must have known also that 
there could be but one result; yet he made a stubborn fight, 

o 


in this position when General Polk ordered me forward to sup¬ 
port his line. When moving to the support of General Polk, an 
order reached me from General Beauregard to report to him with 
my command at his headquarters.” 

The fighting was of the same general description as on the 
previous day, except that the advantage was now with the 
National troops. Sherman was ordered to advance his command 
and recapture his camps. As these were about Shiloh church, 
and that was the point that Beauregard was most anxious to 
hold, the struggle there was intense and bloody. About the 
same time, early in the afternoon, Grant and Beauregard did the 
same thing: each led a charge by two regiments that had lost 
their commanders. Beauregard’s charge was not successful; 
Grant’s was, and the two regiments that he launched with a 
cheer against the Confederate line broke it, and began the rout. 















104 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



Beauregard posted a rear guard in a strong position, and with¬ 
drew his army, leaving his dead on the field, while Grant captured 
about as many guns on the second day as he had lost on the 
first. There was no serious attempt at pursuit, owing mainly to 
the heavy rain and the condition of the roads. The losses on 
both sides had been enormous. On the National side the official 
figures are: 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded, 2,885 missing; total, 
13,047. On the Confederate side they are: 1,728 killed, 8,012 
wounded, 957 missing; total, 10,699. General Grant says: 
“This estimate must be incorrect. We buried, by actual count, 
more of the enemy’s dead in front of the divisions of McClernand 
and Sherman alone than are here reported, and four thousand 
was the estimate of the burial parties for the whole field.” At 
all events, the loss was large enough to gratify the ill- 
wishers of the American people, who were 
looking on with grim satisfaction 
to see them destroy one an¬ 
other. The losses were the 
same, in round numbers, as at 
the historic battle of Blenheim, 
though the number of men en¬ 
gaged was fewer by one-fourth. 

If we should read in to-morrow’s 
paper that by some disaster every 
man, woman, and child in the city 
of Concord, N. H., had been either 
killed or injured, and in the next 
day’s paper that the same thing had 
happened in Montgomery, Ala., the 
loss of life and limb would only 
equal what took place on the mourn¬ 
ful field of Shiloh. 

General Grant, in the first article 
that he ever wrote for publication, re¬ 
marks that “ the battle of Shiloh, or 
Pittsburg Landing, has been perhaps 
less understood, or, to state the case more accurately, more per¬ 
sistently misunderstood, than any other engagement between 
National and Confederate troops during the entire rebellion. 
Correct reports of the battle have been published, but all of 
these appeared long subsequent to the close of 
the rebellion, and after public opinion 
had been most erroneously 
formed.” No battle is ever 
fought that it is not for some¬ 
body’s interest to misrepre¬ 
sent. In the case of Shiloh 
there were peculiar and compli¬ 
cated reasons both for inten¬ 
tional misrepresentation and for 
innocent error. The plans of the 
commanders on both sides were 
to some extent thwarted and 
changed by unexpected events. 

One commander was killed on the 
first day, and his admirers naturally 
speculate upon the different results 
that might have been attained if he 
had lived. The ground was so 
broken as to divide the engagement 
practically into several separate ac¬ 
tions, and what was true of one might 


gRf\GG 


mmm 


■ 


■ 




GENERAL ALEERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, 
C. S. A. 




br^ toN 


lew 


fAM oB 


g en£ rM - 


WA U-A cE " 


not be true of another. 
The peculiarity of the 
position also brought to¬ 
gether in one place, 
under the river-bank, all 
who from fright or de¬ 
moralization fled to the 
rear of the National 
army, which produced 
upon those who saw 
them an effect altogether 
different from that of 
the usual retreating and 
straggling across the 
whole breadth of a battle 
line. Then there was the 
circumstance of Buell’s 
army coming up at the 
end of the first day, and 
not coming up before 
that, which could hardly 
fail to give rise to some¬ 
what of jealousy and re¬ 
crimination. And finally 
this action encounters to an unusual extent that criti¬ 
cism which reads by the light of after-events, but forgets 
that this was wanting to the actors whom it criticises. 
The point on which popular opinion was perhaps 

most widely and persistently 
wrong was, that the defeat of 
the first day arose from the fact 
that Grant’s army was com¬ 
pletely surprised. Public opin¬ 
ion, throughout the war, was 
formed in advance of the official 
reports of generals in three 
ways. There were many press 
correspondents with every 
army, and the main purpose of 
most of them was to construct 
an interesting story and get it 
into print as soon as possible. 
The National Government 
adopted the wise policy of giv¬ 
ing the armies in the field such 
mail facilities as would keep the 
soldiers in close touch with their 
homes, and they wrote millions 
of letters every year. All that 
a soldier needed was some scrap 
of paper and some sort of pen or pencil. If he 
happened to have no postage stamp, he had only 
to mark his missive “ Soldier’s letter,” and it would 
be carried in the mails to its destination, and the 
postage collected on delivery. After a battle 
every surviving soldier was especially anxious to 
let his family know that he had escaped any 
casualty, and he naturally filled up his letter 
with such particulars as had most impressed 
him in that small part of the field that he had 
seen, and sometimes with such exaggerated 
accounts as in the first excitement had reached 


MAJOR-GENERAL 
DON CARLOS BUELL. 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


105 




0? '^° il A 

SS TSBEHRS ' 
f '* eATr y 
5 OTCav. 11 


.TAYLORS 
'/,,, OATT ERY 


SWA R1 
3ATT 


lORESSERS 


xrO 

REGULAR CAVALRY. 


^Col.Stuert 


HEAD QUARTERS 
«f GEIWHURLBUT. 


VMANNS BAT 


^ eOWMANS^CAV'"^ 

5 ' 


him from other parts. Finally, the 
journalists were not few who assumed 
to be accomplished strategists, and 
talked learnedly in their editorial col¬ 
umns of the errors of generals and the 
way that battles should' have been 
fought. And some of them had politi¬ 
cal reasons for writing up certain gen¬ 
erals and writing down certain others. 

A good instance of innocent mis¬ 
apprehension is probably furnished in 
what Lieutenant-Colonel Graves, of 
the Twelfth Michigan, wrote: “On 
Saturday General Prentiss’s division 
was reviewed. After the review Major 
Powell, of the Twenty-fifth Missouri, 
came to me and said he saw Butter¬ 
nuts [Confederate soldiers 


was merely a reconnoissance of the enemy in force, and 
ordered the company in. About ten o’clock I went with 
Captain Johnson to the tent of General Prentiss, and the 
captain told him what he saw. The general remarked 
that we need not be alarmed, that everything was all 
right. To me it did not appear all right. Major Powell, 
myself, and several other officers went to the head¬ 
quarters of Colonel Peabody, commanding our brigade, 
and related to him what had transpired. He ordered 

out two companies from 
the Twelfth Michigan 
and two from the Twenty- 
fifth Missouri, under com¬ 
mand of Major Powell. 
About three o’clock in 
the morning the advance 
of the enemy came up 
with this body of men, 
who fought them till day- 
iglit, gradually falling 


MAJOR-GENERAL 
WILLIAM J HARDEE, C 


looking 


pURDY. 


Gen Shermans divis¬ 
ion fe/l back to the 


rujht.JM c Clernand^p' 


c,° N 

A eCS%. 

S/ _SHILOH S.\G O'- 


^ GcnM r Cir.mnii 7 hcliarujed 
6 - 09 front to mcci the eneitiv([ 
along this road. 




T ° COR 


nth 


a Col.M Dowell 


HURLBUT. 


MAJOR GENERAL 


m *J0R-ge NERal 


MAP SHOWING ROADS AND 


POSITION OF CAMPS BEFORE AND DURING THE BATTLE OF SHILOH. 


through the underbrush at the parade—about a dozen. Upon 
the representation of Major Powell and myself, General Prentiss 
ordered out one company of the Twelfth Michigan as an advance 
picket. About 8.30 o’clock Captain Johnson reported from the 
front that he could see long lines of campfires, hear bugle sounds 
and drums, which I reported to General Prentiss, and he re¬ 
marked that the company would be taken if left there , that it 


PRENTISS. 

back till they met their regi¬ 
ments, which had advanced 
about fifty rods. There the 
met the enemy, 
and fought till overpowered, 
when we fell back to our 
color line and re-formed. 
General Prentiss was so loath 
to believe that the enemy 
was in force, that our divi¬ 
sion was not organized for 
defence, but each regiment acted upon its own hook, so far 
as I was able to observe. The point I wish to make is this: 
that, had it not been for these four companies which were 
sent out by Colonel Peabody, our whole division would have 
been taken in their tents, and the day would have been lost. 
I shall always think that Colonel Peabody saved the battle of 
Shiloh.” 






























mk « 


0mm 




-.,AV>W 


ADVANCE OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS ON CORINTH—GENERAL HURLBUT’S DIVISION FORCING THEIR WAY THROUGH THE MUD. 












































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


107 




Such was the testimony and opinion, 
undoubtedly honest, of an officer of a 
green regiment which there for the first 
time participated in a battle. The truth 
was, the generals of the National forces 
were not ignorant of the near approach 
of the enemy. Reconnoissances, espe¬ 
cially in Sherman’s front, had shown 
that. They were only waiting for all their 
forces to come up to make an attack 
themselves, and when Buell arrived they 
did make that attack and were successful. 

General Prentiss’s division, so far from 
being unorganized, kept its lines, re¬ 
ceived the shock of battle, and stood up 
manfully to the work before it until the 
divisions on both sides of it drew back, 
leaving its flanks exposed, when the Con¬ 
federates poured through the gaps, struck 
it on both flanks at once, and captured 
a large part of it. On the ground along 
its line and in its front more men were 
struck down in an hour than on any 
other spot of equal extent, in the same 
time, in the whole war. 

The Confederates were successful on 
the first day, not because of any surprise, 

but simply because they had the greater number of men and 
persistently hurled them, regardless of cost, against the National 
lines. There was also one other reason, which would not have 
existed later in the war. After the first year no army would 
occupy any position on the field without intrenching. The 
soldiers on both sides learned how, in a little while, to throw 
up a simple breastwork of earth that would stop a large propor¬ 
tion of the bullets that an enemy might fire at them. Grant’s 
army at Shiloh had its flanks well protected by impassable 
streams, and if it had had a simple breastwork along its front, 
such as could have been constructed in an hour, the first 
day’s disaster might have been averted. As it was, the men 
fought in the open field, with no protection but 
the occasional shelter of a tree trunk, and 
at one point a slightly sunken road. 

The habit of Grant’s mind was such 
that he always thought of his 
army as assuming the offen¬ 
sive and hence having no 
use for intrenchments, and 
his green regiments did 
not as yet appreciate 
the power of the spade. 

Shiloh was a severe 
lesson to them all. 

Some of the most 
interesting incidents 
of the battle are 
given by Col. 

Douglas Putnam, Jr., 
of the Ninety-second 
Ohio Infantry, in 
a paper read be¬ 
fore the Ohio 
Commandery of 


GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT 


\ 


the Loyal Legion : “ With the consent 
of General Grant, I was permitted to 
accompany him to the field as a volun¬ 
teer aid. As we approached Crump’s 
Landing, where the division of Gen. Lew 
Wallace was stationed, the boat was 
rounded in and the engines stopped. 
General Wallace, then standing on the 
bank, said, ‘ My division is in line, wait¬ 
ing for orders.’ Grant’s reply was, that 
as soon as he got to Pittsburg Landing 
and learned where the attack was, he 
would send him orders. . . . After 

getting a horse, I started with Rawlins 
to find General Grant ; and to my in¬ 
quiry as to where we would likely find 
him, Rawlins’s reply, characteristic of 
the man, was, 1 We’ll find him where the 
firing is heaviest.’ As we proceeded, we 
met the increasing signs of battle, while 
the dropping of the bullets about us, on 
the leaves, led me in my inexperience 
to ask if it were not raining, to which 
Rawlins tersely said, ‘Those are bullets, 
Douglas.’ When, on meeting a horse 
through which a cannon-ball had gone, 
walking along with protruding bowels, I 
asked permission to shoot him and end his misery, Rawlins said, 
‘He belongs to the quartermaster’s department; better let 
them attend to it.’ We soon found General Grant. He was 
sending his aids in different directions, as occasion made it 
necessary, and he himself visited his division commanders one 
by one. He wore his full uniform, with the major-general’s buff 
sash, which made him very conspicuous both to our own men 
and to those of the enemy. Lieut.-Col. J. B. McPherson, acting 
chief of staff, remonstrated with him, as did also Rawlins, for so 
unnecessarily exposing himself, as he went just in the rear of our 
line of battle ; but he said he wanted to see and know what was 
going on. About eleven o’clock he met General Sherman on 

what was called 
Sherman’s drill- 
ground, near the 
old peach orchard. 
The meeting was 
attended with but 
few words. Sher¬ 
man’s stock had be¬ 
come pulled around 
until the part 
that should 
have been in 
front rested 
under one of his 
ears, while his 
whole appearance 
indicated hard and 
earnest work. The 
bullets w’ere plente¬ 
ous here. Sherman 
told Grant how 
many horses he 
had had killed 









io8 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


under him, showing him also the marks of 
bullets in his clothing. When Grant left 
Sherman, I think I was the only aid with 
him. Riding toward the right, the General 
saw a body of troops coming up from the 
direction of Crump’s Landing, and ex¬ 
claimed with great delight and satisfaction, 
‘ Now we are all right, all 
Wallace.’ He was of course 
the troops he saw were not those 
earnestly looked for, and of whose 
ance he was beginning to feel the 
need. About two o’clock, 
at one point were 
athered 


G e 


n e r a l 
Grant and 
several of his 
s t a ff. The 
group consisted 
of Grant, Mc¬ 
Pherson, Raw¬ 
lins, Webster, and 
others. This evi¬ 
dently drew the 
attention of the 
enemy, and they re¬ 
ceived rather more 
than a due share of 
the fire. Colonel Mc¬ 
Pherson’s horse having 
been shot under him, I 
gave him mine, and under 
directions went to the river 
on foot. The space under 
the bank was literally packed by thousands, I 
suppose, of men who had from inexperience 
and fright ‘lost their grip,’ or were both men¬ 
tally and physically, as we say, let down 
—however, only temporarily. To them it 
seemed that the day was lost, that the deluge was upon 
them. The Tennessee River in front, swamps to the right and 
swamps to the left, they could go no farther, and there lay down 
and waited. I remember well seeing a mounted officer, carry¬ 
ing a United States flag, riding back and forth on top of the 
bank, pleading and entreating in this wise: ‘Men, for God’s 
sake, for your country’s sake, for your own sake, come up here, 
form a line, and make one more stand.’ The appeal fell on list¬ 
less ears. No one seemed to respond, and the only reply I 
heard was some one saying, ‘That man talks well, don’t he?’ 
But eighteen hours afterward these same men had come to 
themselves, were refreshed by meeting other troops, and assured 
that all was not lost, that there was something still left to fight 
for, and helped also by the magic touch of the elbow, they did 
valiant service. A group of officers was gathered around Gen¬ 
eral Grant about dusk, at a smouldering fire of hay just on the 
top of the grade. The rain was falling, atmosphere murky, and 
ground covered with mud and water. Colonel McPherson rode 
up, and Grant said, ‘ Well, Mac, how is it ? ’ He gave him a report 
of the condition as it seemed to him, which was, in short, that 
at least one-third of his army was hors de combat, and the rest 
much disheartened. To this the General made no reply, and 


MAJOR-GENERAL 


McPherson continued, ‘Well, General Grant, 
under this condition of affairs, what do you pro¬ 
pose to do, sir? Shall I make preparations for 
retreat?’ The reply came quick and short: 
‘Retreat? No! I propose to attack at day¬ 
light, and whip them.’ ” 

The same writer tells of a conversation that he 
held with General Beauregard some years after 
the war. “To my query that it had always been 
a mystery why he stopped the battle when he 

when the advan- 
the whole, seemed 
to be with him, 
and when he 
had an hour or 
more of day- 
ight, General 
Beauregard re- 
plied that 
there were 
two reasons: 
first, his 
men v ere, 
as he put 
it, ‘ out of 
hand,’ 
had been 
fighting 
since 
early 
morn, were worn 
G g.oR G£ ° ~ out, and also demoral¬ 

ized by the flush of victory in gathering the 
stores and sutlers’ supplies found in our camps. 
As one man said, ‘ You fellows went to war 
with cheese, pigs’ feet, dates, pickles—things 
we rebs had forgotten the sight of.’ ‘In tne 
second place,’ he said, ‘ I thought I had Gen¬ 
eral Grant just where I wanted him, and could 
John a. mcclernand. finish him up in the morning.’” 

After the battle, General Halleck took command in person, 
and proceeded to lay siege to Corinth, to capture it by regular 
approaches. Both he and Beauregard were reinforced, till each 
had about one hundred thousand men. Halleck gradually closed 
in about the place, till in the night of May 29th Beauregard 
evacuated it, and on the morning of the 30th Sherman’s soldiers 
entered the town. 

Some military critics hold that the fate of the Confederacy 
was determined on the field of Shiloh. They point out the fact 
that after that battle there was nothing to prevent the National 
armies at the West from going all the way to the Gulf, or—as 
they ultimately did—to the sea. In homely phrase, the back 
door of the Confederacy was broken down, and, however stub¬ 
bornly the front door in Virginia might be defended, it was only 
a question of time when some great army, coming in by the rear, 
should cut off the supplies of the troops that held Richmond, 
and compel their surrender. Those who are disposed to give 
history a romantic turn narrow it down to the death of General 
Johnston, declaring that in his fall the possibility of Southern 
independence was lost, and if he had lived the result would have 
been reversed. General Grant appears to dispose of their the¬ 
ory when he points out the fact that Johnston was killed while 




























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


109 


leading a forlorn hope, and remarks that there is no victory for 
anybody till the battle is ended, and the battle of Shiloh was not 
ended till the close of the second day. But, indeed, there is no 
reason why the fatal moment should not be carried back to the 
time when the line of defence from the mountains to the Missis¬ 
sippi was broken through at Mill Spring and Fort Donelson, or 
even to the time when the Confederates, because of Kentucky’s 
refusal to leave the Union, were prevented from establishing 
their frontier at the Ohio. The reason why progress in conquer¬ 
ing the Confederacy was more rapid at the West than at the 
East is not to be found so much in any difference in men as in 
topography. At the West, the armies moving southward fol¬ 
lowed the courses of the rivers, and their opponents were obliged 
to maintain artificial lines of defence ; but the Eastern armies 
were called upon to cross the streams and attack natural lines 
of defence. 

Back of all this, in the logic of the struggle, is the fact that no 
defensive attitude can be maintained permanently. The bellig¬ 
erent that cannot prevent his own territory from becoming the 
seat of war must ultimately surrender his cause, no matter how 
valiant his individual soldiers may be, or how costly he may 
make it for the invader; or, to state it affirmatively, a belliger¬ 
ent that can carry the war into the enemy's country, and keep 
it there, will ultimately succeed. In most wars, the side on 
whose soil the battles were fought has been the losing side ; and 
this is an important lesson to bear in mind when it becomes 
necessary to determine the great moral question of responsibility 
for prolonging a hopeless contest. 


CHAPTER XII. 

MINOR ENGAGEMENTS OF THE FIRST YEAR. 

LARGE NUMBER OF BATTLES FOUGHT DURING THE WAR—DISASTER 

AT BALL’S BLUFF ON THE POTOMAC-SMALL ENGAGEMENTS AT 

EDWARDS FERRY, VA.—BATTLES AT FALLING WATERS AND 

BUNKER HILL, VA.-BATTLE AT HARPER’S FERRY—GALLANT 

BAYONET CHARGE AT DRANESVILLE, VA. — OPERATIONS IN WEST 
VIRGINIA UNDER GENERAL McCLELLAN—BATTLES AT ROMNEY 

AND BARBOURSVILLE-EFFORTS TO INDUCE KENTUCKY 

TO SECEDE—CAMP WILD CAT—ENGAGEMENTS AT HODGES- 
VILLE AND MUMFORDSVILLE AND SACRAMENTO—REASONS 
WHY MISSOURI DID NOT SECEDE—ENGAGEMENTS AT 
CHARLESTON, LEXINGTON, AND OTHER PLACES IN THAI- 
STATE—-A BRILLIANT CHARGE BY GENERAL FREMONT’S 
BODY GUARD UNDER ZAGONYI—INDIVIDUAL HEROISM- 

BATTLE OF BELMONT-VAST EXTENT OF TERRITORY 

COVERED BY WAR OPERATIONS. 

The enormous number of engagements in the civil 
war, the extent of country over which they were spread, 
and the magnitude of many of them, have sunk into 
comparative insignificance many that otherwise would 
have become historic. The action at Lexington, Mass., 
in 1775, was nothing whatever in comparison with any 
one of the several actions at Lexington, Mo., in 1861; 
yet every schoolboy is familiarized with the one, and 
many well-read people have scarcely heard of the other. 

The casualties in the battle of Harlem Heights, N. Y„ 
numbered almost exactly the same as those in the battle of 
Bolivar Heights, Va.; but no historian of the Revolution 


would fail to give a full account of the former, while one might 
read a very fair history of the civil war and find no mention 
whatever of the latter. In the writing of any history that is 
not a mere chronicle, it is necessary to observe proportion and 
perspective; but we may turn aside a little from the main 
course of our narrative, to recall some of the forgotten actions, 
in obscure hamlets and at the crossings of sylvan streams, where 
for a few men and those who were dear to them the call of 
duty was as stern and the realities of war as relentless as for 
the thousands at Gettysburg or Chickamauga. 

In the State of Virginia, the most disastrous of these minor 
engagements in 1861 was at Ball's Bluff, on the Potomac, about 
thirty-five miles above Washington. It has been known also as 
the battle of Edwards Ferry, Harrison’s Island, and Leesburg. 
At this point there is an island in the river, and opposite, on 
the Virginia side, the bank rises in a bold bluff seventy feet 
high. A division of National troops, commanded by Gen. 
Charles P. Stone, was on the Maryland side, observing the cross¬ 
ings of the river in the vicinity. A Confederate force of un¬ 
known strength was known to be at Leesburg, about five miles 
from the river. McCall’s division was at Dranesville, farther 
toward Washington, reconnoitring and endeavoring to draw 
out the enemy. At a suggestion of General McClellan to Gen¬ 
eral Stone, that some demonstration on his part might assist 
McCall, General Stone began a movement that developed into 
a battle. On the 21st of October he ordered a portion of his 
command to cross at the island and at Conrad’s Ferry, just 
above. They were Massachusetts troops under Col. Charles 
Devens, the New York Forty-second (Tammany) regiment, Col. 
Edward D. Baker’s Seventy-first Pennsylvania (called the Cali¬ 
fornia regiment), and a Rhode Island battery, in all about two 
thousand men. The means of crossing—two or three boats— 
were very inadequate for an advance, and nothing at all for a 
retreat. Several hours were spent in getting one scow from the 
canal into the river, and the whole movement was so slow that 
the Confederates had ample opportunity to learn exactly what 
was going on and prepare to meet the movement. The battery 
was dragged up the bluff with great labor. At the top the 
troops found themselves in an open field of about eight acres, 
surrounded by woods. Colonel Baker was made commander of 
all the forces that crossed. 



DELIVERING DAILY PAPERS. 




























IIO 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


The enemy soon appeared, and before the battery had fired 
more than half a dozen rounds the Confederate sharp-shooters, 
posted on a hill at the left, within easy range, disabled so many 
of the gunners that the pieces became useless. Then there was 
an attack by a heavy force of infantry in front, which, firing 
from the woods, cut down Baker’s 
men with comparative safety. 

The National troops stood their 
ground for two hours and returned 


Our entire forces were retreating—tumbling, rolling, leaping 
down the steep heights ; the enemy following them murdering 
and taking prisoners. Colonel Devens left his command and 
swam the river on horseback. The one boat in the Virginia 
channel was speedily filled and sunk. A thousand men thronged 



BATTERY WAITING FOR ORDERS. 


cou' 


O^' 


EO' 




6A' 




BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL CHARLES DEVENS. 


Colonel Baker 
thought it was 
General Johnston, 
and that the enemy 
would meet us in 
open fight. Part 
of our column 
charged, Baker 

cheering us on, when a tremendous onset was made by the 
rebels. One man rode forward, presented a revolver at Baker, 
and fired all its charges at him. Our gallant leader fell, and at 
the same moment all our lines were driven back by the over¬ 
whelming force opposed to them. But Captain Beiral, with his 
company, fought his way back to Colonel Baker’s body, rescued 
it, brought it along to me, and then a general retreat com¬ 
menced. It was sauve qui pejit. I got the colonel’s body to 
the island before the worst of the rout, and then, looking to the 
Virginia shore, saw such a spectacle as no tongue can describe. 


the farther bank. Muskets, coats, and everything 
were thrown aside, and all were desperately trying 
to escape. Hundreds plunged into the rapid cur¬ 
rent, and the shrieks of the drowning added to 
the horror of sounds and sights. The enemy 
kept up their fire from the cliff above. A cap¬ 
tain of the Fifteenth Massachusetts at one 
moment charged gallantly up the hill, leading 
two companies, who still had their arms, 
against the pursuing foe. A moment later, 
and the same officer, perceiving the hope¬ 
lessness of the situation, waved a white 
handkerchief and surrendered the main body 
of his command.” 

Gen. Edward W. Hinks (at that time 
colonel of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regi¬ 
ment), who arrived and took command just after the 
action, wrote in his report: “ The means of transportation, for 
advance in support or for a retreat, were criminally deficient— 
especially when we consider the facility for creating proper 
means for such purposes at our disposal. The place for landing 
on the Virginia shore was most unfortunately selected, being at 
a point where the shore rose with great abruptness and was 
entirely studded with trees, being perfectly impassable to artil¬ 
lery or infantry in line. The entire island was also commanded 
by the enemy’s artillery and rifles. Within half a mile, upon 
either side of the points selected, a landing could have been 
effected where we could have been placed upon equal terms 
with the enemy, if it was necessary to effect a landing from 
the island.” 

The losses in this action were about a hundred and fifty killed, 
about two hundred and fifty wounded, and about five hundred 
captured. Colonel Baker was a lawyer by profession, had been 
a friend of Lincoln’s in Springfield, Ill., had lived in California, 
then removed to Oregon, and was elected United States senator 
from that State just before the war began. He was greatly 


the fire as effectively as they 
could ; but the enemy seemed to 
increase in number, and grew con¬ 
stantly bolder. About six o’clock, 
wrote Capt. Francis G. Young, “ a 
rebel officer, riding a white horse, 
came out of the woods and beck¬ 
oned to us to come forward. 
































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


iii 


beloved as a man ; but though he was brave and patriotic, and 
had commanded a brigade in the Mexican war, it was evident, 
from his conduct of the Ball's Bluff affair, that he had little 
military skill. 

Among the other minor engagements was one at Edwards 
Ferry, Va., June 17th, in which three hundred Pennsylvanians, 
under Captain Gardner, were attacked by a Confederate force 
that tried to take possession of the ferry. After a fight of three 
hours the assailants were driven off with a loss of about thirty 
men. Captain Gardner lost four. 

On July 2d there was an engagement of six hours’duration 
at Falling Waters, Va., between the brigades of Abercrombie, 
Thomas, and Negley, and a Confederate force under General 


vania, and sections of a New York and a Rhode Island battery. 
The guns were placed to command approaches of the town, 
pickets were thrown out, and the whe’ht was removed. On the 
16th the pickets on Bolivar Heights, west of the town, were 
driven in, and this was followed by an attack from a Confederate 
force, consisting of three regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, 
and seven pieces of artillery. Gen. John W. Geary, command¬ 
ing the National forces, placed one company for the defence of 
the fords of the Shenandoah, and with the remaining troops 
met the attack. Three successive charges by the cavalry were 
repelled ; then a rifled gun was brought across the river and 
directed its fire upon the Confederate battery ; and at the same 
time Geary advanced his right flank, turned the enemy’s left, 



AN INCIDENT OF CAMP LIFE.-CARD-PLAYING. 


Jackson. It was a stubborn fignt. 1 he Confederates, who had 
four regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, with four guns, at 
length retreated slowly, having lost about ninety men. The 
National loss was thirteen. 

At Bunker Hill, near Martinsburg, on July 15th, General Patter¬ 
son’s division, being on the march, was attacked by a body of 
about six hundred cavalry, led by Colonel Stuart. When the 
cavalry charged, the National infantry opened their lines and 
disclosed a battery, which poured rapid discharges of shells and 
grape shot into the Confederates, and put them to rout. The 
Federal cavalry then came up and pursued the fugitives two 
miles. 

In October the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment crossed 
the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry, to seize a large quantity of wheat 
that was stored there for the Confederate Government. A day 
or two later they were reenforced by three companies of the 
Third Wisconsin Regiment, four of the Twenty-eighth Pennsyl- 


and gained a portion of Bolivar Heights. He then ordered a 
general forward movement, gained the entire Heights, and drove 
the enemy across the valley toward Halltown. From lack of 
cavalry he was unable to pursue ; but he planted guns on Boli¬ 
var Heights, and soon silenced the Confederate guns on London 
Heights. Before recrossing the Potomac the troops burned the 
iron foundry at Shenandoah City. In this action the National 
loss was four killed, seven wounded, and two captured. The 
Confederate loss was not ascertained, but it was supposed to be 
somewhat over a hundred men, besides one gun and a large 
quantity of ammunition. A member of the Massachusetts 
regiment, in giving an account of this action, wrote: “ There 
were many side scenes. Stimpson had a hand-to-hand fight with 
one of the cavalry, whom he bayoneted, illustrating the bayonet 
drill in which the company had been exercised. Corporal 
Marshall was chased by a mounted officer while he was assisting 
one of the wounded Wisconsin boys off. He turned and shot 













BATTLE OF MU MFORDSVILLE, KENTUCKY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1862 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


his pursuer through the breast. The officer proved to be Col¬ 
onel Ashby, commander of the rebels, which accounted for the 
lull in the battle. We have since learned that he was not killed.” 

On December 20th Gen. E. O. C. Ord, commanding a brigade, 
moved westward along the chain-bridge road, toward Dranes- 
vilie, for the purpose of making a reconnoissance and gathering 
forage. Near Dranesville, when returning, he was attacked by a 
Confederate force consisting of five regiments of infantry and 
one of cavalry, with a battery. The attack came from the south 
and struck his right flank. Changing front so as to face the 
enemy, he found advantageous ground for receiving battle, and 
placed his artillery so as to enfilade the Centreville road on 
which the enemy's battery was posted. Leaving his cavalry in 
the shelter of a wooded hill, he got his infantry well in hand 
and moved steadily forward on the enemy. His guns were 
handled with skill, and soon exploded a Confederate caisson 
and drove off the battery. Then he made a bayonet charge, 
before which the Con¬ 
federate infantry fled, 
leaving on the fie*d 
their dead and wound¬ 
ed, and a large quan¬ 
tity of equipments. 

His loss was seven 
killed and sixty 
wounded. The Con¬ 
federate loss was about 
a hundred. 

That portion of Vir¬ 
ginia west of the Alle- 
ghanies (now West 
Virginia) never was 
essentially a slavehold- 
ing region. The num¬ 
ber of slaves held there 
was very small, as it 
always must be in a 
mountainous country ; 
and the interests of 
the people, with their 
iron mines, their coal 
mines, and their for¬ 
ests of valuable tim¬ 
ber, and their streams flowing into the Ohio, were allied much 
more closely with those of the free States than with those 
of the tide-water portion of their own State. When, there¬ 
fore, at the beginning of the war, before the people of Vir¬ 
ginia had voted on the question of adopting or rejecting the 
ordinance of secession as passed by their convention, troops 
from the cotton States were poured into that State to secure 
it for the Confederacy, they found no such welcome west of 
the mountains as east of them; and the task of driving them 
out from the valleys of the Kanawha and the Monongahela was 
easy in comparison with the work that lay before the National 
armies on the Potomac and the James. Major-Gen. George B. 
McClellan, then in his thirty-fifth year, crossed the Ohio with 
a small army in May, and won several victories that for the 
time cleared West Virginia of Confederate troops, gained him a 
vote of thanks in Congress, and made for him a sudden reputa¬ 
tion, which resulted in his being called to the head of the army 
after the disaster at Bull Run. Some of the battles in West 
Virginia, including Philippi, Cheat River, ^nd Rich Mountain, 

§ 


1 13 

have already been described. An account of other minor 
engagements in that State is given in this chapter. 

There were several small actions at Romney, in Virginia, the 
most considerable of which took place on October 26th. General 
Kelly, with twenty-five hundred men, marched on that place 
from the west, while Col. Thomas Johns, with seven hundred, 
approached it from the north. Five miles from Romney, Kelly 
drove in the Confederate outposts, and nearer the town he met 
the enemy drawn up in a commanding position, with a rifled 
twelve-pounder on a hill. They also had intrenchments command¬ 
ing the bridge. After some artillery firing, Kelly’s cavalry forded 
the river, while his infantry charged across the bridge, where¬ 
upon the Confederates retreated precipitately toward Winches¬ 
ter. Kelly captured four hundred prisoners, two hundred horses, 
three wagon-loads of new rifles, and a large lot of camp equipage. 
The losses in killed and wounded were small. In this action a 
Captain Butterfield, of an Ohio regiment, was mounted on an 

old team horse, which 
became unmanage¬ 
able and persisted in 
getting in front of the 
field gun that had just 
been brought up. This 
embarrassed the gun¬ 
ners, who were ready 
and anxious- to make 
a telling.shot, and fin¬ 
ally the captain shout¬ 
ed: “Never mind the 
old horse, boys. Blaze 
away ! ” The shot was 
then made, which 
drove off a Confeder¬ 
ate battery ; and a 
few minutes later, 
when the charge was 
ordered, the old horse, 
with his tail scorched, 
wheeled into line and 
participated in it. 

At the same time 
when General McClel¬ 
lan was operating 
against the Confederate forces in the northern part of West 
Virginia, Gen. Jacob D. Cox commanded an expedition that 
marched from Guyandotte into the valley of the Great Kanawha. 
His first action was at Barboursville, which he captured. At 
Scarytown, on the river, a detachment of his Ohio troops, com¬ 
manded by Colonel Lowe, was defeated by a Confederate force 
under Captain Patton, and lost nearly sixty men. Cox then 
marched on Charleston, which was held by a force under General 
Wise. But Wise retreated, crossed Gauley River and burned the 
bridge, and continued his flight to Lewisburg. Here he was 
superseded by General Floyd, who brought reinforcements. 
Floyd attacked the Seventh Ohio Regiment at Cross Lanes, and 
defeated it, inflicting a loss of about two hundred men. He 
then advanced to Carnifex Ferry, endeavoring to flank Cox’s 
force, when General Rosecrans, with ten thousand men, came 
down from the northern part of the State. Floyd had a strong 
position on Gauley River, and Rosecrans sent forward a force to 
reconnoitre. The commander of this, General Benham, pushed 
it too boldly, and it developed into an engagement (September 



FEDERAL TROOPS FORAGING. 

















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



ioth), wherein he lost about two hundred men, including Colonel 
Lowe and other valuable officers. Rosecrans made preparations 
for giving battle in earnest next day; but in the night Floyd 
retreated, leaving a large portion of his baggage, and took a 
position thirty miles distant. Soon afterward General Lee 
arrived with another force and took command of all the Confed¬ 
erate troops, numbering now about twenty thousand, and then 
in turn Rosecrans retreated. On the way, Lee had made a 
reconnoissance of a position held by General Reynolds at Cheat 
Mountain (September 12th), and in the consequent skirmishing 
he lost about a hundred men, including Col. John A. Wash¬ 
ington, of his staff, who was killed. Reynolds’s loss was about 
the same, but Lee found his position too strong to be taken. 
Early in November, Lee was called to Eastern Virginia, and 
Rosecrans then planned an attack on 
Floyd ; but it miscarried through failure 
of the flank movement, which was in¬ 
trusted to General Benham. But Benham 
pursued the enemy for fifty miles, de¬ 
feated the rear guard of cavalry, and 
killed its leader. On December I2th, 

General Milroy, who had 
succeeded 


ms a 


largely into the Confederate army, while a greater number 
entered the National service and were among its best soldiers. 
The Confederate Government was very loath to give up Ken¬ 
tucky, admitted a delegation of Kentucky secessionists to seats 
in its Congress, and made several attempts to invade the State 
and occupy it by armed force. The more important actions 
that were fought there are narrated elsewhere. A few of the 
minor ones must be mentioned here. 

To protect the loyal mountaineers in the eastern part of the 
State, a fortified camp, called Camp Wild Cat, was established 
on the road leading to Cumberland Gap. It was at the top of 
a high cliff, overlooking the road, and was commanded by a 
heavily-wooded hill a few hundred yards distant. The force 
there was commanded by Gen. Albin Schoepff. A force of over 

seven thousand Confederates, com¬ 
manded by General Zollicoffer, marched 
upon this camp and attacked it on the 
same day that the battle of Ball’s Bluff 
was fought, October 21st. The camp 
had been held by but one Kentucky 
regiment; but on the approach 
of the enemy it was re¬ 
inforced by 




Reynolds, advanced 
against the Confederates at 
Buffalo Mountain ; but his attack was 
badly managed, and failed. He was then 
attacked, in turn, but the enemy had no better success. Three 
or four hundred men were disabled in these engagements. On 
the last day of the year Milroy sent eight hundred men of 
the Twenty-fifth Ohio Regiment, under Major Webster, against 
a Confederate camp at Huntersville. They drove away the 
Confederates, burned six buildings filled with provisions, and 
returned without loss. 

Through the natural impulses of a large majority of her peo¬ 
ple, and their material interests, aided by these military opera¬ 
tions, small as they were in detail, West Virginia was by this 
time secured to the Union, and would probably have remained 
in it even if the war had terminated otherwise. 

There never was any serious danger that Kentucky would 
secede, though her governor refused troops to the National 
Government and pretended to assume a position of neutrality. 
Such a position being essentially impossible, such of the young 
men of that State as believed in the institution of slavery went 


reentn ana seven¬ 
teenth Ohio, the Thirty- 
third Indiana, and Stannard’s battery. 
After a fight with a battalion of Ken¬ 
tucky cavalry, the Confederate infantry charged up the hill and 
were met by a withering fire, which drove them back. They 
advanced again, getting within a few yards of the log breast¬ 
work, placed their caps on their bayonets and shouted that they 
were Union men. This gave them a chance to fire a volley at 
close range ; but it was answered so immediately and so effect¬ 
ively that they broke and fled down the hill. Then the artillery 
was brought into play and hastened their flight, besides thwart¬ 
ing an attack that had been made by a detachment on the flank. 
In the afternoon the attempt was repeated, by two detachments 
directed simultaneously against the flanks of the position ; but 
it was defeated in much the same way that the morning- attack 
had been. Zollicoffer then drew off his forces, and that night 
their campfires could be seen far down the valley. The National 
loss was about thirty men, that of the Confederates was esti¬ 
mated at nearly three hundred. 

Two days later there were sharp actions at West Liberty and 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD W. MINKS. 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


J15 


Hodgesville. A regiment of infantry and a company of cavalry, 
with one gun, marched thirty-five miles between half-past two 
and half-past nine r. M., in constant rain, making several fords, 
one of which, across the Licking, was waist deep. The object 
was to drive the Confederates out of West Liberty and take 
possession of the town. In this they were successful, with but 
one man wounded. The Confederates lost twenty, and half a 
dozen Union men who had been held as prisoners were released. 
The greatest benefit resulting from the action was the confi- 
dence that it gave to the Unionists in that region. One corre¬ 
spondent wrote: “The people had been taught that the Union 
soldiers would be guilty of most awful atrocities. Several 
women made their appearance on Thursday, trembling with 
cold and fear, and said that they had remained in the woods all 
night after the fight. The poor creatures had been told that 
the Abolition troops rejoiced to kill Southern babies, and were 
in the habit of carrying little children about on their bayonets 
in the towns which they took; and this was actually believed.” 
A detachment of the Sixth Indiana Regiment made a sudden 
attack on a Confederate camp near Hodgesville, and after a 
short, sharp fight drove off the enemy, killing or wounding eight 
of them, and captured many horses and wagons and a large 
quantity of powder. 

Near Munfordville, on December 17th, a portion of the 
Thirty-second Indiana Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel 
Trebra, was attacked by two regiments of infantry, 
a regiment of cavalry, and a battery. The}' 
maintained a spirited defence until they were 
reinforced, and then continued the fight 
till it ended in the retreat of the enemy. 

General Buell said in his report: “ The 
attack of the enemy was mainly with 
his cavalry and artillery. Our troops 
fought as skirmishers, rallying rap¬ 
idly into squares when charged by 
the cavalry—sometimes even de¬ 
fending themselves singly and kill¬ 
ing their assailants with the 


bayonet.” The National loss was eight killed and ten wounded ; 
the Confederate, thirty-three killed (including Colonel Terry, 
commanding) and fifty wounded. A Confederate account said: 
“ All in all, this is one of the most desperate fights of the war. 
It was hand to hand from first to last. No men could have 
fought more desperately than the enemy. The Rangers were 
equally reckless. Colonel Terry, always in the front, discovered 
a nest of five of the enemy. He leaped in his saddle, waved 
his hat, and said, ‘Come on, boys! Here’s another bird’s nest.’ 
He fired and killed two of them. The other three fired at him 
simultaneously. One shot killed his charger; another shot 
killed him. He fell headlong from his horse without a moan or 
a groan. At the same time, Paulding Anderson and Dr. Cowan 
rode up and despatched the remaining three of the enemy. 
When Colonel Terry’s fall was announced it at once prostrated 
his men with grief. The fight ended here. ’ This action is also 
known by the name of Rowlett’s Station and Woodsonville. 

On December 28th a small detachment of cavalry, led by 
Major Murray*left camp near Calhoun, Ky., for a scout across 
Green River. Near Sacramento they were surprised and 
attacked by seven hundred cavalry under Colonel Forrest. 
They sustained an almost hand-to-hand fight for half an hour, 
and then, as their ammunition was exhausted, retreated. It is 
impossible to reconcile the accounts of the losses; but it is 
certain that Capt. A. G. Bacon was killed on the National 
side, and Lieutenant-Colonel Meriwether of the 
Confederates. This closed the first year s fight¬ 
ing in Kentucky. 

In Missouri there were special and 
strong reasons against secession. Her 
slave population was comparatively 
small, and her soil and climate were 
suited to crops that do not require 
labor. She was farthest 
north of any slave State ; and if 
she had joined thtg Confederacy, 
and it had established itself, she 
would have been bordered on 



REVIEW OF CONFEDERATE TROOPS EN ROUTE TO THE FRONT, PASSING PULASKI MONUMENT, SAVANNAH, GA. 

































































































SIEGE OF LEXINGTON, MISSOURI. 































































































































































































































































































































































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


three sides by foreign territory, with noth¬ 
ing but a surveyed line for the boundary 
on two of those sides. Moreover, there was 
a large German element in her population, 
industrious, opposed to slavery, loving the 
Union, and belonging, to a considerable 
extent, to the Republican party. In the 
presidential election of i860, 26,430 Repub¬ 
lican votes were cast in slave States (all in 
border States), and of these 17,028 were 
cast in Missouri. Delaware gave the next 
highest number—3,815. Of 148,490 Demo¬ 
cratic votes cast in Missouri, but 31,317 
were for Breckinridge, the extreme pro¬ 
slavery candidate. Nevertheless, the seces¬ 
sionists made a strong effort to get Missouri 
out of the Union. The methods pursued 
have been described in a previous chapter, 
together with the results of the first fi slit- 

o o 

ing, and the defeat and death of General 
Lyon in the battle of Wilson’s Creek. 

A Confederate force—or rather the ma¬ 
terials for a force, for the men were poorly 
equipped and hardly drilled at all—commanded by Colonel 
Hunter, was gathered at Charleston, Mo., in August, encamped 
about the court-house ; and on the 19th Colonel Dougherty, of 
the Twenty-second Illinois Regiment, set out to capture it. He 
arrived at Camp Lyon in the evening with three hundred men, 
learned of the position of the enemy, and said to Captain 
Abbott, who had made the reconnoissance: “ We are going to 
take Charleston to-night. You stay here and engage the enemy 


> 1 7 

till we come back.” Then to his men : 
“ Battalion, right face forward, march ! ” 
As they neared the town, double quick was 
ordered,' and the two companies in the ad¬ 
vance proceeded rapidly, but the following 
ones became somehow separated. These 
two companies drove in the pickets, fol¬ 
lowed them sharply, and charged into the 
town, scattering the small detachment of 
raw cavalry. The second in command then 
asked of Colonel Dougherty what should 
be done next. “ Take the court-house, or 
bust,” he answered ; and at once that build¬ 
ing was attacked. The Confederates fired 
from the windows; but the assailants con¬ 
centrated a destructive fire upon it, and 
then rushed in at the doors. Some es¬ 
caped through the windows, some were 
shot down while attempting to do so, and 
many were captured. Later in the day a 
company of Illinois cavalry pursued the 
retreating Confederates, and captured forty 
more, with many horses. In this engage¬ 
ment Lieutenant-Colonel Ransom had a personal encounter 
with a Confederate officer, who rode up to him and called out: 
“What do you mean? \ou are killing our own men.”—“I 
know what I am doing,” answered Ransom. “ Who are you ? ” 
—“ I am for Jeff Davis,” said the stranger. “ Then you are the 
man I am after,” said Ransom, and they drew their pistols. 
The Confederate fired first, and wounded Ransom in the arm, 
who then fired and killed his antagonist. The National loss 



COLONEL JAMES A. MULLIGAN. 



tuauintJI 


BURYING THE DEAD, 

















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


118 

was one killed and four wounded. The Confederate loss was 
reported at forty killed ; number of wounded, unknown. 

Late in August, when it was learned that a movement against 
Lexington, on Missouri River, was about to be made by a strong 
Confederate force under General Price, measures were taken to 
reinforce the small garrison and prevent the place from falling 
into the hands of the enemy. The Twenty-third Illinois Regi¬ 
ment, Col. James A. Mulligan, which was called “the Irish 
Brigade,” was ordered thither from Jefferson City, and other 
reinforcements were promised. Mulligan, with his command, 
set out at once, marched nine days, foraging on the country, and 
on reaching Lexington found there a regiment of cavalry and 
one of home guards. The next day the Thirteenth Missouri 
Regiment, retreating from Warrensburg, joined them. This gave 
Mulligan a total force of about two thousand eight hundred 
men, who had forty rounds of ammunition, and he had seven 
field-guns and a small quantity of provisions. He took possession 
of the hill east of the town, on which stood the Masonic College, 
and proceeded to fortify. His lines enclosed about eighteen 
acres, and he had put but half a day’s work on them when, in 
the evening of September nth, the enemy appeared. In the 
morning of the 12th the fighting began, when a part of Mulli¬ 
gan’s men drove back the enemy’s advance and burned a bridge, 
which compelled them to make a detour and approach the place 
by another road. Again Mulligan sent out a detachment to 
check them while his remaining force worked on the intrench- 
ments, and there was brisk fighting in the cemetery at the edge 
of the town. In the afternoon there was a lively artillery duel, 
and the National forces held their own, dismounting a Confeder¬ 
ate gun, exploding a caisson, and causing the enemy to with¬ 
draw at dusk to a camp two miles away. The next day the 
garrison fitted up a small foundry, in which they cast shot for 
their cannon, obtained powder and made cartridges, and con¬ 
tinued the work on the intrenchments. The great want was 
provisions and water. In the next five days the Confederates 
were heavily reinforced, while the little garrison looked in vain 
for the promised help. 

On the 18th a determined attack in force was made. Colonel 
Mulligan wrote : “ They came as one dark moving mass, their 
guns beaming in the sun, their banners waving, and their drums 
beating. Everywhere, as far as we could see, were men, men, men, 
approaching grandly. Our spies had brought intelligence and 
had all agreed that it was the intention of the enemy to make a 
grand rush, overwhelm us, and bury us in the trenches of Lex¬ 
ington.” Mulligan’s men sustained the shock bravely, and the 
enemy met such a deadly fire that they could not get to the 
’works. But meanwhile they had interposed a force between 
the works and the river, shutting off the supply of water, and 
they kept up a heavy bombardment with sixteen pieces of 
artillery. They also took possession of a large house outside 
the lines which was used as a hospital, and filled it with sharp¬ 
shooters. Mulligan ordered two companies—one of home guards 
and one from the Fourteenth Missouri—to drive them out, but 
they refused to undertake so hazardous a task. He then sent a 
company from his Irish regiment, who rushed gallantly across 
the intervening space, burst in the doors, took possession of the 
house, and (under an impression that the laws of war had been 
violated in thus using a hospital for sharp-shooters) killed every 
Confederate soldier caught inside. Two hours later the Con¬ 
federates in turn drove them out and again occupied the building. 
Firing was kept up through the 19th; and on the 20th the 
besiegers obtained bales of hemp, wet them, and rolling them 


along before them as a movable breastwork, were enabled to 
approach the intrenchments. Bullets would not go through 
these bales, and red-hot shot would not set them on fire. Yet 
the fight still continued for some hours, until the ammunition of 
the garrison was all but exhausted. For five days they had had 
no water except as they could catch rain when it fell, the provis¬ 
ions were eaten up, and there was no sign of the promised rein¬ 
forcements. There was nothing to do but surrender. Mulligan 
had lost one hundred and fifty men killed or wounded ; the 
Confederate report acknowledged a loss of one hundred, which 
probably was far short of the truth. A correspondent who was 
present wrote: “Hundreds of the men who fought on the 
Confederate side were attached to no command. They came in 
when they pleased, fought or not as they pleased, left when 
ready, and if killed were buried on the spot—were missed from 
no muster-roll, and hence would not be reckoned in the aggre¬ 
gate loss. The Confederates vary in their statements. One 
said they lost sixty killed ; another said their loss was at least 
equal to that of the Federals ; while still another admitted to 
me that the taking of the works cost them a thousand men. I 
saw one case that shows the Confederate style of fighting. An 
old Texan, dressed in buckskin and armed with a long rifle, used 
to go up to the works every morning about seven o’clock, carry¬ 
ing his dinner in a tin pail. Taking a good position, he banged 
away at the Federals till noon, then rested an hour and ate his 
dinner, after which he resumed operations till six P. M., when he 
returned home to supper and a night’s sleep.” The privates of 
Mulligan’s command were paroled, and the officers held as 
prisoners. 

In October the National troops stationed at Pilot Knob, Mo., 
commanded by Col. J. B. Plummer, were ordered to march 
on Fredericktown and attack a Confederate force there, two 
thousand strong, commanded by Gen. Jeff. Thompson. They 
arrived at that place in the evening of the 21st, and found that 
it had just been evacuated. They consisted of Indiana, Illinois, 
and Wisconsin troops, with cavalry and a battery, and numbered 
about three thousand five hundred. Three thousand more, com¬ 
manded by Col. W. P. Carlin, marched from Cape Girardeau and 
joined them at Fredericktown. About half of the entire force 
was then sent in pursuit of the enemy, who was found just south 
of the town. An engagement was at once begun with artillery, 
and then the Seventeenth Illinois Regiment charged upon the 
Confederate battery and captured one gun. Then followed a 
running fight that lasted four hours, the Confederates stopping 
frequently to make a temporary stand and fire a few rounds 
from their battery. As these positions were successively charged 
or flanked, and attacked with artillery and musketry, they retired 
from them. At five o’clock in the afternoon the pursuit was 
discontinued, and the National forces returned to Fredericktown. 
They had lost seven men killed and sixty wounded. They had 
captured two field-pieces and taken sixty prisoners, and the next 
day they buried a hundred and sixty Confederate dead. Among 
the enemy’s killed was Colonel Lowe, second in command. 

A few days later there was a brilliant affair at Springfield, not 
far from the scene of General Lyon’s defeat and death in August. 
There w r as a small, select cavalry organization known as General 
Fremont’s body-guard, commanded by Major Charles Zagonyi, a 
Hungarian, who had seen service in Europe. On thtr54th Za¬ 
gonyi received orders to take a part of his command, and Major 
White’s battalion of prairie scouts, and march on Springfield, 
fifty miles distant, with all possible haste. It was supposed that 
the Confederate troops there numbered four hundred. The 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


oidei was obeyed with alacrity, and early the next day he neared 
the town. Here he captured half a dozen Confederate soldiers 
of a foraging party, and from them and certain Unionists among 
the inhabitants, he learned that the enemy in the towm numbered 
two thousand instead of four hundred. Undaunted by this, 
he lesolved to push forward. Some of the foraging party who 
escaped carried the news of his approach, and the Confederates 
made quick dispositions to receive him. Finding a regiment 
drawn up beside the road, he avoided it by a detour and came 


119 

eye-witness wrote : “ Some fled wildly toward the town, pursued 
by the insatiate guards, who, overtaking them, either cut them 
down with their sabres or levelled them with shots from their 
pistols. Some were even chased through the streets of the city 
and then killed in hand-to-hand encounters with their pursuers.” 
Zagonyi raised the National flag on the court-house, detailed a 
guard to attend to his wounded, and then retired to Bolivar. 
His own account of the fight, given in Mrs. Fremont’s “Story 
of the Guard,” is quaint and interesting. 



FORTIFICATIONS AND INTRENCHMENTS AT PILOT KNOB, MO. 


in on another road, but here also the enemy were ready for him. 
Placing his own command in the advance, with himself at the 
head, he prepared to charge straight into the midst of the enemy. 
For some unknown reason, White’s command, instead of follow¬ 
ing directly, counter-marched to the left, and Zagonyi with his 
one hundred and sixty men went in alone. They began with a 
trot, and soon increased the pace to a gallop, unmindful of the 
fire of skirmishers in the woods, which emptied several of their 
saddles. The enemy, infantry and cavalry, was drawn up in the 
form of a hollow square, in an open field. Zagonyi’s band rode 
down a lane, jumped a brook, threw down a fence, and then 
charged rieht across the field into the midst of their foes, spread- 
ing out fan-like as they neared them, and using their pistols and 
sabres vigorously. The Confederate cavalry gave way and 
scattered almost at once ; the infantry stood a little longer, and 
then retreated. Major White with his command came up just 
in time to strike them in the flank, completing the rout. An 


“ About four o’clock I arrived on the highest point on the 
Ozark Mountains. Not seeing any sign of the enemy, I halted * 
my command, made them known that the enemy instead of four 
hundred is nineteen hundred. But I promised them victory if 
they will be what I thought and expected them to be. If any 
of them too much fatigued from the fifty-six miles, or sick, or 
unwell, to step forward ; but nobody was worn out. (Instead of 
worn out, it is true that every eye was a fist big.) I made them 
known that this day I want to fight the first and the last hard 
battle, so that if they meet us again they shall know with who 
they have to do and remember the Body-Guard. And ordered 
quick march. Besides, I tell them, whatever we meet, to keep 
together and look after me ; would I fall, not to give up, but to 
avenge mine death. To leave every ceremonious cuts away in 
the battlefield and use only right cut and thrust. Being young, 

I thought they might be confused in the different cuts, and the 
Hungarian hussars say ‘Never defend yourselves—better make 












CHARGE OF FREMONT'S BODY-GUARD UNDER MAJOR ZAGONYI, NEAR SPRINGFIELD, MO. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


121 


your defend himself and you go in. I just mention 

them that you know very well that I promised you that I will 
lead you shortly to show that we are not a fancy and only guard- 
doing-duty soldiers, but fighting men. My despatch meant 
what I will do. In the hour I get the news my mind was 
settled. I say, Thank God, if I am to fight, it is not four 
hundred ! but nineteen hundred ! I halt my men again and say, 



PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY 

‘Soldiers! When I was to recruit you, I told 
you you was not parade soldiers, but for war. 

The enemy is more than we. The enemy is 
two thousand, and we are but one hundred and 
fifty. It is possible no man will come back. 

No man will go that thinks the enemy too 
many. He can ride back. (I see by the 
glimpsing of their eye they was mad to be 
chanced a coward.) The Guard that follow 
me will take for battle-cry, “Fremont and the 
Union,” and— CHARGE —!’ Running down the lane between 
the cross-fire, the First Company followed close, but the rest 
stopped for a couple seconds. I had not wondered if none had 
come —young soldiers and such a tremendous fire, bullets 
coming like a rain. 

“As I arrived down on the creek I said aloud, ‘If I could send 
somebody back I would give my life for it. We are lost here if 
they don’t follow.’ My Adjutant, Majthenyi, heari-ng, feared 
that he will be sent back, jumped down from his horse and busy 



himself opening the fence. I expected to find the enemy on 
the other end of Springfield, but, unexpectedly coming out of 
the woods to an open place, I was fired on in front of mine 
command. Halted for a minute, seeing that, or a bold forward 
march under a cross-fire, or a doubtful retreat with losing most 
of my men, I took the first and commanded ‘March!’ Under a 
heavy cross-fire (in trot), down the little hill in the lane—-two 
hundred yards—to a creek, where I ordered the fence to be 
opened—marched in my command—ordered them to form, 
and with the war-cry of ‘ Fremont and the Union,’ we made the 
attack. The First Company, forty-seven strong, against five or 
six hundred infantry, and the rest against the cavalry, was made 
so successfully, that, in three minutes, the cavalry run in every 
direction, and the infantry retreated in the thick wood, and their 
cavalry in every direction. The infantry we were not able to 
follow in the woods, so that we turned against the running 
cavalry. With those we had in different places, and in differing 
numbers, attacked and dispersed-—not only in one place, but 
our men were so much emboldened, that twenty or thirty 
attacked twenty, thirty times their numbers, and these single- 
handed attacks, fighting here and there on their own hook, did 
us more harm than their grand first attack. By them we lost 
our prisoners. Single-handed they fought bravely, specially 
one—a lieutenant—who, in a narrow lane, wanted to cut him¬ 
self through about sixty of us, running in that direction. But 
he was not able to go very far. Firing two or three times, he 
ran against me, and put his revolver on my side, but, through 
the movement of the horse, the shot passed behind me. He 
was a perfect target—first cut down and after shot. He was a 
brave man ; for that reason I felt some pity to kill him. We 
went to their encampment, but the ground 
was deserted, and we returned to the Court¬ 
house, raised the company-flag, liberated 
prisoners, and collected my forces together— 
which numbered not more, including myself, 
than seventy men on horseback. The rest— 
without horses, or wounded, and about thirty 
who had dispersed in pursuit of the enemy— 
I could not gather up; and it was midnight 
before they reached me—and some of them 
next day. I never was sick in my life, 
Madame, till what time I find myself leaving 
Springfield, in the dark, with only sixty-nine 
men and officers—I was the seventy. I was 
perfectly sick and disheartened, so I could 
hardly sit in the saddle, to think of so dear 
a victory. But it ended so that fifteen is 
dead—two died after—ten prisoners, who was 
released, and of the wounded, not one will 
lose a finger. In all seventeen lost.” 

“The bugler (Frenchman) I ordered him 
two three time to put his sword away and 
take the bugle in his hand, that I shall be 
able to use him. Hardly I took my eyes down, next minute 
I seen him, sword in the hand, all bloody; and this he done two 
or three times. Finally, the mouth of the bugle being shot 
away, the bugler had excuse for gratifying himself in use of the 
sword. One had a beautiful wound through the nose. ‘ My boy,’ 
I told him, ‘ I would give any thing for that wound.’ After 
twenty-four hours it was beautiful—just the mark enough to 
show a bullet has passed through; but, poor fellow, he cannot 
even show it. It healed up so as to leave no mark at all. He 


MAJOR CHARLES ZAGONYI. 




















































122 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


had also five on his leg and shoulder, and the fifth wound he 
only found after six days; he could not move easy, for that 
reason he was late to find there was two wounds in the legs.” 

Early in November, General Grant was ordered to make 
demonstrations on both sides of the Mississippi near Columbus, 
to prevent the Confederates from sending reinforcements to 
General Price, in Southern Missouri, and also to prevent them 
from interfering with the movements of certain detachments of 
National troops. On the 6th he left Cairo with three thousand 
men, on five steamers, convoyed by two gunboats, and passed 
down the river to the vicinity of Columbus. To attack that 
place would have been hopeless, as it was well fortified and 
strongly garrisoned. He landed his troops on the Missouri side 
on the 7th, and put them in motion toward Belmont, opposite 
Columbus, deploying skirmishers and looking for the enemy. 
They had not gone far before the enemy was encountered, and 
then it became a fight through the woods from tree to tree. 
After two or three miles of this, they arrived at a fortified camp 
surrounded with abatis. Grant’s men charged at once, succeeded 
in making their way through the obstructions, and soon captured 
the camp with the artillery and some prisoners. But most of 
the Confederates escaped and crossed the river in their own 
boats, or took shelter under the bank. The usual result of cap¬ 
turing a camp was soon seen. The victors laid down their arms 
and devoted themselves to plundering, while some amused 
themselves with the captured guns, firing at empty steamers. 
Meanwhile the defeated men under the bank regained confi¬ 
dence and rallied, and two steamers filled with Confederate sol¬ 
diers were sent over from Columbus ; while the guns there, com¬ 
manding the western bank, were trained and fired upon the 
camp. To stop the plundering and bring his men to order, 
Grant had the camp set on fire and then ordered a retreat. The 
men formed rapidly, with deployed skirmishers, and retired 
slowly to the boats, Grant himself being the last one to go on 
board. Some of the wounded were taken on the transports, 
others were left on the field. The National loss was 485 ; the 
Confederate loss was 642, including 175 carried off as prisoners. 
The Unionists also spiked four guns and brought off two. Both 
sides claimed this action as a victory—Grant, because he had 


accomplished the object for which he set out, preventing rein¬ 
forcements from being sent to Price ; the Confederates, because 
they were left in possession of the field. But it was generally 
discussed as a disaster to the National arms. There were many 
interesting incidents. One man who had both legs shot off was 
found in the woods singing “ The Star Spangled Banner.” An¬ 
other, who was mortally wounded, had propped himself up 
against a tree and thought to take a smoke. He was found 
dead with his pipe in one hand, his knife in the other, and the 
tobacco on his breast. A Confederate correspondent told this 
story: “ When the two columns came face to face, Colonel 
Walker’s regiment was immediately opposed to the Seventh 
Iowa, and David Vollmer, drawing the attention of a comrade to 
the stars and stripes that floated over the enemy, avowed his 
intention of capturing the colors or dying in the attempt. The 
charge was made, and as the two columns came within a few 
yards of each other, Vollmer and a young man named Lynch 
both made a rush for the colors ; but Vollmer’s bayonet first 
pierced the breast of the color-bearer, and, grasping the flag, he 
waved it over his head in triumph. At this moment he and 
Lynch were both shot dead. Captain Armstrong stepped forth 
to capture the colors, when he also fell, grasping the flagstaff.” 
Another correspondent wrote: “The Seventh Iowa suffered 
more severely than any other regiment. It fought continually 
against fearful odds. Ever pushing onward through the timber, 
on their hands and knees, they crawled with their standard 
waving over them until they reached the cornfield on the left of 
the enemy’s encampment, where their cannon was planted, and 
drove them from their guns, leaving them still unmanned, know¬ 
ing that other forces were following them up. Their course 
was still onward until they entered on the camp-ground of the 
foe and tore down the flag.” 

Besides those here described, there were many smaller en¬ 
gagements in Missouri—at Piketon, Lancaster, Salem, Black 
Walnut Creek, Milford, Hudson, and other places. There were 
also encounters in Florida, in New Mexico, and in Texas ; none 
of them being important, but all together showing that the 
struggle begun this year had spread over a vast territory and 
that a long and bloody war was before the people of our country. 





-W.sft- ■ 'Ahum, 








ABATIS. 










T is probable that war songs are the oldest human compositions. In every nation they 
have sprung into existence at the very dawning of national life. The first Grecian 
poems of which we have any record are war songs, chanted to inspire or maintain 


warlike enthusiasm. Not only did they sing martial melodies as they attacked their 
enemies, but when the conflict was over, and the victory won, they also sang triumphal 
odes as they returned to camp. Martial odes that were sung in Gaul by the conquering 
legions of Julius Cmsar have been handed down to the present time. The student of 
the history and the literature of Spain finds many traces of the war songs that the 
all-conquering Romans sang as they marched over the mountains or across the valleys 
of that then dependent nationality. And long before the time of Caesar, Servius Tullius 
ordered that two whole centuriae should consist of trumpeters, horn-blowers, etc., to 
sound the charge. In these and subsequent ages, war songs were sung in chorus by 
a whole army in advancing to the attack. If further proof of the antiquity of military 
music were needed, a conclusive one is to be found in 2 Chronicles, xx. 21, where it 
is said that when Jehoshaphat went to battle against the hosts of Ammon “he placed 
a choir of singers in front of his army.” 

Wonderful indeed is the war song when studied as to its influence in early times on 
history. By the power of arms, by the spirit of conquest, did nations arise and continue 
to exist. The warrior made the nation, and the poet sang and immortalized the warrior’s fame ; and thus it came to pass that 
great honor was bestowed upon the poets. Among old Arab tribes, fires were lighted and great rejoicings made by their warriors 


"THE PICKET'S OFF DUTY FOREVER." 


WAR SONGS. 

















124 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


when a poet had manifested himself among them, for in his 
songs they anticipated their own glory. In many ancient 
countries, the bards that sang of battles were regarded as really 
inspired, and their poetic productions were considered as the 
language of the gods. Centuries passed before that admiration 
bestowed upon the singer of war songs was impaired. The 
ancient literature of many European countries presents numerous 
indications that the warrior-poets were treated with great con¬ 
sideration ; were forgiven by their sovereigns for serious offences 
on condition that they write a new war song, and were paid what 
would seem at this day enormous prices for their compositions. 
It is related that on one occasion King Athelstane, of the Anglo- 
Saxons, paid a poet sixteen ounces of pure gold for a laudatory 
song. When the greater value of gold in that distant age is 
considered, it is probable that no living poet is better paid for 
his productions than was this old singer whose ballads breathed 
of bloodshed and slaughter. 

The marvellous influence of war songs over the ancient Norse¬ 
men is difficult to understand. They were aroused to a high 
degree of military enthusiasm, almost to madness, by the mere 
words of certain songs. That it was this influence which fre¬ 
quently drove them onward to great deeds, appears in every 
chapter of their life history. It was the courage and frenzy 
aroused by Teutonic war songs that led to the destruction of 
Rome, and shattered the civilization of southern Europe. 

That the influence of the war song over the minds and the 
hearts of men did not terminate with the long ago past, is appar¬ 
ent to every student of modern history. Garibaldi’s warlike Hymn 
of the Italians, the stirring “ Marseillaise ” of the light-hearted 
French, the vigorous “ Britannia ” of the sturdy English, have 
inspired determination and aroused courage on many a bloody 
battlefield. How frequently during our own civil war was 
retreat checked, and the tide of battle turned, by the singing of 
“ We'll Rally round the Flag, Boys,” started at the opportune 
moment by some brave soldier with a vigorous and melodious 
voice. It has been saidthat the Portuguese soldiers in Ceylon, 
at the siege of Colombo, when pressed with misery and the pangs 
of hunger, during their marches, derived not only consolation 
but also encouragement from singing stanzas of their national 
song. 

It is a singular fact that no great national hymn, and no war 
song that arouses and cheers, was ever written by a distinguished 
poet. It would seem that a National Hymn is the sort of mate¬ 


rial that cannot be made to order. Not one of the best-known 
songs of our own civil war—in the North or in the South—was 
written by an eminent poet. Five of the greatest American 
poets were living during the great conflict, and four of them 
gave expression to its military ardor, determinate zeal, or pathos, 
but none of them so sung as to touch the popular heart ; that is 
to say, so as to secure the attention of those who do not read 
poetry. The sarr e is true of the composers of the national 
anthems and great martial ballads of nearly every other country. 
The thunder roar of the “ Marseillaise,” before which all the other 
military songs of France are dull and weak, was produced by 
De l’lsle, who lives in the memory of his countrymen and of the 
world for this alone. The noble measures of “ God Save the 
King ” are not the work of any one of the great British poets, 
but were probably written by Henry Carey ; but this is in dis¬ 
pute, and innumerable Englishmen sing the anthem without 
even attempting to learn the name of the composer. 

The Prussian National Anthem was not written by a Goethe, a 
Schiller, or even a Koner. The name of the writer, Schnecken- 
burger, would not be found in books of reference had he not 
written “ The Watch on the Rhine.” The favorite national 
song of the Italians, known as the “ Garibaldian Hymn,” is the 
composition of Mercantini, of whom little is known. 

Our own country is especially fortunate in the quality of its 
great national songs. “ The Star Spangled Banner ” breathes 
the loftiest and purest patriotism. The English National Hymn 
is but a prayer for blessings on the head of the king—the ruler. 
The “ Marseillaise ” is calculated to arouse only the spirit of 
slaughter and bloodshed. Truer than any of these to pure, 
lofty, and patriotic zeal is our own “ Star Spangled Banner.” 

From our Civil War we have received at least two war songs 
which, simply as such, are fit to rank with the best of any coun¬ 
try—“John Brown’s Body ” and “ Marching through Georgia.” 
The greatest of the Southern war lyrics—“ My Maryland ”—is 
equal to these as a powerful lyric. It is said that fully two 
thousand poems and songs pertaining to the war, both North 
and South, were written during the first year of this conflict. 
But most of them are now wholly unknown, except to the 
special student. Perhaps a score of compositions, the result of 
the poetic outburst inspired by the Civil War, possess such merit 
that they will survive through centuries as part of the literary 
heritage of the nation. Of such we give in this collection about 
twenty that seem to us the best and most popular. 









CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


125 


NORTHERN SONGS. 

TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP, THE BOYS ARE MARCHING. 

This is one of the numerous war songs written by Mr. George F. Root. Among his others are “ Just before the Battle, 
Mother,” and the “ Battle-Cry of Freedom.” It is difficult to say which of these three was the most popular. There was a 
touch of pathos in “Just before the Battle, Mother,” which made the words impressive and thrilling to the hearts of men 
away from home and fireside. Many a brave soldier considered death itself preferable to captivity and incarceration in prison 
pens. How sad, then, must have been the lot of the soldiers who sat in prison cells and heard the “ tramp, tramp, tramp,” 
of the marching boys! Mr. Root was the composer as well as the author of the three great songs mentioned above. 



In the prison cell I sit, 

Thinking-, mother dear, of you, 

And our bright and happy home so far away 
And the tears they fill my eyes, 

Spite of all that I can do, 

Though I try to cheer my comrades and be f 


CHORUS 


Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching 
Cheer up, comrades, they will come, 

And beneath the starry flag 
We shall breathe the air again 
Of the free-land in our own beloved home. 


In the battle front we stood 

When their fiercest charge they made, 

And they swept us off a hundred men or more 
But before we reached their lines 
They were beaten back dismayed, 

And we heard the cry of vict’ry o’er and o’er. 


So within the prison cell 
We are waiting for the day 
That shall come to open wide the iron door; 

And the hollow eye grows bright, 

And the poor heart almost gay, 

As we think of seeing home and friends once more 






































































126 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


ALL QUIET ALONG THE POTOMAC TO-NIGHT. 




One cool September morning in 1861, a young woman living in Goshen, Orange County, N. Y., read the familiar announce¬ 
ment from the seat of war near Washington, “All quiet on the Potomac,” to which was added in smaller type, “ A picket shot.” 

These simple words were the inspiration of a celebrated war song, which is as popular now as when 
it first appeared. This song was first published in Harper s Weekly for November 30, 1861, and it has 
had many claimants; but after careful investigation, there appears to be no reason whatever for 
disputing the claim of Mrs. Ethel Lynn Beers. She died in Orange, N. J., October 10, 1879. 


All quiet along the Potomac to-night, 

Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming; 
Their tents in the rays of the clear autumn moon, 
Or the light of the watch-fire, are gleaming. 

A tremulous sigh of the gentle night-wind 
Through the forest leaves softly is creeping; 
While stars up above, with their glittering eyes, 
Keep guard, for the army is sleeping. 


“ All quiet along the Potomac," they say, 

“ Except now and then a stray picket 
Is shot, as he walks on his beat to and fro, 
By a rifleman hid in the thicket. 

’Tis nothing—a private or two now and then 
Will not count in the news of the battle ; 
Not an officer lost—only one of the men, 
Moaning out, all alone, the death-rattle." 


There’s only the sound of the lone sentry’s tread, 
As he tramps from the rock to the fountain, 
And thinks of the two in the low trundle-bed 
Far away in the cot on the mountain. 

His musket falls slack ; his face, dark and grim, 
Grows gentle with memories tender, 

As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep, 
For their mother—may Heaven defend her! 


The moon seems to shine just as brightly as then, 
That night, when the love yet unspoken 
Leaped up to his lips—when low-murmured vows 
Were pledged to be ever unbroken. 

Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes, 

He dashes off tears that are welling, 

And gathers his gun closer up to its place, 

As if to keep down the heart-swelling. 


He passes the fountain, the blasted pine-tree— 

The footstep is lagging and weary ; 

Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light, 
Toward the shade of the forest so dreary. 

Hark ! was it the night-wind that rustled the leaves ? 

Was it moonlight so wondrously flashing ? 

It looked like a rifle . . . “Ha! Mary, good-by!" 
The red life-blood is ebbing and plashing. 


All quiet along the Potomac to-night; 

No sound save the rush of the river; 

While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead— 
The picket’s off duty forever ! 


'opaiand £ 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


12 ; 


THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC 


Perhaps the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,’’ by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, may be considered the most lofty in sentiment and 
the most elevated in style of the martial songs of American patriotism. During the close of the year 1861, Mrs. Howe with 
a party of friends visited Washington. While there she attended a review of the Union troops on the Virginia side of the 
Potomac and not far from the city. During her stay in camp she witnessed a sudden and unexpected attack of the enemy. 

Thus she had a glimpse of genuine warfare. On the ride back to the city the party sang a number of war songs, including 

“ John Brown’s Body." One of the party remarked that the tune was a grand one, and altogether superior to the words of 
the song. Mrs. Howe responded to the effect that she would endeavor to write other words that might be sung to this stirring 
melody. That night, while she was lying in a dark room, line after line and verse after verse of the “ Battle Hymn of the 

Republic” was composed. In this way every verse of the song was carefully thought out. Then, springing from the bed, she 

found a pen and piece of paper and wrote out the words of this rousing patriotic hymn. It was often sung in the course 
of the war and under a great variety of circumstances. 


Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord ; 

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored ; 
He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword ; 

His truth is marching on. 

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps ; 

They have budded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps ; 

I have read His righteous sentence in the dim and flaring lamps ; 

His day is marching on. 


I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel : 

“ As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal ; 
Let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, 

Since God is marching on. 

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ; 

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat; 

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him ! be jubilant, my feet ! 

Our God is marching on. 


In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, 
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me ; 
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
While God is marching on. 


WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER. 


WITH the English soldiers a popular song in war times is the well known “ Annie Laurie.” It is said that during the 
Crimean War this sentimental ditty was sung by the English forces more frequently than any other melody. Several songs 
of similar sentimentality were famous on both sides during the civil war. The boys in gray sang Lorena at the very 
beginning of the war, and never stopped till the last musket was stacked, and the last campfire cold. The boys in blue 
sang “Mother, I’ve Come Home to Die,” “Just before the Battle, Mother,” “When this Cruel War is Over,” and other songs 
of sentiment and affection. “ When this Cruel War is Over was wiitten by Chailes C. Sawyer, of Brooklyn, L. \ ., and was 
published in the autumn of 1861. More than one million copies of the song have been sold. Some of the other compositions 
by Mr. Sawyer are “Swinging in the Lane” and “Peeping through the Bars.” 


Dearest love, do you remember 
When we last did meet, 

How you told me that you loved me, 
Kneeling at my feet ? 

Oh, how proud you stood before me, 
In your suit of blue, 

When you vowed to me and country 
Ever t<5 be true ! 

Weeping, sad and lonely, 

Hopes and fears, how vain ; 

Yet praying 

When this cruel war is over, 
Praying that we meet again. 

When the summer breeze is sighing 
Mournfully along, 

Or when autumn leaves are falling. 
Sadly breathes the song. 

Oft in dreams I see you lying 
On the battle-plain, 


Lonely, wounded, even dying, 

Calling, but in vain. 

If, amid the din of battle, 

Nobly you should fall, 

Far away from those who love you, 
None to hear you call, 

Who would whisper words of comfort ? 

Who would soothe your pain ? 

Ah, the many cruel fancies 
Ever in my brain ! 

But our country called you, darling, 
Angels cheer your way ! 

While our nation’s sons are fighting, 

We can only pray. 

Nobly strike for God and liberty, 

Let all nations see 
How we love the starry banner, 
Emblem of the free ! 


128 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


WE ARE COMING, FATHER ABRAHAM. 

In the dark days of 1862 President Lincoln issued a proclamation asking for three hundred thousand volunteers to fill the 
stricken ranks of the army, and to make the cry of “ On to Richmond ” an accomplished fact. Immediately after this call, 
Mr. James Sloane Gibbons, a native of Wilmington, Del., living in New York City, wrote: 

“ We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more.” 



This must have contributed largely to the accomplishment of the military uprising which it relates. The stanzas were first 
published anonymously in the New York Evening Post of July 16,1862. Owing to this fact, perhaps, its authorship was at first 

attributed to William C. Bryant. Mr. Gibbons joined the aboli¬ 
tion movement when only twenty years of age, and was for a 
time one of the editors of the Anti-Slavery Standard. When the 
Emancipation Proclamation was issued, he illuminated his resi¬ 
dence in New York City. A short time afterward, during the 

draft riots, he was 
mobbed, and only by 
the assistance of friends 
was he able to save his 
life by escaping over 
the roofs of adjoining 
houses to another street, 
where a friend had a 
carriage waiting for 
him. He died October 
17, 1892. 


You have called us, and we’re coming, by Richmond’s bloody tide, 
To lay us down, for Freedom's sake, our brothers’ bones beside; 

Or from foul treason’s savage grasp to wrench the murderous blade, 
And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade. 

Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before: 

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more! 


If you look across the hill-tops that meet the northern sky, 

Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry ; 

And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside, 

And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride ; 

And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour: 
We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more ! 

If you look all up our valleys where the growing harvests shine, 
You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast falling into line; 

And children from their mother’s knees are pulling at the weeds, 
And learning how to reap and sow, against their country’s needs ; 
And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door: 

We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more ! 


We are coming, Father Abraham, 
three hundred thousand more, 
From Mississippi’s winding stream 
and from New England’s shore ; 
We leave our ploughs and workshops, 
our wives and children dear, 

With hearts too full for utterance, 
with but a silent tear ; 

We dare not look behind us, but 
steadfastly before : 

We are coming, Father Abraham, 
three hundred thousand more ! 

























129 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA. 

All, the great songs of the civil war, with one exception, were 
written during the first year of the conflict. This exception is 
“ Marching through Georgia.” It was written to commemorate 
one of the most remarkable campaigns of the war. Now that 
the war has been over for nearly thirty years, and the old soldier 
has no military duty more serious than fighting his battles o’er 
again, “ Marching through Georgia” has become the song dear¬ 
est to his heart. At the annual encampments of the Grand Army 


of the Republic, and at numerous meetings of the members of 
the Grand Army posts, the writer has heard this sung more fre¬ 
quently than any other. The words were composed by Mr. 
Henry C. Work, author of many well-known songs. Among the 
other best known of his patriotic lyrics are “ Grafted into the 
Army” and “ Kingdom Come.” Mr. Work was born in Middle- 
town, Conn., October i, 1832. When he was very young his 
father removed to Illinois. He was an inventor as well as a song 
writer, and among his successful inventions are a knitting 
Machine, a walking doll, and a rotary engine. He died in Hart¬ 
ford, J une 8, 1884. 



Bring me the good old bugle, boys ! we’ll sing another song 
Sing it with that spirit that will start the world along— 
Sing it as we used to sing it, fifty thousand strong, 

While we were marching through Georgia. 


chorus: 


“ Hurrah, hurrah! we bring the Jubilee ! 
Hurrah, hurrah! the flag that makes you free!” 
So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea, 
While we were marching through Georgia. 


Yes, and there were Union men who wept with joyful tears, 
When they saw the honored flag they hadn’t seen for years ; 
Hardly could they be restrained from breaking out in cheers. 
While we were marching through Georgia. 

“ Sherman’s dashing Yankee boys will never reach the coast!" 
So the saucy rebels said, and ’twas a handsome boast; 

Had they not forgotten, alas ! to reckon with the host, 

While we were marching through Georgia? 


How the darkies shouted when they heard the joyful sound ! 
How the turkeys gobbled which our commissary found ! 

How the sweet potatoes even started from the ground ! 
While we were marching through Georgia. 


So we made a thoroughfare for Freedom and her train, 
Sixty miles in latitude—three hundred to the main : 
Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain, 

While we were marching through Georgia. 
















PRAYER IN “STONEWALL" JACKSON'S CAMP 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


i 3 i 


SOUTHERN SONGS. 
DIXIE. 


Halt not till our Federation 
Secures among earth’s powers its station, 
Then at peace, and crowned with glory, 
Hear your children tell the story. 


The tune “ Dixie " was composed in 1859, by Hr. Dan D. 
Emmett, for Bryant’s Minstrels, then performing in New York 
City. It hit the taste of the New York play-going public, and 
was adopted at once by various bands of wandering minstrels, 
who sang it in all parts of the Union. In i860 it was first sung 
in New Orleans. In that city the tune was harmonized, set to 
new words, and, without the authority of the composer, was 
published. As from Boston “ John Brown’s Body ” spread 
through the North, so from New Orleans “Dixie” spread 
through the South ; and as Northern poets strove to find fitting 
words for the one, so Southern poets wrote fiery lines to fill the 
measures of the other. The only version possessing any literary 
merit is the one given in this collection. It was written by 
Gen. Albert Pike, a native of Massachusetts. In early life Mr. 
Pike moved to Little Rock, Ark., editing a paper and studying 
law in that city. He served in the Mexican war with distinc¬ 
tion, and on the breaking out of the Rebellion enlisted on the 
Confederate side a force of Cherokee Indians, whom he led at the 
battle of Pea Ridge. It is said that President Lincoln requested 
a band in Washington to play “ Dixie” in 1865, a short time 
after the surrender of Appomattox, remarking “ that, as we had 
captured the rebel army, we had captured also the rebel tune.” 


Southrons, hear your country call you ! 

Up, lest worse than death befall you ! 

To arms! To arms ! To arms, in Dixie! 
Lo ! all the beacon-fires are lighted— 

Let hearts be now united. 

To arms ! To arms ! To arms, in Dixie ! 
Advance the flag of Dixie ! 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! 

For Dixie’s land we take our stand, 

And live or die for Dixie! 

To arms ! To arms ! 

And conquer peace for Dixie ! 

To arms ! To arms ! 

And conquer peace for Dixie ! 


Hear the Northern thunders mutter ! 
Northern flags in South winds flutter. 
Send them back your fierce defiance ; 
Stamp upon the accursed alliance. 



Fear no danger! Shun no labor! 

Lift up rifle, pike, and sabre. 

Shoulder pressing close to shoulder, 
Let the odds make each heart bolder. 


How the South’s great heart re¬ 
joices 

At your cannons’ ringing voices ! 

For faith betrayed, and pledges 
broken, 

Wrongs inflicted, insults spoken. 

Strong as lions, swift as eagles, 

Back to their kennels hunt these 
beagles ! 

Cut the unequal bonds asunder; 

Let them hence each other plun¬ 
der ! 

Swear upon your country’s altar 

Never to submit or falter, 

Till the spoilers are defeated, 

Till the Lord’s work is completed. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL ALBERT PIKE, C. S A. 


If the loved ones weep in sadness, 
Victory soon shall bring them gladness, 
Exultant pride soon banish sorrow, 
Smiles chase tears away to-morrow. 


MY MARYLAND. 

“ Mv MARYLAND ” is regarded by some as the greatest song 
inspired by the civil war, and if we consider these songs as 
poems it is the best. Its burning lines, written early in 1861, 
helped to fire the Southern heart. Its author, Mr. James Ryder 
Randall, is a native of Baltimore. He was professor of English 
literature in Poydras College in Louisiana, a short distance 
from New Orleans, and there in April, 1861, he read the news 
of the attack on the Massachusetts troops as they passed 
through Baltimore. Naturally he was greatly excited on read¬ 
ing this account, and it inspired the song, which was written 
within twenty-four hours of the time he read of the assault. 
“My Maryland” is one of a number of songs written by Mr. 
Randall, but none of the others attained popularity. His 
“John Pelham,” commonly called “The Dead Cannonneer,” 
is a much finer poem. After the war he became editor of the 
Constitutionalist , published in Augusta, Ga., in which city he 
still resides. 


The despot’s heel is on thy shore, 
Maryland! 

His torch is at thy temple door, 
Maryland ! 

Avenge the patriotic gore 

That flecked the streets of Baltimore, 

And be the battle-queen of yore, 

Maryland, my Maryland ! 

Hark to an exiled son’s appeal, 

Maryland ! 

My Mother State, to thee I kneel, 
Maryland ! 

For life and death, for woe and weal, 
Thy peerless chivalry reveal, 

And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel, 
Maryland, my Maryland ! 

Thou wilt not cower in the dust, 
Maryland ! 

Thy beaming sword shall never rust, 
Maryland ! 

Remember Carroll's sacred trust, 
Remember Howard’s warlike thrust, 

And all thy slumberers with the just, 
Maryland, my Maryland ! 

Come ! ’tis the red dawn of the day, 
Maryland ! 

Come with thy panoplied array, 
Maryland ! 

With Ringgold’s spirit for the fray, 

With Watson’s blood at Monterey, 

With fearless Lowe and dashing May, 
Maryland, my Maryland ! 

Dear Mother, burst the tyrant’s chain, 
Maryland ! 

Virginia should not call in vain, 
Maryland ! 


132 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


She meets her sisters on the plain,— 

“ Sic semper!" 'tis the proud refrain 
That baffles minions back amain, 

Maryland ! 

Arise in majesty again, 

Maryland, my Maryland! 

Come ! for thy shield is bright and strong, 

Maryland ! 

Come ! for thy dalliance does thee wrong, 

Maryland ! 

Come to thine own heroic throng 
Stalking with Liberty along, 

And chant thy dauntless slogan-song, 

Maryland, my Maryland ! 

I see the blush upon thy cheek, 

Maryland ! 

For thou wast ever bravely meek, 

Maryland ! 

But lo ! there surges forth a shriek, 

» From hill to hill, from creek to creek, 

Potomac calls to Chesapeake, 

Maryland, my Maryland ! 

Thou wilt not yield the vandal toll, 

Maryland ! 

Thou wilt not crook to his control, 

Maryland 1 

Better the fire upon thee roll, 

Better the shot, the blade, the bowl, 

Than crucifixion of the soul, 

Maryland, my Maryland ! 

I hear the distant thunder-hum, 

Maryland ! 

The Old Line’s bugle, fife, and drum, 

Maryland ! 

She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb; 

Huzza ! she spurns the Northern scum— 

She breathes ! She burns ! She’ll come ! She’ll come ! 
Maryland, my Maryland ! 


REBELS. 

First published in the Atlanta Confederacy. The author 
is unknown. 

Rebels ! ’tis a holy name ! 

The name our fathers bore 
When battling in the cause of Right, 

Against the tyrant in his might, 

In the dark days of yore. 

Rebels ! ’tis our family name ! 

Our father, Washington, 

Was the arch-rebel in the fight, 

And gave the name to us—a right 
Of father unto son. 

Rebels ! ’tis our given name ! 

Our mother, Liberty, 

Received the title with her fame, 

In days of grief, of fear, and shame, 

When at her breast were we. 

Rebels ! ’tis our sealed name ! 

A baptism of blood ! 

The war—ay, and the din of strife— 

The fearful contest, life for life— 

The mingled crimson flood. 


Rebels ! ’tis a patriot’s name ! 

In struggles it was given ; 

We bore it then when tyrants raved, 

And through their curses ’twas engraved 
On the doomsday-book of heaven. 

Rebels ! ’tis our fighting name ! 

For peace rules o’er the land 
Until they speak of craven woe, 

Until our rights receive a blow 
From foe’s or brother’s hand. 

Rebels ! ’tis our dying name ! 

For although life is dear, 

Yet, freemen born and freemen bred, 
We’d rather live as freemen dead. 

Than live in slavish fear. 

Then call us rebels, if you will— 

We glory in the name ; 

For bending under unjust laws, 

And swearing faith to an unjust cause. 
We count a greater shame. 


CALL ALL. 

THIS Southern war song, which was first published in the 
Rockingham, Va., Register in 1861, became quite popular with 
the boys in gray. It is published here because of its peculiarities 
rather than on account of its literary merit. 

Whoop ! the Doodles have broken loose. 

Roaring round like the very deuce ! 

Lice of Egypt, a hungry pack— 

After ’em, boys, and drive ’em back. 

Bull-dog, terrier, cur, and fice, 

Back to the beggarly land of ice ; 

Worry ’em, bite ’em, scratch and tear 
Everybody and everywhere. 

Old Kentucky is caved from under, 

Tennessee is split asunder, 

Alabama awaits attack, 

And Georgia bristles up her back. 

Old John Brown is dead and gone ! 

Still his spirit is marching on— 

Lantern-jawed, and legs, my boys, 

Long as an ape’s from Illinois ! 

Want a weapon ? Gather a brick, 

Club or cudgel, or stone or stick ; 

Anything with a blade or butt, 

Anything that can cleave or cut ; 

Anything heavy, or hard, or keen— 

Any sort of slaying machine ! 

Anything with a willing mind 

And the steady arm of a man behind. 

Want a weapon ? Why, capture one ! 

Every Doodle has got a gun, 

Belt, and bayonet, bright and new ; 

Kill a Doodle, and capture two ! 

Shoulder to shoulder, son and sire ! 

All, call all! to the feast of fire ! 

Mother and maiden, and child and slave, 

A common triumph or a single grave. 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


133 


THE BLACK FLAG. 

The raising of the black flag means death without quarter. 
It means that prisoners taken should be slaughtered at once. 
It is contrary to the spirit of modern warfare. General Sher¬ 
man, in his celebrated letter to the Mayor of Atlanta, says, 
“War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.” War arouses the 
fiercest, most tiger-like passions of mankind. Were it not so, 
the poet who wrote “ The Mountain of the Lovers ” could 
never have written “ The Black Flag.” Paul Hamilton Hayne 
was born in Charleston, S. C., in 1830. He abandoned the 
practice of law for literary pursuits. He contributed to the 
Southern Literary Messenger, and for a while edited the Charles¬ 
ton Literary Gazette. He entered the Southern army at the 
outbreak of the civil war, and served until obliged to resign 
by failing health. His house and all his personal property 
were destroyed at the bombardment of Charleston. He wrote 
extensively both in poetry and prose. 

Like the roar of the wintry surges on a wild, tempestuous strand, 

The voice of the maddened millions comes up from an outraged land ; 
For the cup of our woe runs over, and the day of our grace is past, 
And Mercy has fled to the angels, and Hatred is king at last! 

CHORUS: 

Then up with the sable banner ! 

Let it thrill to the War God’s breath, 

For we march to the watchword—Vengeance ! 

And we follow the captain—Death ! 

In the gloom of the gory breaches, on the ramparts wrapped in flame, 
’Mid the ruined homesteads, blackened by a hundred deeds of shame ; 
Wheresoever the vandals rally, and the bands of the alien meet, 

We will crush the heads of the hydra with the stamp of our armed feet. 

They have taught us a fearful lesson ! ’tis burned on our hearts in fire, 
And the souls of a host of heroes leap with a fierce desire ; 

And we swear by all that is sacred, and we swear by all that is pure, 
That the crafty and cruel dastards shall ravage our homes no more. 

We will roll the billows of battle back, back on the braggart foe, 

Till his leaguered and stricken cities shall quake with a coward’s throe ; 
They shall compass the awful meaning of the conflict their lust begun, 
When the Northland rings with wailing, and the grand old cause hath 
won. 


LORENA. 

This doleful and pathetic song of affection was very popular 
among- the Confederate soldiers. It started at the start, and 
never stopped till the last musket was stacked and the last 
camp-fire cold. It was, without doubt, the song nearest the 
Confederate soldier’s heart. It was the “Annie Laurie” of 
the Confederate trenches. 

“ Each heart recalled a different name, 

But all sang ‘Annie Laurie.’” 


The years creep slowly by, Lorena, 

The snow is on the grass again ; 

The sun’s low down the sky, Lorena, 

And frost gleams where the flowers have been. 


But the heart throbs on as warmly now 
As when the summer days were nigh. 

Oh ! the sun can never dip so low 
Adown affection's cloudless sky. 

One hundred months have passed, Lorena, 
Since last I held that hand in mine ; 

I felt that pulse beat fast, Lorena, 

But mine beat faster still than thine. 

One hundred months! 'Twas flowery May, 
When up the mountain slope we climbed, 

To watch the dying of the day, 

And hear the merry church bells chime. 

We loved each other then, Lorena, 

More than we ever dared to tell ; 

And what we might have been, Lorena, 

Had but our loving prospered well— 

But then, 'tis past, the years have flown ; 

I’ll not call up their shadowy forms ; 

I’ll say to them, “Lost years, sleep on— 

Sleep on, nor heed life’s pelting storms.” f 

It matters little now, Lorena, 

The past is the eternal’ past; 

Our heads will soon lie low, Lorena, 

Life’s tide is ebbing out so fast. 

But there’s a future, oh ! thank God—■ 

Of life this is so small a part. 

’Tis dust to dust beneath the sod ; 

But there, up there, 'tis heart to heart." 


















CAMPFIRE AND 


BATTLEFIELD. 


“ OLD FOLKS AT HOME.” 

Mr. F. G. DE Fontaine, a celebrated Southern war corre¬ 
spondent, writes that the most popular songs with the soldiers 
of the Confederate armies were negro melodies, such as “ Old 
Folks at Home’’and “My Old Kentucky Home.” This is 
our reason for publishing the pacific and kindly words of the 
most celebrated negro melody, among songs that breathe 
threatening and slaughter. It is not difficult to understand 
why such songs were popular with men raised in the South. 
They would bring forcibly to mind the distant home, and the 
dear associations of early life on the old plantations. “ Old 
Folks at Home” was written by Stephen Collins Foster. He 
wrote between two and three hundred popular songs—more 
than any other American. Among the most familiar of his 
compositions are “Old Uncle Ned,” “ Massa’s in the Cold, 
Cold Ground,” “Old Dog Tray,” and “My Old Kentucky 
Home.” Mr. Foster was finely educated, was proficient in 
French and German, was an amateur painter of ability, and a 
talented musician. It is- said that he received fifteen thou¬ 
sand dollars for “ Old Folks at Home.” 

Way down upon de Swanee libber, 

Far, far away, 

Dere’s wha my heart is turning ebber, 

Dere’s wha de old folks stay. 


STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER. 

All up and down de whole creation 
Sadly I roam, 

Still longing for de old plantation, 
And for de old folks at home. 


























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


CHORUS: 



CHORUS: 

All de world am sad and dreary, 
Ebrywhere I roam ; 

Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary 
Far from de old folks at home ! 


All de world am sad and dreary, 
Ebrywhere I roam ; 

Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary, 
Far from de old folks at home ! 


One little hut among de bushes, 

One dat I love, 

Still sadly to my mem’ry rushes, 

No matter where I rove. 

When will I see de bees a-humming 
All round de comb ? 

When will I hear de banjo tumming, 
Down in my good old home ? 


All round de little farm I wandered 
When I was young ; 

Den many happy days I squandered, 
Many de songs I sung. 

When I was playing wid my brudder, 
Happy was I ; 

Oh, take me to my kind old mudder ! 
Dere let me live and die. 














































136 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


THE RONNIE BLUE FLAG. 

Tl-IE most popular war songs of the South were “Dixie” 
and “ The Bonnie Blue Flag.” Like “ Dixie,” the “ Bonnie Blue 
Flag ” began its popular career in New Orleans. The words 
were written by an Irish comedian, Mr. Harry McCarthy, and 
the song was first sung by his sister, Miss Marion McCarthy, at 
the Variety Theatre in New Orleans in 1861. The tune is an 
old and popular Irish melody, “ The Irish Jaunting Car.” It is 
said that General Butler, when he was commander of the Na¬ 
tional forces in New Orleans in 1862, made it very profitable by 
fining every man, woman, or child, who sang, whistled, or played 
this tune on any instrument, twenty-five dollars. It has also been 
said that he arrested the publisher, destroyed the stock of sheet 
music, and fined him five hundred dollars. 

We are a band of brothers, and native to the soil, 

Fighting' for the property we gained by honest toil ; 

And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far : 
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star! 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! for the Bonnie Blue Flag 
That bears a single star ! 

As long as the Union was faithful to her trust, 

Like friends and like brothers, kind were we and just; 

But now when Northern treachery attempts our rights to mar, 

We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. 

First, gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand ; 

Then came Alabama, who took her by the hand ; 

Next, quickly Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida- 

All raised the flag, the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. 

Ye men of valor, gather round the banner of the right ; 

Texas and fair Louisiana join us in the fight. 

Davis, our loved President, and Stephens, statesmen are; 

Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. 

And here’s to brave Virginia ! The Old Dominion State 
With the young Confederacy at length has linked her fate. 

Impelled by her example, now other States prepare 

To hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. 

Then here’s to our Confederacy ! Strong we are and brave ; 

Like patriots of old we’ll fight, our heritage to save ; 

And rather than submit to shame, to die we would prefer. 

So cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star. 

Then cheer, boys, cheer, raise the joyous shout, 

For Arkansas and North Carolina now have both gone out ; 

And let another rousing cheer for Tennessee be given. 

The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag has grown to be eleven. 
Hurrah ! hurrah ! for the Bonnie Blue Flag 
That bears a single star ! 


NORTHERN SONGS. 

JOHN BROWN’S BODY. 

JOHN Brown was hanged in December, 1859, anc ^ a little 
more than a year after this time the celebrated marching-tune, 
“John Brown’s Body,” came into being. It is a singular fact 
that the composer of the stirring and popular air of this song is 
unknown. Possibly it had no composer, but, like Topsy, “ it 
was not born, but just growed.” This seems to be the most 
reasonable theory of its origin. The words of the song, as given 
in this collection, with the exception of the first stanza, were 
written by Charles S. Hall, of Charlestown, Mass. “ John 


Brown’s Body ” was the most popular war song among the 
Northern soldiers on the march and around the campfire. 
In fact, it became the marching song of the armies of the 
Nation. It was equally popular in the cities, villages, and 
homes of the North. The Pall Mall Gazette , of October 14, 
1865, said : “ The street boys of London have decided in favor 
of ‘J°Im Brown’s Body’ against ‘My Maryland’ and ‘The 
Bonnie Blue Flag.’ The somewhat lugubrious refrain has 
excited their admiration to a wonderful degree.” 

John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave ; 

John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave; 

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave ; 

His soul is marching on. 

Glory, halle—hallelujah ! Glory, halle—hallelujah ! 

Glory, halle—hallelujah ! 

His soul is marching on ! 

He’s gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord ! (thrice.) 

His soul is marching on ! 

John Brown’s knapsack is strapped upon his back ! (thrice.) 

His soul is marching- on ! 

His pet lambs will meet him on the way ; (thrice.) 

As they go marching on ! 

They will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree ! (thrice ) 

As they march along! 

Now, three rousing cheers for the Union ! (thrice.) 

As we are marching on ! 

Glory, halle—hallelujah ! Glory, halle—hallelujah ! 

Glory, halle—hallelujah ! 

Hip, hip, hip, hip, hurrah ! 

WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME. 

Another army song that became almost as popular in 
England as in this country is “When Johnny Comes Marching 
Home.” It was written and composed by Mr. Patrick S. Gil¬ 
more, leader of the celebrated Gilmore’s Band. The words do 
not amount to much, but the tune is of that rollicking order 
which is very catching. Without doubt the author built up the 
words of this song to suit the air, on the same principle that in 
Georgia they build a chimney first and erect the house against 
it. This rattling war song has kept its hold on the ears of the 
people to the present time. Mr. Gilmore afterward composed 
an ambitious national hymn which has never attained the popu¬ 
larity of his war song. 

When Johnny comes marching home again. 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! 

We'll give him a hearty welcome then, 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! 

The men will cheer, the boys will shout, 

The ladies they will ail turn out, 

And we’ll all feel gay, 

When Johnny comes marching home. 

The men will cheer, the boys will shout. 

The ladies they will all turn out, 

And we’ll all feel gay, 

When Johnny comes marching home. 

The old church-bell will peal with joy, 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! 

To welcome home our darling boy, 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! 



CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


The village lads and lasses say, 

With roses they will strew the way ; 

And we’ll all feel gay, 

When Johnny comes marching home. 

Get ready for the jubilee, 

Hurrah ! hurrah ! 

We'll give the hero three times three, 

Hurrah! hurrah! 

The laurel wreath is ready now 
To place upon his loyal brow ; 

And we’ll all feel gay, 

When Johnny comes marching home. 

Let love and friendship on that day, 

Hurrah! hurrah! 

Their choicest treasures then display, 

Hurrah-! hurrah ! 

And let each one perform some part, 

To fill with joy the warrior’s heart ; 

And we'll all feel gay, 

When Johnny comes marching home. 

The men will cheer, the boys will shout. 
The ladies they will all turn out, 

And we'll all feel gay, 

When Johnny comes marching home. 



GRAFTED INTO THE ARMY. 

By Henry C. Work. 



Our Jimmy has gone to live in a tent, 

They have grafted him into the army ; 

He finally puckered up courage and went, 

When they grafted him into the army. 

I told them the child was too young—alas ! 

At the captain’s forequarters they said he would pass— 
They’d train him up well in the infantry class— 

So they grafted him into the army. 

CHORUS: 

O Jimmy, farewell ! Your brothers fell 
Way down in Alabarmy ; 

I thought they would spare a lone widder's heir, 
But they grafted him into the army. 


Drest up in his unicorn—dear little chap ! 

They have grafted him, into the army; 

It seems but a day since he sot on my lap, 

But they have grafted him into the army. 

And these are the trousies he used to wear— 
Them very same buttons—the patch and the tear— 
But Uncle Sam gave him a bran new pair 
When they grafted him into the army. 

Now in my provisions I see him revealed— 

They have grafted him into the army ; 

A picket beside the contented field, 

They have grafted him into the army. 

He looks kinder sickish—begins to cry— 

A big volunteer standing right in his eye ! 

Oh, what if the duckie should up and die, 

Now they’ve grafted him into the army 1 










































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


13S 


THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM. 

George F. Root was born in Sheffield, Mass., August 30, 1820, and he was the founder of the music-publishing firm of 
Root & Cady. His celebrated “Battle Cry of Freedom” was first sung by the Hutchinson family at a mass meeting in New 
York City. It is said that during the terrible fight in the Wilderness, on May 6, 1864, a brigade of the Ninth Corps, 
having broken the enemy’s line by an assault, became exposed to a flank attack and was driven back in disorder with heavy 
loss. They retreated but a few hundred yards, however, re-formed, and again confronted the enemy. Just then some gallant 
fellows in the ranks of the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania began to sing: 

“ We’ll rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, 

Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.” 


The refrain was caught up instantly by the entire regiment and by the Thirty-sixth Massachusetts, next in line. There the 
grim ranks stood at bay in the deadly conflict. The air was filled with the smoke and crackle of burning underbrush, the 
pitiful cries of the wounded, the rattle of musketry, and shouts of men ; but above all, over the exultant yells of the enemy, 
rose the inspiring chorus; 

“ The Union forever, hurrah ! boys, hurrah ! 

Down with the traitor, up with the star.” 


This song was often ordered to be sung as the men marched into action. More than once its strains arose on the 
battlefield. With the humor which never deserts the American, even amid the hardships of camp life and the dangers 
of battle, the gentle lines of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” were fitted to the tune of the “Battle Cry of Freedom,” and 
many a regiment shortened a weary march, or went gayly into action, singing: 



‘ Mary had a little lamb, 

Its fleece was white as snow, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. 
And everywhere that Mary went, 

The lamb was sure to go, 

Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.” 


Yes, we’ll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom ; 

We will rally from the hillside, we’ll gather from the plain, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. 


The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah! 

Down with the traitor, up with the star ; 

While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. 


We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom; 

And we’ll fill the vacant ranks with a million freemen more, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. 


We will welcome to our numbers the loyal true and brave, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom ; 

And although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave. 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. 


So we’re springing, to the call from the East and from the West, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom; 

And we’ll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love the best,' 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. 


The Union forever, hurrah ! boys, hurrah ! 

Down with the traitor, up with the star ; 

While we rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, 
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom. 












































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


139 


TENTING ON THE OLD CAMP-GROUND. 


The author of “Tenting on the Old Camp-Ground ” is Walter Kittridge, who was born in the town of Merrimac, N. H., 
October 8, 1832. lie was a public singer and a composer, as well as a writer of popular songs and ballads. In the first year 
of the civil war he published a small original “ Union Song-Book.” In 1862 he was drafted, and while preparing to go to 
the front he wrote in a few minutes both words and music of “Tenting on the Old Camp-Ground.” Like many other good 
things in literature, this song was at first refused publication. But when it was published, its sale reached hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of copies. 



We’re tenting to-night on the old camp-ground, 

Give us a song to cheer 
Our weary hearts, a song of home 
And friends we love so dear. 

CHORUS: 

Many are the hearts that are weary to-night, 
Wishing: for the war to cease ; 

Many are the hearts looking for the right, 

To see the dawn of peace ; 

Tenting to-night, tenting to-night, 

Tenting on the old camp-ground. 

We’ve been tenting to-night on the old camp-ground. 
Thinking of the days gone by ; 

Of the loved ones at home, that gave us the hand, 
And the tear that said, Good-by ! 


We are tired of war on the old camp-ground ” 

Many are dead and gone 
Of the brave and true who’ve left their homes ; 
Others have been wounded long. 

We've been fighting to-day on the old camp-grounU : 

Many are lying near ; 

Some are dead, and some are dying, 

Many are in tears ! 


0 


O’ 





















140 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN. 

COMMAND GIVEN TO McCLELLAN—HIS PLANS—APPOINTMENT OF 
SECRETARY STANTON-ON THE PENINSULA—BATTLE OF WIL¬ 

LIAMSBURG—ON THE CHICKAHOMINY—THE BATTLE OF FAIR 
OAKS—EFFECT OF THE SWAMPS—LEE IN COMMAND—STUART’S 

RAID-NEAREST APPROACH TO RICHMOND—ACTION AT BEAVER 

DAM CREF.K—BATTLE OF GAINES'S MILLS—BATTLE OF SAVAGE’S 

STATION-BATTLE OF CHARLES CITY CROSS-ROADS-BATTLE OF 

MALVERN HILL—CRITICISMS OF PENINSULA CAMPAIGN. 

WITHIN twenty-four hours after the defeat of McDowell’s 
army at Bull Run (July 21, 1861), the Administration called to 
Washington the only man that had thus far accomplished much 
or made any considerable reputation in the field. This was Gen. 
George B. McClellan. He had been graduated at West 
Point in 1846, standing second in his class, and had gone 
at once into the Mexican war, in which he acquitted him¬ 
self with distinction. After that war the young captain 
was employed in engineering work till 1855, when the 
Government sent him to Europe to study the move¬ 
ments of the Crimean war. He wrote a report of his 
observations, which was published under the title of “ The 
Armies of Europe,” and in 1857 resigned his commis¬ 
sion and became chief engineer of the Illinois Central 
Railroad, and afterward president of the St. Louis and 
Cincinnati. He had done good work in Northwestern 
Virginia in the early summer, and now, at the age of 
thirty-five, was commissioned major-general in the regular 
army of the United States, and given command of all the 
troops about Washington. 

For the work immediately in hand, this was probably 
the best selection that could have been made. Washing¬ 
ton needed to be fortified, and he was a master of engin¬ 
eering; both the army that had just been defeated, and 
the new recruits that were pouring in, needed organiza¬ 
tion, and he proved preeminent as an organizer. Three 
months after he took command of fifty thousand uni¬ 
formed men at the capital, he had an army of more than 
one hundred thousand, well organized in regiments, 
brigades, and divisions, with the proper proportion of 
artillery, with quartermaster and commissary departments 
going like clockwork, and the whole fairly drilled and dis¬ 
ciplined. Everybody looked on with admiration, and the 
public impatience that had precipitated the disastrous 
“On to Richmond” movement was now replaced by a 
marvellous patience. The summer and autumn months 
went by, and no movement was made; but McClellan, in 
taking command, had promised that the war should be 
“ short, sharp, and decisive,” and the people thought, if 
they only allowed him time enough to make thorough 
preparation, his great army would at length swoop down 
upon the Confederate capital and finish everything at one 
blow. At length, however, they began to grow weary of 
the daily telegram, “All quiet along the Potomac,” and 
the monotonously repeated information that “General 
McClellan rode out to Fairfax Court-House and back this 
morning.” The Confederacy was daily growing stronger; 
the Potomac was being closed to navigation by the erec¬ 


tion of hostile batteries on its southern bank; the enemy’s 
flag was flying within sight from the capital, and the question 
of foreign interference was becoming exceedingly grave. On 
the 1st of November General Scott, then seventy-five years 
of age, retired, and McClellan succeeded him as General-in-Chief 
of all the armies. 

Soon after this his plans appear, from subsequent revelations, 
to have undergone important modification. He had undoubt¬ 
edly intended to attack by moving straight out toward Manassas, 
where the army that had won the battle of Bull Run was still 
encamped, and was still commanded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. 
He now began to think of moving against Richmond by some 
more easterly route, discussing among others the extreme east¬ 
erly one that he finally took. But, whatever were his thoughts 
and purposes, his army appeared to be taking root. The people 
began to murmur, Congress began to question, and the President 
began to argue and urge. All this did not signify; nothing 
could move McClellan. He wanted to wait till he could leave 


MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B, McCLELLAN AND WIFE. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


141 


x 




PTJI# o °7 jjgL HARPERS ferrw®^ 


VyjU.I AMS PORT 0 J CBN: #■# fVXAAX CHARLESTOWN^"""/^ 

- //ttjr " 




%/m#' 

-o 
o 


S\'" N 




to 


- 4 

moorefield/ 

of 


^/lWCHESTERo^CV^^>/ 

^E R RYV 0 °// 


#lei: 


J* - / BALTIMORE.. 

RELAY h7'>v-' :V ' 

AN NAP 0 LI ^JUNCTION 






#4T 

|fpiMSURG^,< 






SBURG ( oDARNEST/OWN ys. 

- X / iy KViu : /f 

i #^ vvV 

ANNAPOLIS* 








.. A Qjs. 


"-3° 

I aO/|/u 


4#y | #5 

#4? / #^Rocks:gap 

t#%i 4 L# 


“Jackson 4 

NEW MARKET^ 




‘SSk' 


.^4T ROYAL --iimfo 

^^SALEIVJ fauqu°ii:r /// ^ % 


a:# 


gf 


\WARRENTON 


4' 4#^ O. '- - ^ «/ 

6 AWa SH J N G TO NCjTX% 

U RAr P* 

mm 




,V/ 


4 / 




f 4% Harrisonburg 'mV# J £ ^ 


£R®sskeys 


W^culpepper c.i-lS 


MI CRAWFORD - 


^MADISON C.l-I 






Q ^l ON 


ACQ^y 


i.'T-CJaLEXAN dr i a 


/lilT El-1 OUSE PT 


PRINCE FPEDERICK'i 
PORTTOBACCO ™ ° 


-■S 1 AFFORD C.llo % 


^„„§JAUNT0 


3 


/# 

/ ## 

vvavnesbor 


p \ ««»™W 

PORT riBnjuurv iJ fm s T*NNARDS V. ,f/ FREDER!CKSBu4c?’ 

,/ORANGE C.l-I. 


TI-IIAS POINT 


"o, 


"nnnoy. 


> iw 

f§&*. 


^J 2 ^V®CHAR LOTTES W, 


GORDONS Vo -' -1 

J 


SPOT SYLVAN.IA tGUINEAS 


A# 








N9GA RDEN/ g 

I A## scotjs v 

[# loving^on.^^ 


\% Gn 

•nme/' TREVILIANK 
KESWICK , B'.'P'TPAa 


c/ : „ 

LOUISAC.|-l7<;^4 f) 
FREDERICKSHALL'*'? 

C HESTERFl^® = 

LIV1YRA ^.JUNCTION 


I 3 BOWLING GREEN 

A 

RAPPAHA/I/^ 




|WEST MORELANDX 


>s. 
pt-Lookout 


^C/, 


.'To. 


X o % 


3 COLUMBIA 


BUFFALO SPR. 
^ ° 






Ay 


GOOCHLAND 


^mwerst 0 ##° V 


•WAREHOUSE 


/?. 


Ashland! \ 
hano/erI 

°"*«ni= 


C H. 


\|iv^ 

. ^}1 

LYNCNHBURG 


maysville 

APPOMATTOX C H. 


. ^P0.A5^Xi,^- 

CAMPBELLC.H. 




SCOTTVILLE 

CUMBERLAND C.H. o 0 

0 ^p~AMr Ns\f 

<t>4:hesterfield ck I 

AMELIA.#'' o>""" 

''rM v X ,#’ v0 X C LOVER 

•O' ^ #X"" 

FARM V. \ X / 

fl__ SUTHERLANDS 


RICHMQN 

C H ESTER 


X. 


7# 

WHITE l-lOUSE 

iuiih'| ,i 'C^" i1,i '"H;i,„ 


■% WEST POINT 


TJ'IEW KENT C.H. 


•Tp 




. ,.Qp.lSON SjtlAND//VG 
v ^' CI-IARLESCITY 


^.GLOUCES 
CK 
2 . 

X 

WILUAMSByna 


TER 


PR EDWARD 


V/ 


MARYSVILLEC.H. 








p / ,, ' 0m .'' , ' ,,,1 '^Y% 








^cwv.4'4>" 












^\j' 








. Pt tt' 

y c.H, 


V 


SCALE OF MILES 

/P 30 


40 


SURRY C.Hp 


Xx SMITI-IFIELDc 


TS’AC/C ft. 


FT. MONROE 1 
IEWPORT NEWS 


P0RTSM0U1 


SUFF oL'Kq""""""""""## 


MAP SHOWING THE SEAT OF WAR FROM HARPER'S FERRY TO SUFFOLK, VA. 


an enormous garrison in the defences of Washington, place a 
strong corps of observation along the Potomac, and then move 
out with a column of one hundred and fifty thousand men against 
an army that he believed to be as numerous as that, though 
in truth it was then less than half as large. It is now known 
that, from the beginning to the end of his career in that war, 
General McClellan constantly overestimated the force opposed 
to him. On the 10th of January, 1862, the President held a long 
consultation with Generals McDowell and Franklin and some 


members of his cabinet. General McClellan was then confined 
to his bed by an illness of a month’s duration. At this con¬ 
sultation Mr. Lincoln said, according to General McDowell’s 
memorandum : “ If something was not soon done, the bottom 
would be out of the whole affair; and if General McClellan did 
not want to use the army, he would like to borrow it, provided 
he could see how it could be made to do something.” 

Immediately upon McClellan’s recovery, the President called 
him to a similar council, and asked him to disclose his plan for 




















FOREIGN OFFICERS AND STAFF AT GENERAL McCLELLAN’S HEADQUARTERS. 






































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


M3 


a campaign, which he declined to do. Finally the President 
asked him if he had fixed upon any particular time for setting 
out ; and when he said he had, Mr. Lincoln questioned him no 
further. A few days later, in a letter to the President, he set 
forth his plan, which was to move his army down the Potomac 
on transports, land it at or near hort Monroe, march up the 
peninsula between \ ork and James rivers, and attack the 
defences of Richmond on the north and cast sides. The Presi¬ 
dent at first disapproved of this plan, largely for the reason that 
it would require so much time in preparation ; but when he 
found that the highest officers in the army favored it, and con¬ 
sidered the probability that any general was likely to fail if sent 
to execute a plan he did not originate or believe in, he finally 
gave it his sanction, and once more set himself to the difficult 
task of inducing McClellan to move at all. And yet the Presi¬ 
dent himself still further retarded the opening of the campaign 
by delaying the order to collect the means of transportation. 
Meanwhile General Johnston quietly removed his stores, and on 
the 8th of March evacuated Centreville and Manassas, and placed 
his army before Richmond. This reconciled the President to 
McClellan's plan of campaign, which he had never liked. 

The order for the transportation of McClellan’s army was 
issued on the 27th of February, and four hundred vessels were 
required ; for there were actually transported one hundred and 
twenty-one thousand men, fourteen thousand animals, forty-four 
batteries, and all the necessary ambulances and baggage-wagons, 
pontoons and telegraph material. Just before the embarkation, 
the army was divided into four corps, the commands of which 
were given to Generals McDowell, Edwin V. Sumner, Samuel 
P. Heintzelman, and Erasmus D. Keyes. High authorities say 
this was one of the causes of the failure of the campaign ; for 
the army should have been divided into corps long before, when 
McClellan could have chosen his own lieutenants instead of hav¬ 
ing them chosen by the President. General Hooker said it was 
impossible for him to succeed with such corps commanders. 
But his near approach to success rather discredits this criticism. 

Another element of the highest importance had also entered 
into the problem with which the nation was struggling. This 
was the appointment (January 21, 1862) of Edwin M. Stanton 
to succeed Simon Cameron as Secretary of War. Mr. Stanton, 
then forty-seven years of age, was a lawyer by profession, a man 
of great intellect, unfailing nerve, and tremendous energy. He 
had certain traits that often made him personally disagreeable to 
his subordinates ; but it was impossible to doubt his thorough 
loyalty, and Ins determination to find or make a way to bring 
the war to a successful close as speedily as possible, without the 
slightest regard to the individual interests of himself or anybody 
else. He was probably the ablest war minister that ever lived— 
with the possible exception of Carnot, the man to whom Napo¬ 
leon said, “ I have known you too late.” It is indicative of Mr. 
Lincoln’s sagacity and freedom from prejudice, that his first 
meeting with Mr. Stanton was when he went to Cincinnati, some 
years before the war, to assist in trying an important case. He 
found Mr. Stanton in charge of the case as senior counsel, and 
Stanton was so unendurably disagreeable to him that he threw 
up the engagement and went home to Springfield. Yet he 
afterward gave that man the most important place in his cabinet, 
and found him its strongest member. 

One division of the army embarked on the 17th of March, 
and the others followed in quick succession. General McClellan 
reached Fort Monroe on the 2d of April, by which time fifty- 
eight thousand men and one hundred guns had arrived, and 


immediately moved with this force on Yorktown, the place 
made famous by the surrender of Cornwallis eighty years before. 
The Confederates had fortified this point, and thrown a line of 
earthworks across the narrow peninsula to the deep water of War¬ 
wick River. These works were held by General Magruder with 
thirteen thousand effective men. General Johnston, who was in 
command of all the troops around Richmond, says he had no 
expectation of doing more than delaying McClellan at Yorktown 
till he could strengthen the defences of the capital and collect 
more men ; and that he thought his adversary would use his 
transports to pass his army around that place by water, after 
destroying the batteries, and land at some point above. 

McClellan, supposing that Johnston’s entire army was in the 
defences of Yorktown, sat down before the place and con¬ 
structed siege works, approaching the enemy by regular parallels. 
As the remaining divisions of his army arrived at Fort Monroe, 
they were added to his besieging force ; but McDowell’s entire 
corps and Blenker’s division had been detached at the last 
moment and retained at Washington, from fears on the part of 
the Administration that the capital was not sufficiently guarded, 
though McClellan had already left seventy thousand men there 
or within call. The fears were increased by the threatening 
movements of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, 
where, however, he was defeated by Gen. James Shields near 
Winchester, March 23. 

General Johnston had to contend with precisely the same 
difficulty that McClellan complained of. He wanted to bring 
together before Richmond all the troops that were then at Nor¬ 
folk and in the Carolinas and Georgia, and with the large army 
thus formed suddenly attack McClellan after he should have 
marched seventy-five miles up the peninsula from his base at 
Fort Monroe. But in a council of war General Lee and the 
Secretary of War opposed this plan, and Mr. Davis adopted 
their views and rejected it. Johnston therefore undertook the 
campaign with the army that he had, which he says consisted of 
fifty thousand effective men. 

McClellan spent nearly a month before Yorktown, and when 
he was ready to open fire with his siege guns and drive out the 
enemy, May 3d, he found they had quietly departed, leaving 
“ Quaker guns ” (wooden logs on wheels) in the embrasures. 
There was no delay in pursuit, and the National advance came 
up with the Confederate rear guard near Williamsburg, about 
twelve miles from Yorktown. Here, May 4th, brisk skirmishing 
began, which gradually became heavier, till reinforcements were 
hurried up on the one side, and sent back on the other, and the 
skirmish was developed into a battle. The place had been well 
fortified months before. The action on the morning of the 5th 
was opened by the divisions of Generals Hooker and William F. 
Smith. They attacked the strongest of the earthworks, pushed 
forward the batteries, and silenced it. Hooker was then heavily 
attacked by infantry, with a constant menace on his left wing. 
He sustained his position alone nearly all day, though losing 
one thousand seven hundred men and five guns, and was at 
length relieved by the arrival of Gen. Philip Kearny’s division. 
The delay was due mainly to the deep mud caused by a heavy 
rain the night before. Later in the day, Hancock’s brigade 
made a wide circuit on the right, discovered some unoccupied 
redoubts, and took possession of them. When the Confederates 
advanced their left to the attack, they ran upon these redoubts, 
which their commanding officers knew nothing about, and were 
repelled with heavy loss. Hancock’s one thousand six hundred 
men suddenly burst over the crest of the works, and bore down 


144 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



CAMP OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC AT CUMBERLAND LANDING. 


upon the enemy with fixed bayonets, routing and scattering 
them. McClellan brought up reinforcements, and in the night 
the Confederates in front of him moved off to join their main 
army, leaving in Williamsburg fqur hundred of their wounded, 
because they had no means of carrying them away, but taking 
with them about that number of prisoners. The National loss 
had been about two thousand two hundred, the Confederate 
about one thousand eight hundred. This battle was fought 
within five miles of the historic site of Jamestown, where the 
first permanent English settlement in the United States had 
been made in 1607, and the first cargo of slaves landed in 1619. 

Gen. William B. Franklin’s division of McDowell’s corps had 
now been sent to McClellan, and immediately after the battle of 
Williamsburg he moved it on transports to White House, on 
the Pamunkey, where it established a base of supplies. As soon 
as possible, also, the main body of the army was marched from 
Williamsburg to White House, reaching that place on the 16th 
of May. From this point he moved westward toward Rich¬ 
mond, expecting to be joined by a column of forty thousand 
men under McDowell, which was to move from Fredericksburg. 
On reaching the Chickahominy, McClellan threw his left wing 
across that stream, and sweeping around with his right fought 
small battles at Mechanicsville and Hanover Junction, by which 
he cleared the way for McDowell to join him. But at this 


critical point of time Stonewall Jackson suddenly made another 
raid down the Shenandoah Valley, and McDowell was called 
back to go in pursuit of him. 

Johnston resolved to strike the detached left wing of the 
National army, which had crossed the Chickahominy, and ad¬ 
vanced to a point within half a dozen miles of Richmond, and 
his purpose was seconded by a heavy rain on the night of May 
30th, which swelled the stream and swept away some of the 
bridges, thus hindering reinforcement from the other wing. 
The attack, May 31st, fell first upon Gen. Silas Casey’s division 
of Keyes’s corps, which occupied some half-finished works. It 
was bravely made and bravely resisted, and the Confederates 
suffered heavy losses before these works, where they had almost 
surprised the men with the shovels in their hands. But after a 
time a Confederate force made a detour and gained a position 
in the rear of the redoubts, when of course they could no 
longer be held. Reinforcements were very slow in comme 
up, and Keyes’s men had a long, hard struggle to hold their 
line at all. They could not have done so if a part of John¬ 
ston’s plan had not miscarried. He intended to bring in a 
heavy flanking force between them and the river, but was 
delayed several hours in getting it in motion. Meanwhile 
McClellan ordered Sumner to cross the river and join in the 
battle. Sumner had anticipated such an order as soon as he 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


145 



heard the firing, and when the order came it found him with 
his corps in line, drawn out from camp, and ready to cross 
instantly. He was the oldest officer there (sixty-six), and the 
most energetic. 1 here was but one bridge that could be used, 
many of the supports of this were gone, the approaches were 
under water, and it was almost a wreck. But he unhesitatingly 
pushed on his column. The frail structure was steadied by the 
weight of the men ; and though it swayed and undulated with 
their movement and the rush of water, they all crossed in 
safety. 

Sumner was just in time to meet the flank attack, which was 
commanded by Johnston in person. The successive charges of 
the Confederates were all repelled, and at dusk a counter-charge 
cleared the ground in front and drove off the last of them in 
confusion. In this fight General Johnston received wounds 
that compelled him to retire from the field, and laid him up 
for a long time. The battle—which is called both Fair Oaks 
and Seven Pines—cost the National army over five thousand 
men, and the Confederate nearly seven thousand. It was a 
more destructive battle than any that, up to that time, the 
Eastern armies had fought. A participant thus describes the 
after appearance of the field: “Monday, June 2d, we visited 
the battlefield, and rode from place to place on the scene 
of conflict. We have often wished that we could efface from 
our memory the observations of that day. Details were bury¬ 
ing the dead in trenches or heaping the ground upon them 
where they lay. The ground was saturated with gore; the in- 


teers first formed, was 
filled with our dead 
and wounded ; and far¬ 
ther to the right, near 
the station, beside an 
old building, lay thir¬ 
teen Michigan soldiers 
with their blankets over 
them and their names 
pinned on their caps. 
Near the railroad, by a 


MAJOR-GENERAL E. W. GANTT, C. S. A. 
MAJOR-GENERAL R. E. RODES, C. S. A. 


10 
















































































REVIEW IN WASHINGTON, UNDER McCLELLAN, OF EIGHT BATTERIES OF ARTILLERY AND THREE REGIMENTS OF CAVALRY, BY LINCOLN AND HIS CABINET. 



































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


147 



COMTE DE PARIS. DUC OE CHARTRES. 


log house, the dead and wounded were packed to¬ 
gether. Both were motionless ; but you could dis¬ 
tinguish them by the livid blackness of the dead. 

We could trace the path of our regiment, from the 
wood-pile around by the intrenchments to its camp, 
by the dead still unburied. Those that died im¬ 
mediately could not be touched, but were covered 
with ground where they lay; the wounded, who 
crawled or were carried to the barns, tents, and 
houses, and who died subsequently, were buried 
in trenches. Our little tent was still standing, 
though prerced by several bullets. Beside it lay 
two dead men of the Ninety-eighth, whom we 
could not identify; for the sun, rain, and wind 

had changed their countenances. On the bed lay a dead Confederate. At the 
left of our camp, in the wood, where the Eighty-first, Eighty-fifth, and Ninety- 
second New York volunteers and Peck’s brigade fought with Huger, the dead 
were promiscuously mixed together, and lay in sickening and frightful proxim¬ 
ity ; strong and weak, old and young, officer and private, horse and man— 
dead, or wounded in the agonies of death, lay where they fell, and furnished, 
excepting the swaths on the Williamsburg road, the darkest corner on that 
day’s panorama.” 

Col. William Kreutzer, of the Ninety-eighth New York Regiment, which went 
into that battle with three hundred and eighty-five men, and lost eighty-five, 
gives some interesting particulars of the action : “ The whole of Company A 
went to work on the road near the Grapevine bridge. Details were made for 
men to make abatis and work on the breastworks. Company A left its rifles in 


r-’ COLONEL B. S ALEXANDER (ENGINEER CORPS). 


.3 


PRESIDENT LINCOLN VISITING GENERAL McCLELLAN. 



























148 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 



TABBS HOUSE, YORKTOWN. 


t-O/Vtv 


'-A/Vn 


CONTRABANDS.-AT FOLLER'S HOUSE. 


Camp, and lost them. When it rejoined the regiment, on the 
1st of June, it appeared like a company of pioneers, or sappers 
and miners, carrying axes, shovels, and picks. . . . Soon 

after one o’clock our pickets begin to come in sight, retiring 
through the woods and slashing before the enemy. The skir¬ 
mish line of the enemy pursued them. We could see both 


parties jumping over the logs 
and making their way through 
the brush and bushes, and hear 
at intervals the sharp report of 
their rifles. A little later a dense 
mass of men, about two rods wide, 
headed by half a dozen horsemen, 
is seen marching toward us on the 
Williamsburg road. They move in 
quick time, carry their arms on 
their shoulders, have flags and ban¬ 
ners, and drummers to beat the step. 
Our three batteries open simultane¬ 
ously with all their power. Our regi¬ 
ment pours its volleys into the 
slashing and into the column as fast 
as it can load and fire. The One 
Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania vol¬ 
unteers aims at the column and at the 
skirmishers approaching its right front 
and flank. Unlike us, that regiment 
has no slashing in its front. The cleared 
field allowed the enemy to concentrate 
his fire upon it; too near the approaching column of attack, it 
interfered with the range and efficiency of our batteries behind. 
Its position was unfortunate. As the light troops pressed upon 
it, Colonel Davis ordered it to charge them at the double-quick. 
The regiment rushed forward with spirit, jumped over a rail 
fence in its front, with a shout and yell; but it was met so reso- 






















































i$o 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



MAJOR-GENERAL 
W. B. FRANKLIN. 


lutcly and with such a galling fire by the foe, that it fell back 
in disorder, and did not appear on the field as an organization 
again during the day. Colonel Davis was wounded, and his 
‘ Ringgold Regiment ’ fought its first battle as we have seen. 

“The One Hundred and Fourth falling back, cleared the field 
opposite the advancing column, and gave the Ninety-eighth 
better opportunity to fire upon it as it moved deliberately on. 
The charging mass staggers, 
stops, resumes its march 
again, breaks in two, fills up 
its gaps; but sure and steady, 
with its flags and banners, it 
moves like the tramp of fate. 

Thinned, scattered, broken, it 
passes our right, and presses 
for the batteries. As it ad¬ 
vances and passes, we pour 
our volleys into it with no 
uncertain aim, no random 
fire. The gaps we make, the 
swaths we mow, can be seen 
in the column, for we are 
only ten or fifteen rods away. 

The men behind press on 
those before. The head final¬ 
ly reaches the redoubt. One of the mounted 
leaders ascends the parapet and is shot with a 
pistol by an artillery officer. The whole col¬ 
umn, from the fort back, severed, broken, staggers, 
sinks into the earth. The rifle-pits, breast-works, 
and the Ninety-eighth have cleared the road. 

“To this time the Ninety-eighth has not lost a man 
by the enemy ; but our batteries behind have killed 
and wounded of it half a score. There is a lull in the 
battle ; the coast looks clear; the foe may not appear 
again. We look at the main road—it is one gray 
swath of men. Down along the railroad by Fair Oaks station, 
we hear but a few reports. Smith has had farther to march 
along the Nine-mile road, and has not struck our right flank 
yet; on our left, Palmer has not been attacked; Huger is not 
on time. Casey’s division has driven back those of Longstreet 

and Hill. . . . Our 

batteries open. High 
over our heads, around 
us, beside us, the lead is 
whistling, and the iron 
is whizzing, hissing, 
whirling. Every mo¬ 
ment has a new terror, 
every instant a new hor¬ 
ror. Our men are fall¬ 
ing* fast. We leave the 
dead and the dying, and 
send the wounded to 
the rear. Palmer’s regi¬ 
ments have all fallen 
back; the enemy is on 
our left and rear. Colo¬ 
nel Durkee tries to move 
the regiment by the left 
flank back to the rifle- 
major-general Joseph hooker pits ; a part only receive 


the order. The enemy is getting so near, our experience in battle 
is so limited, our drill is so imperfect, that many of us will not, 
cannot, stand upon the order of our going. Durkee passes the 
rifle-pits with what follows him, and goes to our old camp. The 
writer rallies a part of the regiment around the flag at the half- 
deserted intrenchments. There we use, officers and men, the 
sharp-shooter’s practice against the enemy. We can mark the 

effect of our fire ; no rifle was dis¬ 
charged in vain. Many of the men 
could pick a squirrel from the tallest 
^ trees of Wayne and Franklin, and 


MAJOR-GENERAL E. 0. KEYES. 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL O. H. HART. 

they load and fire with infinite merri¬ 
ment and good-nature.’’ 

For some time after the battle of 
Fair Oaks, heavy rains made any 

movement almost impossible for either of the armies that 
confronted each other near Richmond. Gen. Alexander S. 
Webb says: “The ground, which consisted of alternate layers 
of reddish clay and quicksand, had turned into a vast swamp, and 
the guns in battery sank into the earth by their own weight.” 
McClellan kept his men at work, intrenching and strengthening 
his position, while he himself seems to have been constantly oc¬ 
cupied in writing despatches to the President and the Secretary 
of War, alternately promising an almost immediate advance on 
Richmond, and calling for reinforcements. He wanted McDowell’s 
corps of forty thousand men, and the authorities wanted to 
give it to him if it could be sent by way of Fredericksburg, 
and united with his right wing in such a way as not to uncover 
Washington. But in one despatch he declared he would rather 
not have it at all unless it could be placed absolutely under his 
command. In several respects his position was very bad. The 
Chickahominy was bordered by great swamps, whose malarial 
influences robbed him of almost as many men as fell by the 
bullets of the enemy. His base was at White House, on the 
Pamunkey; and the line thence over which his supplies must 
come, instead of being at right angles with the line of his front 
and covered by it, was almost a prolongation of it. It was im- 





















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 





possible to maintain permanent bridges over the Chickahominy, 
and a rain of two or three days was liable at any time to swell 
the stream so as to sweep away every means of crossing. He 
could threaten Richmond only by placing a heavy force on the 
right bank of the river ; he could render his own communications 
secure only by keeping a large force on the left bank. When it 
first occurred to him that his true base was on the James, or 
how long he contemplated its removal thither, nobody knows ; 
but he received a startling lesson on the 12th of June, which 
seems to have determined 
his apparently indeter¬ 
minate mind. 

When Gen. Joseph E. 

Johnston was wounded 
at Fair Oaks, the com¬ 
mand devolved upon 
Gen. G. W. Smith ; but 
two days later Gen. Rob¬ 
ert E. Lee was given the 


McClellan s total effective force, including every man that drew 
pay the last week in June, was ninety-two thousand five hun¬ 
dred. His constant expectation of reinforcements by way of 
Fredericksburg was largely, if not wholly, what kept him in his 
false position, and it is fair to presume that but for this he 
would have swung across the peninsula to the new base on the 
James much sooner and under more favorable circumstances. 

Wishing to know the extent of McClellan’s earthworks on the 
right wing, Lee, on June 12th, sent a body of twelve hundred 

cavalry, with two light guns, to 
reconnoitre. It was commanded by 
the dashing Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, 
commonly called “Jeb Stuart,” 
who used to dress in gay costume, 


•MrfV 




BATTERY No. 4 IN FRONT OF YORKTOWN. 
(Three Views.) 


command of the Confederate forces in Virginia, which he re¬ 
tained continuously till his surrender brought the war to a close. 
The plan that he had opposed, and caused Mr. Davis to reject, 
when Johnston was in command—of bringing large bodies of 
troops from North Carolina, Georgia, and the Shenandoah 
Valley, to form a massive army and fall upon McClellan—he 
now adopted and proceeded at once to carry out. Johnston 
enumerates reinforcements that were given him aggregating 
fifty-three thousand men, and says he had then the largest 
Confederate army that ever fought. The total number is given 
officially at eighty thousand seven hundred and sixty-two. This 
probably means the number of men actually carrying muskets, 
and excludes all officers, teamsters, musicians, and mechanics; 
for the Confederate returns were generally made in that way. 


with yellow sash and black plume, wore gold spurs, and rode a 
white horse. He was only ordered to go as far as Hanover Old 
Church ; but at that point he had a fight with a small body of 
cavalry, and as he supposed dispositions would be made to cut 
him off, instead of returning he kept on and made the entire 
circuit of McClellan’s army, rebuilding a bridge to cross the 
lower Chickahominy, and reached Richmond in safety. The 
actual amount of damage that he had done was small; but 
the raid alarmed the National commander for the safety of 
his communications, and was probably what determined him 
to change his base. In this expedition Stuart lost but one 
man. In the encounter at Hanover Old Church a charge was 
led by the Confederate Captain Latane and received by a 
detachment commanded by Captain Rovall. The two captains 

























J52 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



QUAKER GUNS. 

fought hand to hand, and Latane was shot dead, while Royall 
received severe sabre wounds. 

Stonewall Jackson, if not Lee’s ablest lieutenant, was cer¬ 
tainly his swiftest, and the one that threw the most uncertainty 
into the game by his rapid movements and unexpected appear¬ 
ances. At a later stage of the war his erratic strategy, if per¬ 
sisted in, would probably have brought his famous corps of 
“ foot cavalry” (as they were called from their quick marches) 

to sudden destruction. 
An opponent like Sher¬ 
idan, who knew how to 
be swift, brilliant, and 
audaciou s, without 
transgressing the funda¬ 
mental rules of warfare, 
would have been likely to 
finish him at a blow. But 
Jackson did not live to 
meet such an opponent. 
At this time the bugbears 
that haunt imaginations 
not inured to war were 
still in force, and the mas¬ 
sive thimble-rigging by 
which he was made to 
appear before Richmond, 
and presto ! sweeping 
down the Shenandoah 
Valley, served to paralyze 
large forces that might 

have been added to Mc- 
major-general s.las casey. Qellan’s army. 




The topography of Virginia 
is favorable to an army menac¬ 
ing Washington, and unfavor- 
major-general e. v. sumner. able to one menacing Rich¬ 
mond. The fertile valley of 
the Shenandoah was inviting ground for soldiers. A Confederate 
force advancing down the valley came at every step nearer to 
the National capital, while a National force advancing up the 
valley was carried at every step farther away from the Confed¬ 
erate capital. The Confederates made much of this advantage, 
and the authorities at Washington were in constant fear of the 
capture of that city. 

Soon after Stuart’s raid, Lee began to make his dispositions 
to attack McClellan and drive him from the peninsula. He 
wrote to Jackson: “Unless McClellan can be driven out of his 
intrenchments, he will move by positions, under cover of his 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS. 



























BURNING OF STORES AND MUNITIONS OF WAR AT WHITE HOUSE. VA.—DEPARTURE OF THE FEDERAL FLOTILLA FOR THE JAMES RIVER 














































*54 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS. 


heavy guns, within shelling distance of Richmond.” To convey 
the impression that Jackson was to move in force down the 
valley, Lee drew two brigades from his own army, placed them 
on the cars in Richmond in plain sight of some prisoners that 
were about to be exchanged, and sent them off to Jackson. Of 
course the released prisoners carried home the news. Rut Jack- 
son returned with these reinforcements and Ewell’s division of 
his corps, joined Lee, and on the 25th of June 
concerted a plan for immediate attack. Secre¬ 
tary Stanton appears to have been the only 
one that saw through the game ; for he tele¬ 
graphed to McClellan that while neither Banks 
nor McDowell nor Fremont could ascertain 
anything about Jackson’s movements, his own 
belief was that he was going to Richmond. 

Yet the impression was not strong enough in 
the mind of the Secretary of War (or else the 
Secretary could not have his own way) to 
induce the appropriate counter-move of im¬ 
mediately sending McDowell’s whole corps to 
McClellan. McCall’s division of that corps, 
however, had been forwarded, and on the 18th 
took a strong position on McClellan’s extreme 
right, near Mechanicsvillc. 

Admiral Phelps, of the navy, then a lieu¬ 
tenant commanding the gunboat Corwin , and 
serving in the waters about the peninsula, 
writes: “About ten o’clock one evening my 


emissary notified me that a certain man, who had caused much 
trouble, would leave Centreville about midnight, in a buggy, 
with letters for ‘ Queen Caroline ’ and Richmond, in violation 
of orders. Soon after daylight the following morning both man 
and mail were in my possession. Only one letter in the package 
was of any value (the others were sent to their destination), and 
that one—written by an adjutant-general in the Confederate 
army, informing his father that, ‘on a certain 
night,’ mentioning the date, ‘one hundred 
thousand men from Beauregard’s army at 
Shiloh would be in Richmond, after detach¬ 
ing thirty thousand to reinforce Stonewall 
Jackson, who was doing for the enemy in the 
mountains ’—was placed in General McClel¬ 
lan’s hands about five P.M. the following day 
by one of his aids, to whose care I had in¬ 
trusted it.” 

On the 25th McClellan had pushed back 
the Confederates on his left, taken a new posi¬ 
tion there, and advanced his outposts to a 
point only four miles from Richmond. But 
he began his movements too late, for the 
Confederates were already in motion. Leav¬ 
ing about thirty thousand men in the immedi¬ 
ate defences of Richmond, Lee crossed the 
Chickahominy with about thirty-five thousand 
under Generals A. P. Hill, D. H. Hill, and 
Longstreet, intending to join Jackson’s twenty- 



PROFESSOR T, S. C. LOWE, BALLOONIST. 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


IS? 




five thousand, and with this enormous force make a sudden 
attack on the twenty thousand National troops that were on 
the north side of the river, commanded by Gen. Fitz-John 
Porter, destroy them before help could reach them, and seize 
McClellan’s communications with his base. Jackson, who was 
to have appeared on the field at sunrise of the 26th, was for 
once behind time. The other Confederate commanders became 
nervous and impatient; for if the movement were known to 
McClellan, he could, with a little boldness and some fighting, 
have captured Richmond that day. Indeed, the inhabitants of 
the city expected nothing else, and it is said that the archives 
of the Confederate Government were all packed and ready for 
instant removal. At midday Gen. A. P. Hill’s corps drove the 
small National force out of Mechanicsville, and advanced to Mc¬ 
Call’s strong position on Beaver Dam Creek. This they dared 
not attack in front; but they made desperate attempts on both 
flanks, and the result was an afternoon of fruitless fighting, in 
which they were literally mown down by the well-served artil¬ 
lery, and lost upward of three thousand men, while McCall 
maintained his position at every point and lost fewer than 

three hundred. 

That night, in 
pursuance of the 
plan for a change 
of base, the 
heavy guns that 
had thwarted 
Lee in his first 
attack were car¬ 
ried across the 
Chickahominy, 
together with a 


large part of the bag¬ 
gage train. On the 
morning of the 27th 
Porter fell back some¬ 
what to a position on a 
range of low hills, where 
he could keep the 
enemy in check till the 
stores were removed to 
the other side of the 
river, which was now 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. J. PETTIGREW, C. S. A. 


ST. PETER'S CHURCH, NEAR WHITE HOUSE. 
AGeorge Washington was married in this church.) 


MAJOR-GENERAL BENJAMIN HUGER, C. S. A 

his only object. McClellan 
sent him five thousand more 
men in the course of the 
day, being afraid to send 
any greater number, because 
he believed that the bulk of 
the Confederate army was 
in the defences on his left, 
and a show of activity there 
still further deceived them. 

On the morning of the 
27th Porter had eighteen 
thousand infantry, two thousand five hundred artillerymen, 
and a small force of cavalry, with which to meet the attack 
of at least fifty-five thousand. Longstreet and the Hills 
had followed the retreat closely, but, warned by the ex¬ 
perience of the day before, were not willing to attack until 
Jackson should join them. The fighting began about two 
o’clock in the afternoon, when A. P. Hill assaulted the 
centre of Porter’s position, and in a two hours’ struggle 
was driven back with heavy loss. Two attacks on the 
right met with no better success. The effect on the new 
troops that had been hurried up from the coast was com¬ 
plete demoralization. The Confederate General Whiting 
says in his report: “ Men were leaving the field in every 
direction, and in great disorder. Two regiments, one from 
South Carolina and one from Louisiana, were actually 
marching back from the fire. Men were skulking from the 
front in a shameful manner.” 

But at length Jackson’s men arrived, and a determined 
effort was made on all parts of the line at once. Even then 
it seemed for a time as if victory might rest with the little 
army on the hills; and in all probability it would, if they 
had had such intrenchments as the men afterward learned 
how to construct very quickly; but their breastworks were 
only such as could be made from hastily felled trees, a few 
rails, and heaps of knap-sacks. The Confederates had the 
advantage of thick woods in which to form and advance. 
As they emerged and came on in heavy masses, with the 
Confederate yell, they were answered by the Union cheer. 
Volley responded to volley, guns were taken and re-taken, 
















CAMPFIRE AJVD BATTLEFIELD. 


156 

and cannoneers that remained after the infantry supports re¬ 
tired were shot down; but it was not till sunset that the 
National line was fairly disrupted, at the left centre, when 
the whole gave way and slowly retired. Two regiments were 
captured, and twenty-two guns fell into the hands of the enemy. 
In the night Porter crossed the river with his remaining force, 
and destroyed the bridges. This was called by the Confederates 
the battle of the Chickahominy; but it takes its better known 
name from two mills (Gaines’s) near the scene of action. The 
total National loss was six thousand men. The Confederate loss 
was never properly ascertained, which renders it probable that 


wagons, and two thousand five hundred head of cattle. Gen. 
Silas Casey’s division, in charge of the stores at White House, 
loaded all they could upon transports, and destroyed the re¬ 
mainder. Trains of cars filled with supplies were put under 
full speed and run off the tracks into the river. Hundreds of 
tons of ammunition, and millions of rations, were burned or 
otherwise destroyed. 

Rear Admiral Thomas S. Phelps, United States Navy, gives a 
vivid description of the scene when the transports and other 
vessels fled down the river in panic : “ Harassing the enemy 
and protecting the worthy fully occupied my time until the 


BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL.—LEE S ATTACK. 



it was much larger. Some of the wounded lay on the field four 
days uncared for. This action is sometimes called the first battle 
of Cold Harbor. The armies under Grant and Lee fought on 
the same ground two years later. 

Lee and Jackson believed that they had been fighting the 
whole of McClellan’s forces, and another mistake that they made 
secured the safety of that army. They took it for granted that 
the National commander, driven from his base at White House, 
would retreat down the peninsula, taking the same route by 
which he had come. Consequently they remained with their 
large force on the left bank of the Chickahominy, and even 
advanced some distance down the stream, which gave McClellan 
twenty-four hours of precious time to get through the swamp 
roads with his immense trains. He had five thousand loaded 


afternoon of June 27, [862, when Quartermaster-General Ingalls 
came down the river on a boat provided especially for his use, 
and after directing an assistant to abandon the Point, imme¬ 
diately continued on his way to Yorktown. Soon afterward the 
Pamunkey, as far as the eye could reach, appeared crowded 
with a confused mass of side-wheel boats, propellers, brigs, and 
schooners, and as they dashed past my vessel there appeared to 
be as complete a stampede as it has ever been my misfortune 
to witness. In answer to the hail, ‘What is the trouble?’ I was 
greeted with, ‘ The rebels are coming! The whole country is 
full of them ; go to the mast-head and you will see thousands 
of them ! ’ Eliciting nothing further of a satisfactory nature, 
and seeing nothing but empty fields, I directed a count to be 
made of the fleeing vessels, and by evening’s dusk six hundred 











BATTLE OF CHARLES CITY CROSS-ROADS, JUNE 30, 1862. 
















































I5& 


> / 

CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 
A. P. HILL, C. S. A. 

left in the defences of Richmond, found that 
the National army was retreating to the 
James, he moved out to attack it, and struck 
the rear guard at Allen’s farm. His men 
made three assaults, and were three times 
repelled. Magruder complained that he lost 
a victory here because Lee had left him but thirteen thousand 
men. 

The National troops fell back to Savage’s Station, where later 
in the day Magruder attacked them again. He had a rifled can¬ 
non mounted on a platform car, with which he expected to do 
great execution. But there was an ample force to oppose him, 
and it stood unmoved by his successive charges. About sunset 
he advanced his whole line with a desperate rush in the face of a 
continuous fire of cannon and musketry, but it was of no avail, 
and half an hour later his own line was broken by a counter 
charge that closed the battle. He admitted a loss of four thou¬ 
sand men. Sumner and Franklin, at a cost of three thousand, 
had thus maintained the approach to the single road through 
White Oak Swamp, by which they were to follow the body of 
the army that had already passed. But it was found necessary 
to burn another immense quantity of food and clothing that 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL J. E. B. STUART. 

moving up steadily in the face of batteries 
that tore great gaps through them at every 
discharge, crossed bayonets, and clubbed 
muskets. Only on that part of the line held 
by McCall did the Confederates, with all 
their daring, succeed in breaking through. 
McCall, in his report, describes the success¬ 
ful charge: “A most determined charge 
was made on Randol’s battery by a full bri¬ 
gade, advancing in wedge shape, without 
order, but in perfect recklessness. Some¬ 
what similar charges had been previously 
made on Cooper’s and Kern’s batteries by single regiments, 
without success, they having recoiled before the storm of canister 
hurled against them. A like result was anticipated by Randol’s 
battery, and the Fourth Regiment was requested not to fire until 
the battery had done with them. Its gallant commander did 
not doubt his ability to repel the attack, and his guns did indeed 
mow down the advancing host; but still the gaps were closed, 
and the enemy came in upon a run to the very muzzles of his 
guns. It was a perfect torrent of men, and they were in his bat¬ 
tery before the guns could be removed.” General McCall him¬ 
self, endeavoring to rally his men at this point, was captured and 
carried off to Richmond. In Kearney’s front a similar charge 
was made three times ; but every time a steady musketry fire 
drove back the enemy that had closed up its gaps made by the 
artillery. Darkness put an end to the fighting, and that night 
McClellan’s army continued its retreat to Malvern Hill, where 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAS. E. RAINS, C. S. A. 
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL D. H. HILL, C. S. A. 


and eighty were reported as having passed, not counting several 
schooners left behind, which on touching the bottom had been 
abandoned, their crews escaping to more fortunate companions.” 
On the following day the gunboats returned to West Point, tow¬ 
ing the derelict schooners which they had floated, and also the 
half of a regiment which in the hurry of the previous day had 
been forgotten and left behind. At the last moment Casey 
embarked his men, and with what he had been able to save 
steamed down the Pamunkey and York Rivers, and up the James 
to the new base. At the close of a long despatch to the Secre¬ 
tary of War, on the 28th, General McClellan said: “If I save 
this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or 
to any other persons in Washington. You have 
done your best to sacrifice this army.” 

When Gen. John B. Magruder, who had been 


could not be removed, and to leave behind two thousand five 
hundred sick and wounded men. 

Jackson, after spending a day in building bridges, crossed the 
Chickahominy and attempted to follow McClellan’s rear guard 
through White Oak Swamp ; but when he got to the other side 
he found a necessary bridge destroyed and National batteries 
commanding its site, so that it was impossible for his forces to 
emerge from the swamp. But meanwhile Hill and Longstreet 
had crossed the river farther up stream, marched around the 
swamp, and struck the retreating army near Charles City Cross- 
Roads, on the 30th. There was terrific fighting all the afternoon. 
There were brave charges and bloody repulses, masses of men 


mp 


1 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


159 





his advance guard had 
taken up the strongest 
position he had yet oc¬ 
cupied. The battle just 
described has several 
names — Glendale, Fra¬ 
zier’s Farm, Charles City 
Cross-Roads, New¬ 
market, Nelson’s Farm. 
McClellan here lost ten 
guns. The losses in men 
cannot be known exact¬ 
ly, as the reports group 
the losses of several days 


before they 
work, a fire 


Longstreet 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN G. BARNARD. 


and the two Hills re¬ 
ported a loss of twelve 
thousand four hundred 
and fifty-eight in the 
fighting from the 27th 
to the 30th. 

The last stand made by McClellan for delivering battle was at 
Malvern Hill. This is a plateau near Turkey Bend of James 
River, having an elevation of sixty feet, and an extent of about 
a mile and a half in one direction and a mile 
in the other. It is so bordered by streams 
and swamps as to leave no practicable ap¬ 
proach except by the narrow northwest face. 

Here McClellan had his entire army in posi¬ 
tion when his pursuers came up. It was 
disposed in the form of a semicircle, with 
the right wing “ refused ” (swung back) and 
prolonged to Haxall's Landing, on the James. 

His position was peculiarly favorable for the 
use of artillery, and his whole front bristled 
with it. There were no intrenchments to 
speak of, but the natural inequalities of the 
ground afforded considerable shelter for the 
men and the guns. It was as complete a 
trap as could be set for an army, and Lee 
walked straight into it. Under or¬ 
dinary circumstances, both 
commander and 
men would 
properlyhesi- 
tate to attack 
an enemy so 
posted. But to 
the confidence 
with which the 
Southerners be¬ 
gan the war was 
now added the 
peculiar elation 
produced by a 
week’s pursuit of a 
retreating army; and 
apparently it did not 
occur to them that they 
were all mortal. 

In the first contact 
seven thousand Confed 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. J. ABERCROMBIE. 


erates, with six guns, struck 
the left of the position. 

They boldly advanced their 
artillery to within eight hun¬ 
dred yards of the cliff; but 
could get at 
of twenty or 
thirty guns was concentra¬ 
ted upon their battery, 
which knocked it to pieces 
in a few minutes; and at 
the same time some huge 
shells from a gunboat fell 
among a small detachment 
of cavalry, threw it into 
confusion, and turned it 
back upon the infantry, 
breaking up the whole at¬ 
tack. 

Lee was not ready to as¬ 
sault with his whole army 
till the afternoon of July 
1st. An artillery duel was kept up during the forenoon, but 
the Confederate commander did not succeed in destroying the 
National batteries, as he hoped to ; on the 
contrary, he saw his own disabled, one after 
another. The signal for the infantry attack 
was to be the usual yell, raised by Armi- 
stead’s division on the right and taken up 
by the successive divisions along the line. 
But the Confederate line was separated by 
thick woods ; there was long waiting for the 
signal ; some of the generals thought they 
heard it, and some advanced without hear¬ 
ing it. The consequence was a series of 
separate attacks, some of them repeated 
three or four times, and every time a con¬ 
centrated fire on the attacking column and 
a bloody repulse. The men themselves be¬ 
gan to see the hopelessness of it, while their 
officers were still urging them to re¬ 
newed efforts. “Come 
on, come on, 
my men,” said 
one Confederate 
colonel, with the 
grim humor of a 
soldier ; “ do you 
want to live for¬ 
ever ? ” There 
were some brief 
counter-charges, in 
one of w h i c h the 
colors were taken 
from a North Caro¬ 
lina regiment; but in 
general the National 
troops only maintained 
r ground, and 
though fighting was kept 
up till nine o’clock in the 
evening, the line—as Gen- 


PA t-MEK 
















160 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


eral Webb, then assistant chief of artillery, tells us—was never 
for one instant broken or the guns in danger. This battle 
cost Lee five thousand men, and at its close he gave up the 
pursuit. The National loss was less than one-third as great. 
That night McClellan withdrew his army to Harrison’s Landing, 
on the James, where he had fixed his base of supplies and 
where the gunboats could protect his position. This retreat 
is known as the Seven Days, and the losses are figured up at 
fifteen thousand two hundred and forty-nine on the National 
side, and somewhat over nineteen thousand on the Confederate. 


and a commander that could think. There can be no doubt 
that the Administration was over-anxious about the movements 
in the Shenandoah, and should have sent McDowell s corps to 
McClellan at once; but neither can there be much doubt that if 
Little Mac, the Young Napoleon, as he was fondly called, had 
been a general of the highest order, he would have destroyed 
Lee’s army and captured the Confederate capital with the ample 
forces that he had. It was not General McClellan alone that 
was in a false position when his army was astride the Chicka- 
hominy, but the Administration and the people of the loyal 



GRAPEVINE BRIDGE. 


From that time there was an angry controversy as to the 
military abilities of General McClellan and the responsibility for 
the failure of the campaign, and partisanship was never more 
violent than over this question. The General had won the 
highest personal regard of his soldiers, and they were mostly 
unwilling or unable to look at the matter in the cold light of the 
criticism that simply asks, What was required? and What was 
accomplished? The truth appears to be, that General McClellan, 
like most men, possessed some virtues and lacked others. He 
organized a great army, and to the end of its days it felt the 
benefit of the discipline with which he endowed it. But with 
that army in hand he did not secure the purpose of its creation. 
He was an accomplished engineer, and a gigantic adjutant, but 
hardly the general to be sent against an army that could move 


States as well. Their grand strategy was radically vicious, for 
they stood astride of the great central question of the war itself. 

To a student of the art of war, this disastrous campaign and 
the many criticisms that it evoked arc exceedingly interesting. 
Nearly every military problem was in some way presented in it. 
Two or three quotations from the best sources will indicate its 
importance and the complicated questions that it involved. 
General McClellan himself says in his report: “It may be asked 
why, after the concentration of our forces on the right bank of 
the Chickahominy, with a large part of the enemy drawn away 
from Richmond, upon the opposite side, I did not, instead of 
striking for James River fifteen miles below that place, at once 
march directly on Richmond. It will be remembered that at this 
juncture the enemy was on our rear, and there was every reason 
















5a 

if 

if 

£11 




GENERAL McCLELLANS ARMY BETWEEN BIG BETHEL AND YORKTOWN. 




































l62 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


to believe that he would sever our communications with our 
supply depot at the White House. We had on hand but a 
limited amount of rations, and if we had advanced directly on 
Richmond it would have required considerable time to carry the 
strong works around that place, during which our men would 
have been destitute of food ; and even if Richmond had fallen 
before our arms, the enemy could still have occupied our supply 
communications between that place and the gunboats, and 
turned their disaster into victory. If, on the other hand, the 
enemy had concentrated all his forces at Richmond during the 
progress of our attack, and we had been defeated, we must in all 
probability have lost our trains before reaching the flotilla. The 
battles which continued day after day in the progress of our 
flank movement to the James, with the exception of the one at 
Gaines’s Mill, were successes to our arms, and the closing engage¬ 
ment at Malvern Hill was the most decisive of all.” 

One of General McClellan’s severest critics, Gen. John G. 
Barnard, in an elaborate review of the campaign, wrote : “ It was 
a blunder unparalleled to expose Porter’s corps to fight a battle 
by itself on the 27th against overwhelming forces of the enemy. 
With perfect ease that corps might have been brought over on 
the night of the 26th, and, if nothing more brilliant could have 
been thought of, the movement to the James might have been in 
full tide of execution on the 27th. A more propitious moment 
could not have been chosen, for, besides Jackson’s own forces, 
A. P. Hill’s and Longstreet’s corps were on the left bank of the 
Chickahominy on the night of the 26th. Such a movement need 
not have been discovered to the enemy till far enough advanced 
to insure success. At any rate, he could have done no better in 
preventing it than he actually did afterward. ... He has 
spent weeks in building bridges which establish a close connec¬ 
tion between the wings of his army, and then fights a great battle 
with a smaller fraction of his army than when he had a single 
available bridge, and that remote. He, with great labor, con¬ 
structs ‘ defensive works ’ in order that he ‘ may bring the 
greatest possible numbers into action,’ and again exhibits his 
ability to utilize his means by keeping sixty-five thousand men 
idle behind them, while thirty-five thousand, unaided by ‘ defen¬ 
sive works’ of any kind, fight the bulk of his adversary’s forces, 
and are, of course, overwhelmed by ‘superior numbers.’ We 
believe there were few commanding officers of the Army of the 
Potomac who did not expect to be led offensively against the 
enemy on the 26th or 27th. Had such a movement been made, 
it is not improbable that, if energetically led, we should have 
gone into Richmond. Jackson and A. P. Hill could not have 
got back in time to succor Magruder’s command, if measures of 
most obvious propriety had been taken to prevent them. We 
might have beaten or driven Magruder’s twenty-five thousand 
men and entered Richmond, and then, reinforced by the great 
moral acquisition of strength this success would have given, 
have fought Lee and reestablished our communications. At 
any rate, something of this kind was worth trying. . . . Our 

army is now concentrated on the James ; but we have another 
day’s fighting before us, and this day we may expect the concen¬ 
trated attack of Lee’s whole army. We know not at what hour 
it will come—possibly late, for it requires time to find out our 
new position and to bring together the attacking columns—yet 
we know not when it will come. Where, this day, is the com¬ 
manding general? Off, with Captain Rodgers, to select ‘the 
final positions of the army and its depots.’ He does not tell us 
that it was on a gunboat, and that this day not even ‘ signals ’ 
would keep him in communication with his army, for his journey 


was ten or fifteen miles down the river ; and he was thus absent 
till late in the afternoon. This is the first time we ever had 
reason to believe that the highest and first duty of a general, on 
the day of battle, was separating himself from his army to re¬ 
connoitre a place of retreat! ... If the enemy had two 
hundred thousand men, it was to be seriously apprehended that, 
leaving fifty thousand behind the ‘strong works ’ of Richmond, 
he would march at once with one hundred and fifty thousand 
men on Washington. Why should he not? General McClellan 
and his eulogists have held up as highly meritorious strategy the 
leaving of Washington defended by less than fifty thousand 
men, with the enemy in its front estimated to be one hundred 
and twenty thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand strong, 
and moving off to take an eccentric line of operations against 
Richmond ; and now the reverse case is presented, but with an 
important difference. The enemy at Manassas, on learning 
General McClellan’s movement, could either fly to the defence 
of Richmond or attack Washington. General McClellan says 
that this latter course was not to be feared. McClellan on the 
James, on learning that Lee with one hundred and fifty thousand 
men is marching on Washington, can only attack Richmond ; by 
no possibility can he fly to the defence of Washington. Besides, 
he is inferior in numbers (according to his own estimate) even to 
Lee’s marching army. Here, in a nutshell, is the demonstration 
of the folly of the grand strategic movement on Richmond, as 
given by its own projector.” 

An English military critic thus analyzes the great campaign : 
“As regards the value of the plan, in a merely military point 
of view, three faults may be enumerated : It was too rash ; it 
violated the principles of war; its application was too timid. (1) 
An army of one hundred and thirty thousand volunteers should 
not be moved about as if it were a single division. (2) The 
choice of Fort Monroe as a secondary basis involved the neces¬ 
sity of leaving Washington, or the fixed basis, to be threatened, 
morally at least, by the enemy. The communications also 
between these two places were open to an attack from the 
Merrimac, an iron-plated ship, which lay at Norfolk, on the south 
side of Hampton Roads. The first movement to Fort Monroe 
was the stride of a giant. The second, in the direction of Rich¬ 
mond, was that of a dwarf. When the army arrived in front 
of the lines at Yorktown, it numbered, probably, one hundred 
thousand men, and here there was no timid President to inter¬ 
fere with the command ; nevertheless, McClellan suffered himself 
to be stopped in the middle of an offensive campaign by Magru- 
der and twelve thousand men. . . . The hour of his arrival 
in front of the lines should have been the hour of his attack 
•upon them. Two overwhelming masses, to which life and energy 
had been communicated, should have been hurled on separate 
points. Magruder not only defeated but destroyed! The 
morale of the Federal army raised ! The result of the campaign, 
although it might not have been decisive, would have been more 
honorable.” 

On the Confederate side the criticism was almost as severe, 
because, while claiming the result of the six days as a Con¬ 
federate success, it was also claimed that the campaign should 
have resulted in the complete destruction of McClellan’s army. 

The use of balloons for reconnoitring the enemy’s position 
formed a picturesque feature of this campaign. T. S. C. Lowe, 
J. H. Stiner, and other aeronauts were at the National head¬ 
quarters with their balloons, and several officers of high rank 
accompanied them in numerous ascents. But it seems to have 
been demonstrated that the balloon was of little practical value. 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


‘^3 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN POPE. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

POPE’S CAMPAIGN. 

FORMATION OF THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA—HALLECK MADE GENERAL- 

IN-CHIEF— McClellan leaves the peninsula — battle of 

CEDAR MOUNTAIN-POPE AND LEE MANCEUVRE — BATTLE OF 

GROVE TON — THE SECOND BULL RUN—BATTLE OF CHANTILLY- 

THE PORTER DISPUTE—GENERAL GRANT’S OPINION—COMPLI¬ 
CATED MOVEMENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN—INTERESTING INCIDENTS. 

While McClellan was before Richmond, it was determined 
to consolidate in one command the corps of Banks, Fremont, 
and McDowell, which were moving about in an independent and 
ineffectual way between Washington and the Shenandoah Val¬ 
ley. Gen. John Pope, who had won considerable reputation by 
his capture of Island No. 10, was called from the West and 
given command (June 26, 1862) of the new organization, which 
was called the Army of Virginia. Frdmont declined to serve 
under a commander who had once been his subordinate, and 
consequently his corps was given to General Sigel. General 
Pope, on taking command of this force, which numbered all told 
about thirty-eight thousand men, and also of the troops in the 
fortifications around Washington, had the bad taste to issue a 
general order that had three capital defects: it boasted of his 
own prowess at the West, it underrated his enemy, and it con¬ 
tained a bit of sarcasm pointed at General McClellan, the com¬ 
mander of the army with which his own was to cooperate. Pope 


says, in his report, that he wrote a cordial letter to McClellan, 
asking for his views as to the best plan of campaign, and offer¬ 
ing to render him any needed assistance ; and that he received 
but a cold and indefinite reply. It is likely enough that a 
courteous man and careful soldier like McClellan would be in 
no mood to fall in with the suggestions of a commander that 
entered upon his work with a gratuitous piece of bombast, and 
seemed to have no conception of the serious nature of the task. 
When it became evident that these two commanders could not 
act sufficiently in harmony, the President called Gen. Henry W. 
Ilalleck from the West to be General-in-Chief, with headquar¬ 
ters at Washington, and command them both. Halleck had 
perhaps more military learning than any other man in the coun¬ 
try, and his patriotic intentions were unquestionably good ; but 
in practical warfare he proved to be little more than a great 
obstructor. He had been the bane of the Western armies, pre¬ 
venting them from following up their victories, and had almost 
driven Grant out of the service ; and from the day he took com¬ 
mand at Washington (July 12) the troubles in the East became 
more complicated than ever. 

McClellan held a strong position at Harrison’s Landing, where, 
if he accomplished nothing else, he was a standing menace to 
Richmond, so that Lee dared not withdraw his army from its 
defence. He wanted to be heavily reinforced, cross the James, 
and strike at Richmond’s southern communications, just as 
Grant actually did two years later; and he was promised rein¬ 
forcements from the troops of Burnside and Hunter, on the 
coast of North and South Carolina. Lee’s anxiety was to get 
McClellan off from the peninsula, so that he could strike out 
toward Washington. He first sent a detachment to bombard 
McClellan’s camp from the opposite side of the James; but 
McClellan crossed the river with a sufficient force and easily 
swept it out of the way. Then Lee sent Jackson to make a 
demonstration against Pope, holding the main body of his army 
ready to follow as soon as some erratic and energetic movements 
of Jackson had caused a sufficient alarm at Washington to deter¬ 
mine the withdrawal of McClellan. The unwitting Halleck was 
all too swift to cooperate with his enemy, and had already 
determined upon that withdrawal. Burnside’s troops, coming 
up on transports, were not even landed, but were forwarded up 
the Potomac and sent to Pope. McClellan marched his army 
to Fort Monroe, and there embarked it by divisions for the 
same destination. 

Pope’s intention was to push southward, strike Lee’s western 
and northwestern communications, and cut them off from the 
Shenandoah Valley. He first ordered Banks (July 14) to push 
his whole cavalry force to Gordonsville, and destroy the railroads 
and bridges in that vicinity. But the cavalry commander, 
General Hatch, took with him infantry, artillery, and a wagon 
train, and consequently did not move at cavalry speed. Before 
he could get to Gordonsville, Jackson’s advance reached it, and 
his movement was frustrated. He was relieved of his command, 
and it was given to Gen. John Buford, an able cavalry leader. 

As soon as Jackson came in contact with Pope’s advance, he 
called upon Lee for reinforcements, and promptly received them. 
On the 8th of August he crossed the Rapidan, and moved toward 
Culpeper. Pope, who had but recently taken the field in person, 
having remained in Washington till July 29th, attempted to con¬ 
centrate the corps of Banks and Sigel at Culpeper. Banks 
arrived there promptly on the 8th ; but Sigel sent a note from 
Sperryville in the afternoon, asking by what road he should 
march. “ As there was but one road between those two points." 






164 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


¥ 


about eigh¬ 
teen hundred. 
‘ ‘ Besides 
which,” says 
Gen e r a 1 
Pope, “ fully 
one thousand 




says Pope, “ and that a broad stone turnpike, I was at a loss 
to understand how General Sigel could entertain any doubt as to 
the road by which he should march.” On the morning of the 
9th Banks’s corps went out alone to meet the enemy at Cedar 
Mountain. Banks had eight thousand men (Pope says he had 
supposed that corps numbered fourteen thousand), and attacked 
an enemy twice as strong. He first struck Jackson’s right wing, 
and afterward furiously attacked the left, rolled up the flank, 
opened a fire in the rear, and threw Jackson’s whole line into 
confusion. It was as if the two commanders had changed 
characters, and Banks had suddenly assumed the part that, 
according to the popular idea, Jackson was always supposed to 
play. If Sigel had only known what road to take, that mi gilt 
have been the last of Jackson. But Banks’s force had become 
somewhat broken in its advance through the woods, and at the 
same time the Confederates were reinforced, so that Jackson was 
able to rally his men and check the movement. Banks in turn 
was forced back a short distance, where he took up a strong 
position. 

Sigel’s corps arrived in the evening, relieved Banks’s corps, 
and made immediate preparations for a renewal of the fight in 
the morning. The dead were buried, the wounded carried forth, 
and through the night trains were moving and everything being 
put in readiness, but at daylight it was discovered that the enemy 
had fallen back two miles to a new position. Partly because of 
the strong position held by each, and partly because of the very 
hot weather, there was little further disposition to renew the 
fight, and two days later Jackson fell still further back to Gor- 
donsville. In this action, which for the numbers engaged was 

one of the 
fiercest and 
most rapid of 
the war, the 
Con federates 
lost about thir¬ 
teen hundred 
men and the 
National army 


POPE'S BAGGAGE-TRAIN IN THE MUD. 


men strag¬ 
gled back to 
Culpeper 
Court House 
and beyond, 
and never 
entirely re- 
turned to 
their com¬ 
mands.” On 
the other 
hand, the 
cavalry under view in culpeper. 

Buford and 

Bayard pursued the enemy and captured many stragglers. The 
Confederate Gen. Charles S. Winder was struck by a shell and 
killed while leading his division. 

Immediately after this action the cavalry resumed its former 
position along the Rapidan from Raccoon Ford to the moun¬ 
tains. On the 14th of August General Pope was reinforced by 
eight thousand men under General Reno, whereupon he pushed 
his whole force forward toward the Rapidan, and took up a posi¬ 
tion with his right on Robertson’s River, his centre on the 
slopes of Cedar Mountain and his left near Raccoon Ford. From 
this point he sent out cavalry expeditions to destroy the enemy’s 
communications with Richmond, and one of these captured 
General Stuart’s adjutant, with a letter from Lee to General 
Stuart, dated August 15th, which to a large extent revealed Lee’s 
plans. The incident that resulted in this important capture is 
thus related by Stuart’s biographer, Major H. B. McClellan : 
“ Stuart reached Verdiersville on the evening of the 17th, and 
hearing nothing from Fitz Lee, sent his adjutant, 
Major Norman R. Fitz Hugh, to meet him and 
ascertain his position. A body of the enemy’s 
cavalry had, however, started on a reconnoissance 
on the previous day, and in the darkness of the 
night Major Fitz Hugh rode into this party and 
was captured. On his person was found an auto¬ 
graph letter from the commanding general to 
Stuart which disclosed to General Pope the design 
of turning his left flank. The fact that Fitz 
H ugh did not return aroused no apprehension, 
and Stuart and his staff imprudently passed the 
night on the porch of an old house on the Plank 
Road. At daybreak he was aroused by the noise 
of approaching horsemen, and sending Mosby and 
Gibson, two of his aides, to ascertain who was 
coming, he himself walked out to the front gate, 
bareheaded, to greet Fitz Lee, as he supposed. 
The result did not justify his expectations. In 
another instant pistol shots were heard, and Mosby 
and Gibson were seen running back, pursued by 
a party of the enemy. Stuart, Von Borcke, and 
Dabney had their horses inside of the inclosure of 
the yard. Von Borcke gained the gate and the 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


165 



CONFEDERATE DEAD LAID OUT 
FOR BURIAL. 


road, and escaped 
unhurt after a 
long and hard 
run. Stuart and 
Dabney were 
compelled to leap 
the y a r d fence 
and take across 
the fields to the 
nearest woods. 

They were pur¬ 
sued but a short 
distance. Re¬ 
turning to a post 
of observation, 

Stuart saw the enemy depart in 
triumph with his hat and cloak, 
which he had been compelled to 
leave on the porch where he had 
slept. He bore this mortification 
with good nature. In a letter of 
about that date he writes : ‘ I am 
greeted on all sides with congratula¬ 
tions and “ Where’s your hat ? ” I 
intend to make the Yankees pay for 
that hat.’ And Pope did cancel the 
debt a few nights afterward at Catlett’s 
Station.” 

The captured despatch revealed to 
Pope the fact that Lee intended to fall 
upon him with his entire army and crush 
him before he could be reinforced from 
the Army of the Potomac. Pope says : “ 1 
held on to my position, thus far to the front, 


HENRY AND ROBINSON HOUSES, BULL RUN. 

(.From photograph taken in 1884.) 

for the purpose of affording all time possible for the arrival 
of the Army of the Potomac at Acquia and Alexandria, and 

to embarrass and 








delay the move¬ 
ments of the enemy 
as far as practica¬ 
ble. On the 18th of 
August it became 
apparent to me that 
this advanced posi¬ 
tion, with the small 
force under my com¬ 
mand, was no longer 
tenable in the face 
of the overwhelm¬ 
ing forces of the 
enemy. I deter¬ 
mined, accordingly, 
to withdraw behind 
the Rappahannock 
with all speed, and, 
as I had been in¬ 
structed, to defend, 
as far as practicable, 
the line of that river. 
I directed Major- 
General Reno to send back his trains, on the 
morning of the 18th, by the way of Stevens- 
burg, to Kelly’s or Burnett’s Ford, and, as 
soon as the trains had gotten several hours in 
advance, to follow them with his whole corps, 
and take post behind the Rappahannock, 


MAJOR-GENERAL G. W. C. LEE. 

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE, C. S. A. 

COLONEL WALTER TAYLOR 


GO*e" 


c 




















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


166 


leaving all his cavalry in the neighborhood of Raccoon Ford to 
cover this movement. General Banks’s corps, which had been 
ordered, on the 12th, to take position at Culpeper Court House, 
I directed, with its trains preceding it, to cross the Rappahan¬ 
nock at the point where the Orange and Alexandria railroad 
crosses that river. General McDowell’s train was ordered to 
pursue the same route, while the train of General Sigel was 
directed through Jefferson, to cross the Rappahannock at War- 
renton Sulphur Springs. So soon as these trains had been suffi¬ 
ciently advanced, McDowell's corps was directed to take the 
route from Culpeper to Rappahannock Ford, whilst General 
Sigel, who was on the right and front, was instructed to follow 
the movements of his train to Sulphur Springs. These move¬ 
ments were executed during the day and night of the 18th, and 
the day of the 19th, by which time the whole army, with its 
trains, had safely recrossed the Rappahannock and was posted 
behind that stream, with its left at Kelly’s Ford and its right 
about three miles above Rappahannock Station.” The Con¬ 
federates followed rapidly, 
and on the 20th confronted 
Pope at Kelly’s Ford, but 
with the river between. 

For two days they made 
strenuous efforts to cross, 
but a powerful artillery fire, 
which was kept up contin¬ 
uously for seven or eight 
miles along the river, made 
any crossing in force impos¬ 
sible. Lee therefore sent 
Jackson to make a flank 
march westward along that 
stream, cross it at Sulphur 
Springs, and come down 
upon Pope’s right. But 
when Jackson arrived at the 
crossing, he found a heavy 
force occupying Sulphur 
Springs and ready to meet 
him. Meanwhile Gen. 

James E. B. Stuart, with 
fifteen hundred cavalrymen, 
in the dark and stormy 
night of August 22d, had 
ridden around to the rear of 
Pope’s position, to cut the 
railroad. He struck Pope’s 
headquarters at Catlett’s 
Station, captured three 
hundred prisoners and all 
the personal baggage and 
papers of the commander, 
and got back in safety. 

These papers informed Lee 
of Pope’s plans and dispo¬ 
sitions. 

Jackson, being thwarted 
at Sulphur Springs, moved 
still farther up the south 
bank of the Rappahannock, 
crossed the headwaters, and 
turned Pope’s right. He 


passed through Thoroughfare Gap in the Bull Run Mountains 
on the 26th, destroyed Bristoe Station on the Orange and Alex¬ 
andria railroad, and sent out Stuart to Manassas Junction, where 
prisoners were taken and a large amount of commissary stores 
fell into his hands. 

Pope knew exactly the size of Jackson’s force, and the 
direction it had taken in its flank march; for Col. J. S. Clark, of 
Banks’s staff, had spent a day where he had a plain view of the 
enemy’s moving columns, and carefully counted the regiments 
and batteries. But from this point the National commander, 
who had hitherto done reasonably well, seemed suddenly to 
become bewildered. 

He explains in his report that his force was too small to 
enable him to extend his right any further without too greatly 
weakening his line, and says he telegraphed the facts repeatedly 
to Washington, saying that he could not extend further West 
without losing his connections with Fredericksburg. He de¬ 
clares he was assured on the 21st, that if he could hold the line 

of the river two days longer 
he should be heavily rein¬ 
forced, but that this prom¬ 
ise was not kept, the only 
troops that were added to 
his army during the next 
four days being seven thou¬ 
sand men under Generals 
Reynolds and Kearny. 

Lee, whose grand strat¬ 
egy was correct, had here 
blundered seriously in his 
manoeuvres, dividing his 
army so that the two parts 
were not within supporting 
distance of each other, and 
the united enemy was be¬ 
tween. An ordinarily good 
general, standing in Pope’s 
boots, would naturally have 
fallen in force upon Jack- 
son, and could have com¬ 
pletely destroyed or cap¬ 
tured him. But Pope 
out-blundered Lee, and 
gave the victory to the 
Confederates. 

He began by sending 
forty thousand men under 
McDowell, on the 27th, 
toward Thoroughfare Gap, 
to occupy the road by 
which Lee w i t h Long- 
street’s division was march¬ 
ing to join Jackson ; and at 
the same time he moved 
with the remainder of his 
army to strike Jackson at 
Bristoe Station. This was 
a good beginning, but was 
immediately ruined by his 
own lack of steadiness. 
The advance guard had an 
engagement at that place 



THE SEAT OF MILITARY OPERATIONS IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, 1862. 

















C A MPFI RE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


167 



with Jackson’s rear 
while his main body retired to Manassas 
Junction. Pope became elated at the prospect of a 
great success, and ordered a retrograde movement by 
McDowell, telling him to march eastward on the 28th, 
adding: “If you will march promptly and rapidly at the 
earliest dawn upon Manassas Junction, we shall bag the 
/hole crowd.” McDowell obeyed, the way was thus left 
open for Jackson to move out to meet his friends, and 
Jackson promptly took advantage of the opportunity 
and planted himself on the high land around Grovcton, 
near the battlefield of Bull Run. Here King’s division 


of McDowell’s corps 
came suddenly in 
contact with the 
enemy, and a sharp 
fight, with severe 
loss on either side, 
ensued. Among 
the Confederate 
wounded was Gen. 
Richard S. Ewell, 
one of their best 
commanders, who 
lost a leg. In the 
night, King’s men 
fell back to Manas¬ 
sas; and Ricketts’s 
division, which Mc¬ 
Dowell had left to 
delay Longstrect 
when he shou1d 
attempt to pass 
through Thorough¬ 
fare Gap, was also 
retired. 

All apprehen¬ 
sions on the part of 
the lucky Jackson 
were now at an end. 
Elis enemies had 
removed every ob¬ 
struction, and he 

was in possession of the Warrenton Turnpike, the road by 
which Longstreet was to join him. The cut of an abandoned 
railroad formed a strong, ready-made intrenchment, and 
along this he placed his troops, his right flank being on 
the turnpike and his left at Sudley Mill. 

General Pope says of his forces at this time: “From the 

of the 27th the troops 
under my command had been continuously marching and 
fighting night and day, and during the whole of that time 

there was scarcely an interval 
of an hour without the roar 
of artillery. The men had 
had little sleep, were greatly 
worn down with fatigue, had 
had little time to get proper 
food or to eat it, had been 
engaged in constant battles 
and skirmishes, and had per¬ 
formed services laborious, 
dangerous, and excessive be¬ 
yond any previous experience 
in this country. As was to 
be expected under such cir¬ 
cumstances, the numbers of 
the army under my command 
have been greatly reduced by 
deaths, by wounds, by sick¬ 
ness, and by fatigue, so that 
on the morning of the 27th 
of August I estimated my 
brevet brigadier-general geo. w. gill. whole effective force (and I 



























CAMPblRE and battlefield. 


16B 




MAJOR-GENERAL FRANZ SIGEL. 


think the estimate was large) as follows: Sigel’s corps, nine 
thousand men ; Banks’s corps, five thousand men ; McDowell’s 
corps, including Reynolds’s division, fifteen thousand five hun¬ 
dred men ; Reno’s corps, seven thousand men; the corps of 
Heintzelman and Porter (the freshest by far in that army), 
about eighteen thousand men—making in all fifty-four thou¬ 
sand five hundred men. Our cavalry numbered on paper about 
four thousand men ; but their horses were completely broken 
down, and there were not five hundred men, all told, capable 
of doing such service as should be expected from cavalry. 
The corps of Heintzelman had reached Warrenton 
Junction, but it was without wagons, without 
artillery, with only forty rounds of am¬ 
munition to the man, and without 
even horses for the general 
and field officers. The 
corps of Porter had 
also reached Warren¬ 
ton Junction with a 
very small supply of 
provisions, and but forty 
rounds of ammunition for 
each man.” 

Longstreet reached the 
field in the forenoon of the 
29th, and took position at 
Jackson’s right, on the other 
side of the turnpike, coverin 
also the Manassas Gap railroad. 

He was confronted by Fitz John 
Porter’s corps. McDowell says he 
ordered Porter to move out and 
attack Longstreet; Porter says he 
ordered him simply to hold the 
ground where he was. At three 
o’clock in the afternoon Pope or¬ 
dered Hooker to attack Jackson 
directly in front. Hooker, who 
was never loath to fight where 
there was a prospect of success, 
remonstrated; but Pope insisted, 
and the attack was made. Hook¬ 
er’s men charged with the bay¬ 
onet, had a terrific hand-to-hand 
fight in the cut, and actually 
ruptured Jackson’s seemingly im¬ 
pregnable line; but reinforcements 
were brought up, and the assail¬ 
ants were at length driven back. 

Kearny’s division was sent to sup¬ 
port Hooker, but too late, and it 
also was repelled. An hour or two 
later, Pope, who did not know that 
Longstreet had arrived on the field, 
sent orders to Fitz John Porter to 
attack Jackson’s right, supposing 
that was the right of the whole 
Confederate line. There is a dis¬ 
pute as to the hour at which this 
order reached Porter. But it was 
impossible for him to obey it, since 
he could not move upon Jackson’s 


MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP KEARNY. 


flank without exposing his 
own flank to Longstreet. 
About six o’clock, when he 
imagined Porter’s attack 
must have begun, Pope or¬ 
dered another attack on 
the Confederate left. It 
was gallantly made, and in 
the first rush was success¬ 
ful. Jackson’s extreme left 
was doubled up and broken 
by Kearny’s men, who 
seized the cut and held it 
for a time. At this point 
a Confederate regiment 
that had exhausted its am¬ 
munition fought with 
stones. There were plenty 
of fragments of rock at 
hand, and several men were 
killed by them. Again the 
Confederates, undisturbed 
on their right, hurried across reinforcements to 
their imperilled left; and Kearny’s division, too 
small to hold what it had gained, was driven 
back. This day’s action is properly called the 
battle of Groveton. 

Pope’s forces had been considerably cut up 
and scattered, but he got them together 
that night, re-formed his lines, and pre¬ 
pared to renew the attack the next day. 
Lee at the same time drew back his left 
somewhat, advanced and strengthened his 
right, and prepared to take the offensive. 
Each intended to attack the other’s left 
flank. 

When Pope moved out the next day 
(August 30th) to strike Lee’s left, and 
found it withdrawn, he imagined that the 
enemy was in retreat, and immediately 
ordered McDowell to follow it up and 
“ press the enemy vigorously the whole 
day.” Porter’s corps—the advance of 
McDowell’s force—had no sooner begun 
this movement than it struck the foe in 
a strong position, and was subjected to a 
heavy artillery fire. Then a cloud of dust 
was seen to the south, and it was evident 
that Lee was pushing a force around on 
the flank. McDowell sent Reynolds to 
meet and check it. Porter then attempted 
to obey his orders. He advanced against 
Jackson’s right in charge after charge, but 
was met by a fire that repelled him every 
time with bloody loss. Moreover, Long¬ 
street found an eminence that commanded 
a part of his line, promptly took advan¬ 
tage of it by placing a battery there, and 
threw in an enfilading fire. It was impos¬ 
sible for anything to withstand this, and 
Porter’s corps in a few minutes fell back 
defeated. The whole Confederate line was 















C A M PE IR E AJvn EAITLEFIELD. 


169 


\i 

• \ 



MILL AND HOTEL AT SUDLEY SPRINGS. 


advanced, and an attempt was made, by still further extending 
their right, to cut off retreat; but key-points were firmly held 
by Warren’s brigade and the brigades of Meade and Seymour, 
and the army was withdrawn in order from the field whence it 
had retired so precipitously a year before. After dark it crossed 
the stone bridge over Bull Run, and encamped on the heights 
around Centreville. 

The corps of Sumner and Frank¬ 
lin here joined Pope, and the whole 
army fell back still further, taking 
a position around Fairfax Court 
House and Germantown. Lee 
meanwhile ordered Jackson to 
make another of the flank marches 
that he was so fond of, with a view 
of striking Pope’s right and per¬ 
haps interrupting his communica¬ 
tion with Washington. It was the 
evening of September 1st when he 
fell heavily upon Pope’s flank. He 
was stoutly resisted, and finally 
repelled by the commands of 
Hooker and Reno, and a part of 
those of McDowell and Kearny. 

General Stevens, of Reno’s corps, 
was killed, and his men, having 
used up their ammunition, fell 
back. General Kearny sent Bir- 
ney’s brigade into the gap, and 
brought up a battery. He then 
rode forward to reconnoitre, came 
suddenly upon a squad of Con¬ 
federates, and in attempting to 


ride away was shot dead. Kearny was one of the most experi¬ 
enced and efficient soldiers in the service. He had lost an arm 
in the Mexican war, was with Napoleon III. at Solferino and 
Magenta, and had just passed through the peninsula campaign 
with McClellan. 

Lee made no further attempt upon Pope’s army, and on Sep¬ 
tember 2d, by Halleck’s orders, 
it was withdrawn to the fortifica¬ 
tions of Washington, where it was 
merged in the Army of the Poto¬ 
mac. In this campaign, both the 
numbers engaged on either side 
and the respective losses are in 
dispute, and the exact truth never 
will be known. Lee claimed that 
he had captured nine thousand 
prisoners and thirty guns, and it is 
probable that Pope’s total loss 
numbered at least fifteen thou¬ 
sand. Pope maintained that he 
would have won the battle of 
Groveton and made a successful 
campaign if General Porter had 
obeyed his orders. Porter, for 
this supposed disobedience, was 
court-martialed in January, 1863, 
and was condemned and dismissed 
from the service, and forever dis¬ 
qualified from holding any office 
of trust or profit under the Gov¬ 
ernment of the United States. 
Thousands of pages have been 
written and printed to prove or 



MAP OF SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN, SHOWING IMPORTANT POSITIONS 
OCCUPIED FROM AUGUST 27th TO SEPTEMBER 1st. 












170 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




SECOND BATTLE 
(From a. 


disprove his innocence, and the evidence .has been reviewed 
again and again. It appears to be established at last that he 
did not disobey any order that it was possible for him to obey, 
and that he was blameless—except, perhaps, in having exhibited 
a spirit of personal hostility to General Pope, who was then his 
superior officer. A bill to relieve him of the penalty was passed 
by the Forty-sixth Congress, but was vetoed by President 
Arthur. Substantially the same bill was passed in 1886 and 
was signed by President Cleveland. It restored him to his place 
as colonel in the regular army, and retired him with that rank, 
but with no compensation for the intervening years. 

General Grant, reviewing the case in 1882, came to the con¬ 
clusion that Porter was innocent, and gave his reasons for it in a 
magazine article, significantly remarking that “ if he was guilty, 
the punishment awarded was not commensurate with the offence 
committed.” But some other military authorities still believe 
that his sentence was just. Grant seems to make the question 


perfectly clear by drawing two simple diagrams. This, he says, 
is what Pope supposed to be the position of the armies when he 
ordered Porter to attack : 



JACKSON 


POPE 


But this is what the situation really was: 

„K,r.*TREET _ JACKSON 



POPE 


The movements of this campaign were more complicated than 
those of any other during the war, and it appears to have been 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


171 



OF BULL RUN. 

War-Time Sketch.) 


carried on with less of definite plan and connected purpose on 
either side. It is not probable that its merits, if it had any 
merits, will ever be satisfactorily agreed upon. On the part of 
Pope’s army, whether by his fault or not, it was a disastrous 
failure. On the part of Lee’s, while it resulted in tactical suc¬ 
cesses, it did not seriously menace the safety of Washington, 
and it led him on to his first great failure in an attempted inva¬ 
sion of the North. It is only fair to give General Pope’s last 
word on the subject, which we quote from his article in “ Battles 
and Leaders of the Civil War.” “ At no time could I have 
hoped to fight a successful battle with the superior forces of the 
enemy which confronted me, and which were able at any time 
to out-flank and bear my small army to the dust. It was only 
by constant movement, incessant watchfulness, and hazardous 
skirmishes and battles, that the forces under my command were 
saved from destruction, and that the enemy was embarrassed 
and delayed in his advance until the army of General McClellan 


was at length assembled for the defence of Washington. I did 
hope that in the course of these operations the enemy might 
commit some imprudence, or leave some opening of which”! 
could take such advantage as to gain at least a partial success. 
This opportunity was presented by the advance of Jackson on 
Manassas Junction; but although the best dispositions possible 
in my view were made, the object was frustrated by causes 
which could not have been foreseen, and which perhaps are not 
yet completely known to the country.” 

From Capt. Henry N. Blake, of the Eleventh Massachusetts 
regiment, we have these interesting incidents of the campaign : 

“ Matches were very scarce upon this campaign, and a private 
who intended to light one gave public notice to the crowd, who 
surrounded him with slips of paper and pipes in their hands. 
Some soldiers were in a destitute condition, and suffered from 
blistered feet, as they had no shoes, and others required a pair of 
pants or a blouse ; but all gladly pursued Jackson, and his capture 















i;2 CAMPFIRE AND 

was considered a certain event. The column cheered General 
Pope when he rode along, accompanied by a vast body-guard, 
and he responded : ‘ I am glad to see you in such good spirits 
to-day.’ . . . The stream was forded, and the graves and 

bones of the dead, the rusty fragments of iron, and the weather¬ 
beaten ddbris of that contest reminded the men that they were 
again in the midst of the familiar scenes of the first battle of 
Bull Run. The cannonading was brisk at intervals during the 
day. Large tracts of the field were black and smoking from the 
effect of the burning grass which the shells ignited, and a small 


BA TTLEEIELD. 

range of the artillery from which they had so cowardly fled. A 
member of the staff, dressed like an officer of the day, immedi¬ 
ately arrived and gave a verbal order to the brigade commander, 
after which the regiments were formed and marched, unmindful 
of the cannon-balls, toward the right of the line, and halted in 
the border of a thick forest in which many skirmishes had taken 
place. ‘ What does the general want me to do now ? ’ General 
Grover asked the aide who again rode up to the brigade. ‘ Go 
into the woods and charge,’ was the answer. ‘ Where is my sup¬ 
port ? ’ the commander wisely inquired, for there were no troops 



RUINS OF THE STONE BRIDGE ON THE WARRENTON TURNPIKE 


(From a War Department photograph.) 


force was occasionally engaged upon the right, but there was no 
general conflict. The brigade took the position assigned to it, 
upon a slope of a hill, to support a battery which was attached 
to Sigel’s corps, and no infantry was visible in any direction, 
although the land was open and objects within the distance of 
half a mile were readily seen. There was no firing, with the ex¬ 
ception of the time when the troops debouched from the road in 
the morning, and the soldiers rested until four P.M. At this 
moment the enemy opened with solid shot upon the battery, 
which did not discharge one piece in response. The drivers 
mounted their horses ; all rushed pell-mell through the ranks of 
the fearless and enraged support, and did not halt within the 


near the position. ‘ It is coming.’ After waiting fifteen minutes 
for this body to appear, the officer returned and said that ‘ the 
general was much displeased ’ because the charge had not been 
made, and the order was at once issued : ‘ Fix bayonets.’ Each 
man was inspired by these magical words; great enthusiasm 
arose when this command was ‘passed’ from company to com¬ 
pany, and the soldiers, led by their brave general, advanced upon 
a hidden foe through tangled woods which constantly interfered 
with the formation of the ranks. ‘ Colonel, do you know what 
we are going to charge on ? ’ a private inquired. ‘ Yes ; a good 
dinner.’ The rebel skirmishers were driven in upon their reserve 
behind the bank of an unfinished railroad, and detachments from 









CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


17 .? 




five brigades were massed in three lines, under the command of 
Ewell, to resist the onset of the inferior force that menaced them. 
The awful volleys did not impede the storming party that pressed 
on over the bodies of the dead and dying ; while the thousands 
of bullets which flew through 
the air seemed to create a 
breeze that made the leaves 
upon the trees rustle, and a 
shower of small boughs and 
twigs fell upon the ground. 

The balls penetrated the 
barrels and shattered the 
stocks of many muskets ; but 
the soldiers who carried them 
picked up those that had been 
dropped upon the ground by 
helpless comrades, and al¬ 
lowed no slight accident of 


the animal, mad with pain, dashed into the ranks of the enemy. 
The woods always concealed the movements of the troops, and 
at one point a portion of the foe fell back while the others 
remained. The forces sometimes met face to face, and the 
bayonet and sword—weapons that do not pierce 
soldiers in nine-tenths of the battles that are fought 
—were used with deadly effect in several instances. 
A corporal exclaimed in the din of this combat, 
‘ Dish ish no place for de mens,’ and fled to the 
rear with the speed of the mythical Flying Dutch¬ 
man. In one company of the regiment a son was 
killed by the side of his father, who continued to 
perform his duty with the firmness of a stoic, and 
remarked to his amazed comrades, in a tone which 
showed how a strong patriotic ardor can triumph 


—— --—,-j— 




as 


GATHERING UP DEBRIS OF POPE'S RETREAT AFTER 
THE SECOND BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 

(From a War Department photograph.) 


strength. 


this character to 
interrupt them 
in the noble 
work. The railroad bank 
was gained, and the co 
umn with cheers passed 
over it, and advanced over 
the groups of the slain 
and mangled rebels who 

had rolled down the declivity when they lost their 
The second line was broken ; both were scattered through the 
woods, and victory appeared to be certain until the last sup¬ 
port, that had rested upon their breasts on the ground, sud¬ 
denly rose up and delivered a destructive volley which forced 
the brigade, that had al¬ 
ready lost more than one- 
third of its number in killed 
and wounded, to retreat. 

Ewell, suffering from his 
shattered knee, was borne 
to the rear in a blanket, 
and his leg was amputa¬ 
ted. The horse of General 
Grover was shot upon the 
railroad bank while he was 
encouraging the men to go 
forward, and he had barely 
time to dismount before 


GENERAL HANCOCK AND FRIENDS. 
(From a War-Time photograph.) ' 


over the deepest emo¬ 
tion of affection : ‘ I had 
rather see him shot dead 
he was than see him run 
away.’ . . . The victors 

rallied the fugitives after this 
repulse, and their superior force enabled 
them to assault in front and upon both 
flanks the line which had been contracted 
by the severe losses in the charge, and the brigade fell back to the 
first position under a fire of grape and canister which was added to 
the musketry. The regimental flag was torn from the staff by un¬ 
friendly limbs in passing through the forest, and the eagle that 
surmounted it was cut off in the contest. The commander of 
the color-company saved these precious emblems, and earnestly 
shouted, when the lines were re-formed : ‘ Eleventh, rally round 
the pole ! ’ which was then, if possible, more honored than when 
it was bedecked in folds of bunting. General 
Grover, who displayed the gallantry throughout 

this action that he had ex¬ 
hibited upon the peninsula, 
waved his hat upon the 
point of his sword to ani¬ 
mate his brigade and pre¬ 
pare for a renewal of the 
fight. Many were scarcely 
able to speak on account of 
hoarseness caused by in¬ 
tense cheering, and some 
officers blistered the palms 
of their hands by waving 
swords when they charged 
with their commands.” 

















HARPER’S FERRY IN POSSESSION OF THE CONFEDERATE FORCES. 













CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


175 



AWAITING THE CHARGE. 


CHAPTER XV. 

THE ANTIETAM CAMPAIGN. 

CONFEDERATE ADVANCE INTO MARYLAND-THE ARMY OF THE 

POTOMAC SENT AGAINST THEM—LEE’S PLANS LEARNED FROM A 
LOST DESPATCH—CAPTURE OF HARPER’S FERRY—-BATTLE OF 
SOUTH MOUNTAIN—BATTLE OF ANTIETAM—TERRIFIC FIGHTING 

AT THE DUNKERS’ CHURCH AND THE SUNKEN ROAD-PORTER’S 

INACTION—FIGHTING AT THE BRIDGE—GENERAL CONDUCT OF 
THE BATTLE-THE RESULTS. 

AFTER his success in the second battle of Manassas, and the 
retirement of Pope’s army to the defences of Washington (Sep¬ 
tember 2, 1862), General Lee pushed northward into Maryland 
with his whole army. His advance arrived at Frederick City on 
the 8th, and from his camp near that place he issued a procla¬ 
mation to the people of Maryland, in which he recited the 
wrongs they had suffered at the hands of the National Govern¬ 
ment, and told them “the people of the South have long wished 
to aid you in throwing off this foreign yoke, to enable you again 
to enjoy the inalienable rights of freemen and restore the inde¬ 
pendence and sovereignty of your State.” At the same time he 
opened recruiting-offices, and appointed a provost-marshal of 
Frederick. The reader of the classics will perhaps be reminded 
of the shrewd advice that Demosthenes gave the Athenians, 
when he counselled them not to ask the assistance of the 


Thebans against Philip of Macedon, but to bring about an alliance 
by offering to help them against him. But the Confederate chief¬ 
tain was sadly disappointed in the effect of his proclamation and 
his presence. When his army marched into the State singing 
“ My Maryland,” they were received with closed doors, drawn 
blinds, and the silence of a graveyard. In Frederick all the 
places of business were shut. The Marylanders did not flock to 
his recruiting-offices to the extent of more than two or three 
hundred, while on the other hand he lost many times that num¬ 
ber from straggling, as he says in his report. Several reasons 
have been assigned for the failure of the people to respond to 
his appeal, in each of which there is probably some truth. One 
was, that it had always been easy enough for Marylanders to 
go to the Confederate armies, and those of them that wished 
to enlist there had done so already. Another—and probably 
the principal one—was, that Maryland was largely true to 
the Union, especially in the western counties; and she fur¬ 
nished many excellent soldiers to its armies—almost fifty thou¬ 
sand. Another was, that the appearance of the Southern vet¬ 
erans was not calculated either to entice the men or to arouse 
the enthusiasm of the women. The Confederate General Jones 
says : “ Never had the army been so dirty, ragged, and ill-provided 
for as on this march.” General Lee complained especially of 
their want of shoes. It is difficult to understand why an army 
that claimed to have captured such immense supplies late in 
August should have been so destitute early in September. 

On the 2d of September the President went to General 
McClellan’s house in Washington, asked him to take command 
again of the Army of the Potomac, in which Pope’s army had 
now been merged, and verbally authorized him to do so at 
once. The first thing that McClellan wanted was the with¬ 
drawal of Miles’s force, eleven thousand men, from Harper’s 
Ferry—where, he said, it was useless and helpless—and its 
addition to his own force. All authorities agree that in this he 
was obviously and unquestionably right, for Harper’s Ferry had 
no strategic value whatever ; but the marplot hand of Halleck 
intervened, and Miles was ordered to hold the place. Halleck’s 
principal reason appeared to be a reluctance to abandon a place 
where so much expense had been laid out. Miles, a worthy 
subordinate for such a chief, interpreted Halleck’s orders with 
absolute literalness, and remained in the town, instead of hold¬ 
ing it by placing his force on the heights that command it. 

As soon as it was known that Lee was in Maryland, McClellan 
set his army in motion northward, to cover Washington and 
Baltimore and find an opportunity for a decisive battle. He 
arrived with his advance in Frederick on the 12th, and met with 
a reception in striking contrast to that accorded to the army 
that had left the town two days before. Nearly every house 
displayed the National flag, the streets were thronged with 
people, all the business places were open, and everybody wel¬ 
comed the Boys in Blue. 

But this flattering reception was not the best fortune that 
befell the Union army in Frederick. On his arrival in the 
town, General McClellan came into possession of a copy of 
General Lee’s order, dated three days before, in which the 
whole campaign was laid out. By this order, Jackson was 
directed to march through Sharpsburg, cross the Potomac, 
capture the force at Martinsburg, and assist in the capture of 
that at Harper’s Ferry; Longstreet was directed to halt at 
Boonsborough with the trains; McLaws was to march to 
Harper’s Ferry, take possession of the heights commanding it, 
and capture the force there as speedily as possible ; Walker was 























1/6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


to invest that place from the other side and assist Me Laws ; 
D. H. Hill’s division was to form the rear guard. All the 
forces were to be united again at Boonsborough or Hagerstown. 
General Lee had taken it for granted that Martinsburg and 
Harper’s Ferry would be evacuated at his approach (as they 
should have been); and when he found they were not, he had 
so far changed or sus¬ 
pended the plan with 
which he set out as to 
send back a large part 
of his army to capture 
those places and not 
leave a hostile force in 
his rear. 

On the approach of 
Jackson’s corps Gen¬ 
eral White evacuated 
Martinsburg, and with 
his garrison of two 
thousand men joined 
Miles at Harper’s 
Ferry. That town, in 
the fork of the Poto¬ 
mac and Shenandoah 
rivers, can be bombarded with the greatest ease from the heights 
on the opposite sides of those streams. Miles, instead of taking 
possession of the heights with all his men, sent a feeble detach¬ 
ment to those on the north side of the Potomac, and stupidly 
remained in the trap with the rest. McLaws sent a heavy force 
to climb the mountain at a point three or four miles north, 
whence it marched along the crest through the woods, and 
attacked three or four regiments that Miles 
had posted there. This force was soon 
driven away, while Jackson was approach¬ 
ing; the town from the other side, and a 
bombardment the next day compelled a 
surrender when Jackson was about to at¬ 
tack. General Miles was mortally wound¬ 
ed by one of the last shots. About eleven 
thousand men were included in the capitu¬ 
lation, with seventy-three guns and a con¬ 
siderable amount of camp equipage. A 
body of two thousand cavalry, commanded 
by Colonel Davis, had been with Miles, 
but had escaped the night before, crossed 
the Potomac, and by morning reached 
Greencastle, Pa. On the way they captured 
Longstreet’s ammunition train of fiftv 
wagons. Jackson, leaving the arrange¬ 
ments for the surrender to A. P. Hill, 
hurried with the greater part of his force 
to rejoin Lee, and reached Sharpsburg on 
the morning of the 16th. 

The range known as the South Moun¬ 
tain, which is a continuation of the Blue 
Ridge north of the Potomac, is about a 
thousand feet high. The two principal 
gaps are Turner’s and Crampton’s, each 
about four hundred feet high, with the 
hills towering six hundred feet above it. 

When McClellan learned the plans of 
the Confederate commander, he set his 


army in motion to thwart them. He ordered Franklin’s corps 
to pass through Crampton’s Gap and press on to relieve Harp¬ 
er’s Ferry ; the corps of Reno and Hooker, under command of 
Burnside, he moved to Turner’s Gap. The movement was quick 
for McClellan, but not quite quick enough for the emergency. 
He might have passed through the Gaps on the 13th with little 

or no opposition, and 
would then have had 
his whole army be¬ 
tween Lee’s divided 
forces, and could hard¬ 
ly have failed to defeat 
them disastrously and 
perhaps conclusively. 
But he did not arrive 
at the passes till the 
morning of the 14th ; 
and by that time Lee 
had learned of his 
movement and recalled 
Hill and Longstreet, 
from Boonsborough 
and beyond, to defend 
Turner’s Gap, while 
he ordered McLaws to look out for Crampton’s. 

Turner’s Gap was flanked by two old roads that crossed the 
mountain a mile north and south of it; and using these, and 
scrambling up from rock to rock, the National troops worked 
their way slowly to the crests, opposed at every step by the 
Confederate riflemen behind the trees and ledges. Reno as¬ 
saulted the southern crest, and Hooker the northern, while Gib¬ 
bon’s brigade gradually pushed along up 
the turnpike into the Gap itself. Reno 
was opposed by the Confederate brigade 
of Garland, and both these commanders 
were killed. There was stubborn and 
bloody fighting all day, with the Union 
forces slowly but constantly gaining ground, 
and at dark the field was won. The Con¬ 
federates withdrew during the night, and 
in the morning the victorious columns 
passed through to the western side of the 
mountain. This battle cost McClellan fif¬ 
teen hundred men, killed or wounded. 
Among the wounded was the lieutenant- 
colonel in command of the Twenty-third 
Ohio regiment—Rutherford B. Hayes, 
afterward President—who was struck in 
the arm by a rifle-ball. The Confederate 
loss in killed and wounded was about fifteen 
hundred, and in addition fifteen hundred 
were made prisoners. The fight at Cramp¬ 
ton’s Gap—to defend which McLaws had 
sent back a part of his force from Harper’s 
Ferry—was quite similar to that at Turn¬ 
er’s, and had a similar result. Franklin 
reached the crests after a fight of three 
hours, losing five hundred and thirty-two 
men, inflicting an equal loss upon the 
enemy, and capturing four hundred prison¬ 
ers, one gun, and three battle-flags. These 
two actions (fought September 14, 1862) 




BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. C. KELTON. 
(Adjutant-General to General Halleck.) 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


177 



aie generally designated as the battle of South Mountain, but 
are sometimes called the battle of Boonsborough. In that the 
enemy was driven away, the ground held, and the passes used, 
it was a victory, and a brilliant one, for McClellan. But in 
that Lee, by delaying the advance of his enemy a whole day, 
thereby gained time to bring together his own scattered forces, 
it was strategically a victory, though a costly one, for him. But 
then again it might be argued that if Lee could have kept the 
four thousand good troops that McClellan deprived him of at 
South Mountain, it might have fared better with him in the 
struggle at Antietam three days later. 

When Lee retired his left wing from Turner’s Gap, he with¬ 
drew across the Antietam, and took up a position on high ground 
between that stream and the village of Sharpsburg. His right, 
under McLaws, after detaining Franklin till Harper’s Ferry was 
surrendered, crossed the Potomac at that place, recrossed it at 
Shepherdstown, and came promptly into position. Lee now 

had his army to¬ 
gether and strongly 


flowed in front, was advantageous. The creek was crossed by 
four stone bridges and a ford, and all except the northernmost 
bridge were strongly guarded. The land was occupied by mead¬ 
ows, cornfields, and patches of forest, and was much broken by 
outcropping ledges. McClellan only reconnoitred the position 
on the 15th. On the i6th he developed his plan of attack, which 
was simply to throw his right wing across the Antietam by the 
upper and unguarded bridge, assail the Confederate left, and 
when this had sufficiently engaged the enemy’s attention and 
drawn his strength to that flank, to force the bridges and cross 
with his left and centre. Indeed, this was obviously almost the 
only practicable plan. All day long an artillery duel was kept 
up, in which, as General Hill says, the Confederate batteries 
proved no match for their opponents. It was late in the after¬ 
noon when Hooker s corps crossed by the upper bridge, advanced 
through the woods, and struck the left flank, which was held by 
two brigades of Hood s men. Scarcely more than a skirmish 
ensued, when darkness came on, and the lines rested for the 
night where they 






MAJOR-GENERAL 
JOHN G. WALKER, C. S. A. 


COBB 


uoWEU- 


Major -^nz Ral 


LA FAYETTF 


CLAW'S 


n , MO R-GEN £RM ' 


posted. But it had been so reduced by losses in battle and 
straggling, that it numbered but little over forty thousand com¬ 
batants. The effect upon the army itself of invading a rich 
country with troops so poorly supplied had probably not been 
anticipated. Lee complained bitterly that his army was “ ruined 
by straggling,” and General Hill wrote in his report : “ Had all 
our stragglers been up, McClellan’s army would have been com¬ 
pletely crushed or annihilated. Thousands of thievish poltroons 
had kept away from sheer cowardice.” General Hill, in his 
anger, probably overestimates the effect; for McClellan had 
somewhat over seventy thousand men, and though he used but 
little more than half of them in his attacks, there is no reason 
to suppose he would not have used them all in a defence. The 
men that Lee did have, however, were those exclusively that 
had been able to stand the hard marching and resist the tempta¬ 
tion to straggle, and were consequently the flower of his army; 
and they now awaited, in a chosen position, a battle that they 
knew would be decisive of the campaign, if not of the war. 

The ground occupied by the Confederate army, with one flank 
resting on the Potomac, and the other on the Antietam, which 


were. If I ^ee could have been in any doubt before, he was now 
told plainly what was to be the form of the contest, and he had 
all night to make his dispositions for it. The only change he 
thought it necessary to make was to put Jackson’s fresh troops 
in the position on his left. Before morning McClellan sent 
Mansfield’s corps across the Antietam to join Hooker, and had 
Sumner’s in readiness to follow at an early hour. Meanwhile, 
all but two thousand of Lee’s forces had come up. So the 17th 
of September dawned in that peaceful little corner of the world 
with everything in readiness for a great struggle in which there 
could be no surprises, and which was to be scarcely anything 
more than wounds for wounds and death for death. 

In the vicinity of the little Dunker church, the road running 
northward from Sharpsburg to Hagerstown was bordered on 
both sides by woods, and in these woods the battle began when 
Hooker assaulted Jackson at sunrise. There was hard fighting 
for an hour, during which Jackson’s lines were not only heavily 
pressed by Hooker in front, but at length enfiladed by a fire 
from the batteries on the eastern side of the Antietam. This 
broke them and drove them back ; but when Hooker attempted 








178 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


to advance his lines far enough to hold the road and seize the 
woods west of it, he in turn was met by fresh masses of troops 
and a heavy artillery fire, and was checked. Mansfield’s corps 
was moving up to his support when its commander was mortally 
wounded. Nevertheless it moved on, got a position in the 
woods west of the road, and held it, though at heavy cost. At 
this moment General Hooker was seriously wounded and borne 
from the field, while Sumner crossed the stream and came up 
with his corps. His men drove back the defeated divisions of 
the enemy without much difficulty, and occupied the ground 
around the church. His whole line was advancing to apparent 
victory, when two fresh divisions were brought over from the 


concentrated upon that spot, that when the woods were cut 
down, years afterward, and the logs sent to a saw-mill, the saws 
were completely tom to pieces by the metal that had penetrated 
the wood and been overgrown. 

A short distance south and east of the Dunker church there 
was a slightly sunken road which crossed the Confederate line at 
one point and was parallel with it for a certain distance at other 
points. A strong Confederate force was posted in this sunken 
road, and when the National troops approached it there was 
destructive work on both sides ; but the heaviest loss here fell 
upon the Confederates, because some batteries on the high 
ground east of the Antietam enfiladed portions of the road. 



THE CHARGE ACROSS THE BURNSIDE BRIDGE. 


Confederate right, and were immediately thrust into a wide gap 
in Sumner’s line. Sedgwick, whose division formed the right of 
the line, was thus flanked on his left, and was easily driven back 
out of the woods, across the clearing, and into the eastern 
woods, after which the Confederates retired to their own posi¬ 
tion. Fighting of this sort went on all the forenoon, one of 
the episodes being a race between the Fifth New Hampshire 
Regiment and a Confederate force for a commanding point of 
ground, the two marching in parallel lines and firing at each 
other as they went along. The New Hampshire men got there 
first, and, assisted by the Eighty-first Pennsylvania Regiment, 
from that eminence threw a destructive fire into the ranks of 
the regiment they had out-run. The fighting around the 
Dunker church was so fierce, and so much artillery fire was 


This sunken road, which was henceforth called Bloody Lane, has 
made some confusion in many accounts of the battle, which is 
explained by the fact that it is not a straight road, but is made 
up of several parts running at different angles. 

While this great struggle was in progress on McClellan’s right, 
his centre and left, under Porter and Burnside, did not make 
any movement to assist. Porter’s inaction is explained by the 
fact that his troops were kept as the reserves, which McClellan 
refused to send forward even when portions of his line were most 
urgently calling for assistance. He and Porter agreed in cling¬ 
ing to the idea that the reserves must under no circumstances 
be pushed forward to take part in the actual battle. This con¬ 
duct was in marked contrast to that of the Confederate com¬ 
mander, who in this action had no reserves whatever. 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


i /9 


At noon Franklin arrived from Crampton’s Gap, and was sent 
over to help Hooker and Sumner, being just in time to check a 
new advance by more troops brought over from the Confederate 
right. 

At seven o’clock in the morning Burnside was ordered to have 
his corps in readiness for carrying the bridge in his front, cross¬ 
ing the stream, and attacking the Confederate right, which order 
he promptly obeyed. An hour later the order for this move¬ 
ment was issued by McClellan, but it did not reach Burnside 
till nine o’clock. The task 
before him was more diffi¬ 
cult than his commander 
realized or than would be 
supposed from most de¬ 
scriptions of the action. 

The bridge is of stone, hav¬ 
ing three arches, with low 
stone parapets, and not 
very wide. On the eastern 
side of the stream, where 
Burnside’s corps was, the 
land is comparatively low. 

The road that crosses the 
bridge, when it reaches the 
western bank has to turn 
immediately at a right 
angle and run nearly par¬ 
allel with the stream, be¬ 
cause the land there is high 
and overhangs it. As a 
matter of course, the bridge 
was commanded by Con¬ 
federate guns advanta- 
geously placed on the 
he ights. The problem be¬ 
fore Burnside was therefore 
exceedingly difficult, and 
the achievement expected 
of him certain in any case 
to be costly. The task of 
first crossing the bridge 
fell upon Crook’s brigade, 
which moved forward, mis¬ 
took its way, and struck 
the stream some distance 
above the bridge, where it 
immediately found itself 
under a heavy fire. Then 
the Second Maryland and 
Sixth New Hampshire 
regiments were ordered to 
charge at the double quick and carry the bridge. But the fire 
that swept it was more than they could stand, and they were 
obliged to retire unsuccessful. Then another attempt was made 
by a new storming party, consisting of the Fifty-first New York 
and Fifty-first Pennsylvania regiments, led by Col. Robert B. 
Potter and Col. John F. Hartranft. By this time two heavy guns 
had been got into position where they could play upon the Con¬ 
federates who defended the bridge, and with this protection and 
assistance the two regiments just named succeeded in crossing it 
and driving away the immediate opposing force, and were imme¬ 
diately followed by Sturgis’s division and Crook’s brigade. The 


fighting at the bridge cost Burnside about five hundred men. 
The Fifty-first New York lost eighty-seven, and the Fifty-first 
Pennsylvania one hundred and twenty. At the same time other 
troops crossed by a ford below the bridge, which had to be 
searched for, but was at length found. These operations occupied 
four hours, being completed about one o’clock P.M. Could 
they have been accomplished in an hour or two, the destruction 
or capture of Lee’s army must have resulted. But by the time 
that Burnside had crossed the stream, captured a battery, and 

occupied the heights over- 
looking Sharpsburg, the 
fighting on McClellan’s 
right was over. This left 
Lee at liberty to strengthen 
his imperilled right by 
bringing troops across the 
short interior line from his 
left, which he promptly 
did. At the same time the 
last division of his forces 
(A. P. Hill’s), two thou¬ 
sand strong, arrived from 
Harper’s Ferry; and these 
fresh men, together with 
those brought over from 
the left, assumed the offen¬ 
sive, drove Burnside from 
the crest, and retook the 
battery. 

Here ended the battle; 
not because the day was 
closed or any apparent 
victory had been achieved, 
but because both sides had 
been so severely punished 
that neither was inclined 
to resume the fight. Every 
man of Lee’s force had been 
actively engaged, but not 
more than two-thirds of 
McClellan’s. The reason 
why the Confederate army 
was not annihilated or cap¬ 
tured must be plain to any 
intelligent reader. It was 
not because Lee, with his 
army divided for three days 
in presence of his enemy, 
had not invited destruc¬ 
tion ; nor because the 
seventy thousand, acting in concert, could not have over¬ 
whelmed the forty thousand even when they were united. 
It was not for any lack of courage, or men, or arms, or oppor¬ 
tunity, or daylight. It was simply because the attack was 
made in driblets, instead of by heavy masses on both wings 
simultaneously; so that at any point of actual contact Lee 
was almost always able to present as strong a force as that 
which assailed him. In a letter written to General Franklin 
the evening before the battle of South Mountain, General 
McClellan, having then received the lost despatch that revealed 
Lee’s plans and situation, set forth with much particularity his 






















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


t So 




purposes for the next few 
days, and summed up by 
saying: “My general idea 
is to cut the enemy in two 
and beat him in detail.” 
No plan could have been 
better or more scientific; 

but curiously 


enough. 


MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN GIBBON. 




Ma JOR 




Na Ft 

Pat *IC K 


when it came to actual 
battle General McClel¬ 
lan’s conduct was the 
exact opposite of this. 

By unnecessary and 
unaccountable delays 
he first gave the 
enemy time to con¬ 
centrate his forces, 
and then made his 
attacks piecemeal, 
so that the en¬ 
emy could fight 
him in detail. 

Whatever had been the 
straggling on the march, none 
of the commanders complained of any flinching 
after the fight began. They saw veterans taking, 
relinquishing, and retaking ground that was soaked 
with blood and covered with dead ; and they saw 
green regiments “ go to their graves like beds.” 

There had been a call for more troops by the 
National Administration after the battles on the 
peninsula, which was responded to with the greatest 
alacrity, men of all classes rushing to the recruiting- 
offices to enroll themselves. It was a common thing 
for a regiment of a thousand men to be raised, equipped, 
and sent to the front in two or three weeks. Some of those 
new regiments were suddenly introduced to the realties of 
war at Antietam, and suffered frightfully. For example, the 
Sixteenth Connecticut, which there fired its muskets for the first 
time, went in with 940 men, and lost 432. On the other side, 
Lawton’s Confederate brigade went in with 1,150 men, and lost 
554, including five out of its six regimental commanders, while 
Hays’s lost 323 out of 550, including every regimental com¬ 
mander and all the staff officers. An officer of the Fiftieth 
Georgia Regiment said in a published letter: “ The Fiftieth 
were posted in a narrow path, washed out into a regular gully, 
and were fired into by the enemy from the front, rear, and left 
flank. The men stood their ground nobly, returning their fire 
until nearly two-thirds of their number lay dead or wounded in 
that lane. Out of 210 carried into the fight, over 125 were 
killed and wounded in less than twentv minutes. The slaughter 
was horrible ! When ordered to retreat, I could hardly extricate 


myself from the dead and wounded around me. A man could 
have walked from the head of our line to the foot on their 
bodies. The survivors of the regiment retreated very orderly 
back to where General Anderson s brigade rested. The brigade 
suffered terribly. James’s South Carolina battalion was nearly 
annihilated. The Fiftieth Georgia lost nearly all their com¬ 
missioned officers.” The First South Carolina Regiment, which 
went into the fight with 106 men, had but fifteen men and one 
officer when it was over. A Confederate battery, being largely 
disabled by the work of sharp-shooters, was worked for a time, 
at the crisis of the fight, by General Longstreet and members 
of his staff acting as gunners. Three generals on each side 
were killed. Those on the National side were Generals Joseph 
K. Mansfield, Israel II. Richardson, and Isaac P. Rodman ; 
those on the Confederate side were Generals George B. An¬ 
derson, L. O'B. Branch, and William E. Starke. The wounded 
generals included on the one side Hooker, Sedgwick, Dana, 
Crawford, and Meagher; on the other side, R. II. Anderson, 
Wright, Lawton, Armistead, Ripley, Ransom, Rhodes, Gregg, 
and Toombs. 

General McClellan reported his entire loss at 12,469, of whom 
,010 were killed. General Lee reported his total loss in the 

Maryland battles as 1,567 killed and 
8,724 wounded, saying nothing of the 
missing ; but the figures given by his 
division commanders foot up 1,842 
killed, 9,399 wounded, and 2,292 miss¬ 
ing—total, 13,533. If McClellan’s re¬ 
port is correct, even this statement 
falls short of the truth. He says: 
“ About 2,700 of the enemy’s dead 
were counted and buried upon the 
battlefield of Antietam. A portion 
of their dead had been previously 
buried by the enemy.” If the 
wounded were in the usual propor¬ 
tion, this would indicate Confede¬ 
rate casualties to the extent of at 
least 15,000 on that field alone. 
But whatever the exact number 
may have been, the battle was 
bloody enough to produce mourn- 


MAJOR 


.GENERA- G '**' 


morecl. 


ing and lamentation from Maine 


to Louisiana. It was the bloodi¬ 
est day’s work of the whole war. The bat¬ 
tles of Shiloh, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the 
Wilderness, and Spottsylvania were each more costly, but none 
of them was fought in a single day. 

Nothing was done on the 18th, and when McClellan deter¬ 
mined to renew the attack on the 19th he found that his enemy 
had withdrawn from the field and crossed to Virginia by the ford 
at Shepherdstown. The National commander reported the cap¬ 
ture of more than six thousand prisoners, thirteen guns, and 
thirty-nine battle-flags, and that he had not lost a gun or a 'color. 
As he was also in possession of the field, where the enemy left 
all their dead and two thousand of their wounded, and had ren¬ 
dered Lee’s invasion fruitless of anything but the prisoners 
carried off from Harper’s Ferry, the victory was his. 












THE PRIMARY CAUSES OF THE WAR-THE NEGRO AND COTTON. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


EMANCIPATION. 

This Chapter is illustrated with portraits of early abolitionists , and Virginia officials at the time of the celebrated John Brown Raid. 

Lincoln’s attitude toward slavery—McClellan’s attitude—the democratic party’s attitude—predictions by the poets 

SLAVES DECLARED CONTRABAND—ACTION OF FREMONT—HUNTER’S PROCLAMATION—BLACKS FIRST ENLISTED-DIVISION OF SENTIMENT 

IN THE ARMY-MARYLAND ABOLISHES SLAVERY-THE PRESIDENT AND HORACE GREELEY CORRESPOND ON THE SUBJECT-EMANCIPATION 

PROCLAIMED-AUTUMN ELECTIONS—ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN DELAWARE, KENTUCKY, AND MISSOURI-THE FINAL PROCLAMATION_ 

THE RIGHT OF THE PRESIDENT TO DECLARE THE SLAVES FREE. 

The war had now (September, 1862) been in progress almost a year and a half; and nearly twenty thousand men had been 
shot dead on the battlefield, and upward of eighty thousand wounded, while an unknown number had died of disease contracted 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


182 


in the service, or been carried away into captivity. The money 
that had been spent by the United States Government alone 
amounted to about one billion dollars. All this time there was 
not an intelligent man in the country but knew the cause of 
the war, and yet more than a hundred thousand American 
citizens were killed or mangled before a single blow was de¬ 
livered directly at that cause. General Fremont had aimed at 
it; General Hunter had aimed at it; but in each case the arm 
was struck up by the Administration. One would naturally 
suppose, from the thoroughness with which the slavery question 
had been discussed for thirty years, that when the time came for 
action there would be little doubt or hesitation on either side. 
On the Confederate side there was neither doubt nor hesitation. 
On the National side there was both doubt and hesitation, and 
it took a long time to arrive at a 
determination to destroy slavery in 
order to preserve the Union. The 
old habit of compromise and concili¬ 
ation half paralyzed the arm of war, 
and thousands of well-meaning citi¬ 
zens were unable to comprehend the 
fact that we were dealing with a 
question that it was useless to com¬ 
promise and a force that it was im¬ 
possible to conciliate. 

Mr. Lincoln had hated slavery ever 
since, when a young man, he made a 
trip on a flat-boat to New Orleans, 
and there saw it in some of its more 
hideous aspects. That he realized 
its nature and force as an organized 
institution and a power in politics, 
appears from one of his celebrated 
speeches, delivered in 1858, wherein 
he declared that as a house divided 
against itself cannot stand, so our 
Government could not endure per¬ 
manently half slave and half free. 

“ Either the opponents of slavery 
will arrest the further spread of it, 
and place it where the public mind 
shall rest in the belief that it is in 
the course of ultimate extinction, or 
its advocates will push it forward till 
it shall become alike lawful in all the 
States, old as well as new, North as 
well as South.” Why, then, hating slavery personally, and 
understanding it politically, and knowing it to be the cause of 
the war, did he not sooner declare it abolished ? 

On the one hand, he was not, like some of our chief magis¬ 
trates, under the impression that he had been placed in office to 
carry out irresponsibly a personal policy of his own ; and, on the 
other, he was shrewd enough to know that it would be as futile 
for a President to place himself far in advance of his people on a 
great question, as for a general to precede his troops on the 
battlefield. Hence he turned over and over, and presented 
again and again, the idea that the war might be stopped and the 
question settled by paying for the slaves and liberating them. 
It looked like a very simple calculation to figure out the cost of 
purchased emancipation and compare it with the probable cost 
of the war. The comparison seemed to present an unanswerable 
argument, and in the end the money cost of the war was more 


than one thousand dollars for every slave emancipated, while in 
the most profitable days of the institution the blacks, young and 
old together, had not been worth half that price. The fallacy of 
the argument lay in its blindness to the fact that the Confeder¬ 
ates were not fighting to retain possession of their actual slaves, 
but to perpetuate the institution itself. The unthrift of slavery 
as an economic system had been many times demonstrated, 
notably in Helper’s “ Impending Crisis,” but these demonstra¬ 
tions, instead of inducing the slaveholders to seek to get rid of 
it on the best attainable terms, appeared only to excite their 
anger. And it ought to have been seen that a proud people 
with arms in their hands, either flushed with victory or confident 
in their own prowess, no matter where their real interests may 
lie, can never be reasoned with except through the syllogisms of 

lead and steel. Perhaps Mr. Lincoln 
did know it, but was waiting for his 
people to find it out. 

The Louisville (Ky.) Courier , in a 
paragraph quoted on page 63 of 
this volume, had told a great deal 
of bitter and shameful truth ; but 
when it entered upon the prophecy 
that the North would soon resume 
the yoke of the slaveholders, it was 
not so happy. And yet it had strong 
grounds for its confident prediction. 
Not only had a great Peace Conven¬ 
tion been held in February, 1861, 
which strove to prevent secession 
by offering new guaranties for the 
protection of slavery, but the chief 
anxiety of a large number of North¬ 
ern citizens and officers in the mili¬ 
tary service appeared to be to mani¬ 
fest their desire that the institution 
should not be harmed. 

The most eminent of the Federal 
generals, McClellan, when he first 
took the field in West Virginia, issued 
a proclamation to the Unionists, in 
which he said : “ Notwithstanding all 
that has been said by the traitors to 
induce you to believe our advent 
among you will be signalized by an 
interference with your slaves, under¬ 
stand one thing clearly: not only 
will we abstain from all such interference, but we will, on the 
contrary, with an iron hand crush any attempt at insurrection 
on their part.” In pursuance of this, he returned to their owners 
all slaves that escaped and sought refuge within his lines. It 
was an every-day occurrence for slaveholders who were in active 
rebellion against the Government that he was serving, to come 
into his camps under flag of truce and demand and receive their 
runaway slaves. The Hutchinsons, a family of popular singers, 
by permission of the Secretary of War, visited his camp in the 
winter of 1861-62, to sing to the soldiers. But when the general 
found them singing some stanzas of Whittier’s that spoke of 
slavery as a curse to be abolished, he forthwith issued an order 
that their pass should be revoked and they should not sing any 
more to the troops. And even after his retreat on the penin¬ 
sula, McClellan wrote a long letter of advice to the President, 
in the course of which he said: “Neither confiscation of 



JOHN BROWN. 




CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


183 



property . . . nor forcible abolition of slavery should be 

contemplated for a moment. . . . Military power should 

not be allowed to interfere with the relations of servitude, either 
by supporting or impairing the authority of the master, except 
for repressing disorder.” 

In all this General McClellan was only clinging blindly and 
tenaciously to the idea that had underlain the whole administra¬ 
tion of the government while it was in the hands of his party : 
that the perpetuation of slavery, whether against political oppo¬ 
sition or against the growth of civilization and the logic of polit¬ 
ical economy, was the first purpose of the Constitution and the 
most imperative duty of the Government. Democratic politi¬ 
cians had never formulated this rule, but Democratic Presidents 
had always followed it. President Polk had obeyed it when with 
one hand he secured the slave State of Texas at the cost of the 
Mexican War, and with the other relinquished to Great Britain 
the portion of Oregon north of the forty-ninth parallel, but for 
which we should now possess every harbor on the Pacific coast. 
President Pierce had obeyed it when he sent troops to Kansas 
to assist the invaders from Missouri and overawe the free-State 
settlers. President Buchanan had obeyed it when he vetoed the 
Homestead Bill, which would have accelerated the 
development of the northern Territories 
into States. And innumerable other 
instances might be cited. The exist¬ 
ence of this party in the North was 


Whenever the National armies met with a reverse, if an 
election was pending, this party was the gainer thereby ; if they 
won a victory, it became weaker. Whenever a new measure was 
proposed, Congress and the President were obliged to consider 
not only what would be its legitimate effect, but whether in any 
way the Democratic press could use it as a weapon against them. 
Hence the idea of emancipation, though not altogether slow in 
conception 
—for many 
of the ablest 
minds had 
leaped at it 
from the be¬ 
gin n i n g— 
was tardy in 
execution. 

As early 
as 1836John 
Quincy 
Adams, 
speaking 


COLONEL ROBERT E. LEE. 

Commanding Virginia troops that captured John Brown. 


WISE 


h on 


Gove 


rno< 


0 , Virg' nia 


ANDREW HUNTER. 

Prosecuting Attorney at the trial of John Brown. 


the most seri¬ 
ous embarrass¬ 
ment with 
which the Ad- 
ministration 

had to contend in the conduct of the war—not even excepting 
the border States. As individuals, its members were undoubt¬ 
edly loyal to the Constitution and Government as they under¬ 
stood them, though they wofully misunderstood them. As a 
party, it was placed in a singular dilemma. It did not want the 
Union dissolved ; for without the vote of the slave States it 
would be in a hopeless minority in Congress and at every Presi¬ 
dential election ; but neither did it wish to see its strongest 
cohesive element overthrown, or its natural leaders defeated and 
exiled. What it wanted was “the Union as it was,” and for 
this it continued to clamor long after it had become as plain 
as daylight that the Union as it was could never again exist. 


in Congress, had said : “ From the instant 
that your slaveholding States become the 
theatre of war, from that instant the war- 
powers of the Constitution extend to 
interference with the institution of slav¬ 
ery in every way in which it can be 
interfered with.” And in 1842 he had 
expressed the idea more strongly and 
fully: “ Whether the war be civil, ser¬ 
vile, or foreign, I lay this down as the 
aw of nations—I say that the military authority 
takes for the time the place of all municipal institutions, slavery 
among the rest. Under that state of things, so far from its being 
true that the States where slavery exists have the exclusive man¬ 
agement of the subject, not only the President of the United 
States, but the commander of the army has power to order the 
universal emancipation of the slaves.” The poets, wiser than 
the politicians, had long foretold the great struggle and its re¬ 
sults. James Russell Lowell, before he was thirty years of age, 
wrote: 

“Out from the land of bondage ’tis decreed our slaves shall go, 

And signs to us are offered, as erst to Pharaoh ; 

If we are blind, their exodus, like Israel’s of yore, 

Through a Red Sea is doomed to be, whose surges are of gore.” 

Twenty years later he saw his prediction fulfilled. But generally 
the anticipation was that the institution would be extinguished 
through a general rising of the slaves themselves. Thus Henry 
W. Longfellow wrote in 1841 : 















ORIGIN OF THE WORDS, “CONTRABAND OF WAR,” APPLIED TO SLAVES—FIRST USED BY GENERAL BUTLER 













CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


i «5 


“There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, 

Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of steel, 

Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand, 

And shake the pillars of this commonweal. 

Till the vast temple of our liberties 
A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies.” 

It seems a singular fact that throughout the war there was no 
insurrection of the slaves. They were all anxious enough for 
liberty, and ran away from bondage whenever they could ; but, 
except by regular enlistment in the National army, there never 
was any movement among them to assist in the emancipation of 
their race. 

The first refusal to return fugitive slaves was made as early 
as May 26, 1861, by Gen. B. F. Butler, commanding at Fort 
Monroe. Three slaves, who had belonged to Colonel Mallory, 
commanding the Confederate forces near Hampton, came within 
Butler’s lines that day, saying they had run away because they 
were about to be sent South. Colonel Mallory sent by flag of 
truce to claim their rendition under the Fugitive Slave Law, but 
was informed by General Butler, that, as slaves could be made 
very useful to a belligerent in working on fortifications and 
other labor, they were contraband of war, like lead or powder or 
any other war material, and therefore could not and would not 
be delivered up. He offered, however, to return these three if 
Colonel Mallory would come to his headquarters and take an 
oath to obey the laws of the United States. This declaration— 
at once a witticism, a correct legal point, and sound common 
sense—was the first practical blow that was struck at the institu¬ 
tion; and it gave us a new word, for from that time fugitive 
slaves were commonly spoken of as “ contrabands.” They came 
into the National camps by thousands, and commanding officers 
and correspondents frequently questioned the more intelligent 
of them, in the hope of eliciting valuable information as to the 
movements of the enemy ; but so many apocryphal stories were 
thus originated that at length “ intelligent contraband ” became 
solely a term of derision. 

The next step was the passage of a law by Congress (approved 
August 6, 1861), wherein it was enacted that property, including 
slaves, actually employed in the service of the rebellion with the 
knowledge and consent of the owner, should be confiscated, and 
might be seized by the National forces wherever found. But it 
cautiously provided that slaves thus confiscated were not to be 
manumitted at once, but to be held subject to some future 
decision of the United States courts or action of Congress. 

Gen. John C. Fremont, the first Republican candidate for the 
Presidency (1856), who has had a romantic life, and in whose 
administration, instead of Lincoln’s, the war would have occurred 
if he had been elected, was in Europe in 1861, and did the Gov¬ 
ernment a timely service in the purchase of arms. Hastening 
home, he was made a major-general, and given command in Mis¬ 
souri. On the 30th of August he issued a proclamation placing 
the whole State under martial law, confiscating the property of 
all citizens who should take up arms against the United States, 
or assist its enemies by burning bridges, cutting wires, etc., and 
adding, “their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free 
men.” The President called General Fremont’s attention to the 
fact that the clause relating to slaves was not in conformity with 
the act of Congress, and requested him to modify it ; to which 
Fremont replied by asking for an open order to that effect—in 
plain words, that the President should modify it himself, which 
Mr. Lincoln did. 

On the 6th of March, 1862, the President, in a special message 


to Congress, recommended the adoption of a joint resolution to 
the effect that the United States ought to cooperate with, and 
render pecuniary aid to, any State that should enter upon a 
gradual abolition of slavery ; and Congress passed such a reso¬ 
lution by a large majority. 

Gen. David Hunter, who commanded the National forces on 
the coast of South Carolina, with headquarters at Hilton Head, 
issued a general order on April 12, 1862, that all slaves in Fort 
Pulaski and on Cockspur Island should be confiscated and 
thenceforth free. On the 9th of May he issued another order, 
wherein, after mentioning that the three States in his depart¬ 
ment—Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina—had been declared 
under martial law, he proceeded to say: “ Slavery and martial 
law, in a free country, are altogether incompatible. The per¬ 
sons in these three States heretofore held as slaves are therefore 
declared forever free.” On the 19th of the same month the 
President issued a proclamation annulling General Hunter’s 
order, and adding that the question of emancipation was one 
that he reserved to himself and could not feel justified in leaving 
to the decision of commanders in the field. General Hunter 
also organized a regiment of black troops, designated as the 
First South Carolina Volunteers, which was the first body of 
negro soldiers mustered into the National service during the 
war. This proceeding, which now seems the most natural and 
sensible thing the general could have done, created serious 
alarm in Congress. A representative from Kentucky intro¬ 
duced a resolution asking for information concerning the “ regi¬ 
ment of fugitive slaves,” and the Secretary of War referred the 
inquiry to General Hunter, who promptly answered: “No 
regiment of fugitive slaves has been or is being organized in 
this department. There is, however, a fine regiment of persons 
whose late masters are fugitive rebels, men who everywhere 
fly before the appearance of the National flag, leaving their 
servants behind them to shift as best they can for themselves. 
In the absence of any fugitive-master law, the deserted slaves 
would be wholly without remedy, had not their crime of treason 
given the slaves the right to pursue, capture, and bring back 
these persons of whose protection they have been so suddenly 
bereft.” 

Fremont’s and Hunter’s attempts at emancipation created a 
great excitement, the Democratic journals declaring that the 
struggle was being “turned into an abolition war,” and many 
Union men in the border States expressing the gravest appre¬ 
hensions as to the consequences. The commanders were by 
no means of one mind on the subject. Gen. Thomas Wil¬ 
liams, commanding in the Department of the Gulf, ordered that 
all fugitive slaves should be expelled from his camps and sent 
beyond the lines ; and Col. Halbert E. Paine, of the Fourth 
Wisconsin Regiment, who refused to obey the order, on the 
ground that it was a “violation of law for the purpose of 
returning fugitives to rebels,” was deprived of his command 
and placed under arrest. Col. Daniel R. Anthony, of the 
Seventh Kansas Regiment, serving in Tennessee, ordered that 
men coming in and demanding the privilege of searching for 
fugitive slaves should be turned out of the camp, and that 
no officer or soldier in his regiment should engage in the 
arrest and delivery of fugitives to their masters ; and for this 
Colonel Anthony received from his superior officer the same 
treatment that had been accorded to Colonel Paine. The 
division of sentiment ran through the entire army. Soldiers 
that would rob a granary, or cut down trees, or reduce fences 
to firewood, without the slightest compunction, still recognized 




CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


HORACE GREELEY. 

the ancient taboo, and expressed the nicest scruples in regard 
to property in slaves. 

On the 14th of July the President recommended to Congress 
the passage of a bill for the payment, in United States interest- 
bearing bonds, to any State that should abolish slavery, of an 
amount equal to the value of all slaves within its borders ac¬ 
cording to the census of i860; and at the same time he asked 
the Congressional representatives of the border States to use 
their influence with their constituents to bring about such 
action in those States. The answer was not very favorable; 
but Maryland did abolish slavery before the close of the war, 
in October, 1864. On the very day in which the popular vote 
of that State decided to adopt a new constitution without 
slavery, October 12th, died Roger B. Taney, a native of Mary¬ 
land, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, who 
had been appointed by the first distinctly pro-slavery President, 
and from that bench had handed down the Dred-Scott decision, 
which was calculated to render forever impossible any amelio¬ 
ration of the condition of the negro race. 

On July 22, 1862, all the National commanders were ordered 
to employ as many negroes as could be used advantageously 
for military and naval purposes, paying them for their labor 
and keeping a record as to their ownership, “ as a basis on 
which compensation could be made in proper cases.” 

Thus events were creeping along toward a true statement 
of the great problem, without which it could never be solved, 
when Horace Greeley, through the columns of his Tribune , 
addressed an open letter to the President (August 19), entitling 
it “The Prayer of Twenty Millions.” It exhorted Mr. Lincoln, 
not to general emancipation, but to such an execution of the 
existing laws as would free immense numbers of slaves be¬ 
longing to men in arms against the Government. It was im¬ 
passioned and powerful; a single passage will show its character: 


“ On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, there is not one 
disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of the Union 
cause who does not feel that all attempts to put down the 
rebellion, and at the same time uphold its exciting cause, are 
preposterous and futile ; that the rebellion, if crushed out 
to-morrow, would be renewed within a year if slavery were 
left in full vigor; that army officers who remain to this day 
devoted to slavery can at best be but half-way loyal to the 
Union ; and that every hour of deference to slavery is an hour 
of added and deepened peril to the Union.” 

Any one less a genius than Mr. Lincoln would have found it 
difficult to answer Mr. Greeley at all, and his answer was not one 
in the sense of being a refutation, but it exhibited his view of the 
question, and is perhaps as fine a piece of literature as was ever 
penned by any one in an official capacity: “ If there be percepti¬ 
ble in it [Mr. Greeley’s letter] an impatient and dictatorial tone, I 
waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always 
supposed to be right. . . . As to the policy I ‘ seem to be 
pursuing,’ as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in 
doubt. . . . My paramount object is to save the Union, and 

not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union 
without freeing any slave, I would do it; if I could save it by free¬ 
ing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some 
and leaving others alone, I would also do that. I have here 
stated my purpose according to my views of official duty ; and I 
intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that 
all men everywhere could be free.” 

In truth, the President was already contemplating emancipa¬ 
tion as a war measure, and about this time he prepared his 
preliminary proclamation ; but he did not wish to issue it till it 
could follow a triumph of the National arms. Pope’s defeat in 
Virginia in August set it back; but McClellan’s success at 
Antietam, though not the decisive victory that was wanted, 
appeared to be as good an opportunity as was likely soon to 
present itself, and five days later (September 22, 1862) the 
proclamation was issued. It declared that the President would, 


REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


.87 


at the next session, renew his sugges¬ 
tion to Congress of pecuniary aid to 
the States disposed to abolish slavery 
gradually or otherwise, and gave notice 
that on the 1st of January, 1863, he 
would declare forever free all persons 
held as slaves within any State, or 
designated part of a State, the people 
whereof should then be in rebellion 
against the United States. On that 
day he issued the final and decisive 
proclamation, as promised, in which he 
also announced that black men would 
be received into the military and naval 
service of the United States, as follows : 




“ Whereas, on the twenty-second day 
of September, in the year of our Lord 
1862, a proclamation was issued by the 
President of the United States, con¬ 
taining, among other things, the fol¬ 
lowing, to wit: 

“ ‘ That on the first day of January, 
in the year of our Lord 1863, all per¬ 
sons held as slaves within any State 
or designated part of a State, the peo¬ 
ple whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, 
shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Execu¬ 
tive Government of the United States, including the military 
and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the 
freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress 
such persons, 
orany of them, 
in any efforts 
they may 
make for their 
actual free¬ 
dom.’ 

“ ‘ That the 
Executive 
will, on the 
first day of 
January afore¬ 
said, by proc- 
1 a m a t i o n , 
designate the 
States and 
parts of States, 
if any, in which 
the people 
thereof respec- 
t i v e 1 y shall 
then be in re¬ 


bellion against 
the United 
States; and 
the fact that 
any State, or 
the people 
th ereof, shall 
on that day be 
in good faith 


represented in the Congress of the 
United States, by members chosen 
thereto at elections wherein a majority 
of the qualified voters of such State 
shall have participated, shall, in the 
absence of strong countervailing testi¬ 
mony, be deemed conclusive evidence 
that such State, and the people there¬ 
of, are not then in rebellion against the 
United States.’ 

“ Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lin¬ 
coln, President of the United States, 
by virtue of the power in me vested 
as commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy of the United States in 
time of actual armed rebellion against 
the authority and government of the 
United States, and as a fit and neces¬ 
sary war measure for suppressing said 
rebellion, do, on this first day of Janu¬ 
ary, in the year of our Lord one thou¬ 
sand eight hundred and sixty-three, and 
in accordance with my purpose so to 
do, publicly proclaimed for the full 
james g. birney. period of one hundred days from the 

day first above mentioned, order and 
designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people 
thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United 
States, the following, to wit: 

“Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Ber¬ 
nard, Plaquemine, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, 

Ascension, 
Assumption, 
Terre Bonne, 
Lafourche, St. 
Mary, St. Mar- 
t i n , and Or¬ 
leans, includ¬ 
ing the city of 
New Orleans), 
Mississ i p p i, 
Alabama,Flor¬ 
ida, Georgia, 
South Caro¬ 
lina, North 
Carolina, and 
Virginia (ex¬ 
cept the forty- 
eight counties 
designated as 
West Virginia, 
and also the 
counties of 
Berkeley, Ac- 
comac, North¬ 
ampton, Eliza- 
b e t h City, 
York, Princess 
Anne, and 
Norfolk, in¬ 
cluding the 

THE SALE OF A SLAVE. cities of Nor- 




















































































































































































THE BROKEN SHACKLES. 













CAMTEIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 




(L.S.) “ Done at the city of Washington, this first 

day of January, in the year of our Lord 
1863, and of the Independence of the 
United States the 87th. 

“ By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
“William H. Seward, Secretary of State.” 


The immediate effect of this action was what had been 
expected. The friends of liberty, and supporters of the Admin¬ 
istration generally, rejoiced at it, believing that the true line ot 
combat had been drawn at last. Robert Dale Owen probably 
expressed the opinion of most of them when he wrote, “ The 
true and fit question is whether, without a flagrant violation of 
official duty, the President had the right to refrain from doing 
it.” The effect in Europe is said to have been decisive of the 
question whether the Confederacy should be recognized as an 
established nation ; but as to this there is some uncertainty. It 


is certain, however, that much friendship for the Union was won 
in England, where it had been withheld on account of our 
attitude on the slavery question. In Manchester, December 31, 
a mass-meeting of factory operatives was held, and resolutions 
of sympathy with the Union, and an address to President 
Lincoln, were voted. The full significance of this can only be 
understood when it is remembered that these men were largely 
out of work for want of the cotton that the blockade prevented 
the South from exporting. The Confederate journals chose to 
interpret the proclamation as nothing more than an attempt to 
excite a servile insurrection. The Democratic editors of the 
North assailed Mr. Lincoln with every verbal weapon of which 
they were masters, though these had been somewhat blunted by 
previous use, for he had already been freely called a usurper, a 
despot, a destroyer of the Constitution, and a keeper of Bastiles. 
They declared with horror (doubtless in some cases perfectly 
sincere) that the proclamation had changed the whole character 
of the war. And this was true, though not in the sense in which 
they meant it. When begun, it was a war for a temporary peace ; 
the proclamation converted it into a war for a permanent peace. 
But the autumn elections showed how near Mr. Lincoln came to 
being ahead of his people after all; for they went largely against 
the Administration, and even in the States that the Democrats 
did not carry there was a falling off in the Republican majorities; 
though the result was partly due to the failure of the peninsula 
campaign, and the escape of Lee’s army after Antietam. Yet 
this did not shake the great emancipator’s faith in the justice 
and wisdom of what he had done. He said on New Year’s even¬ 
ing to a knot of callers : “ The signature looks a little tremulous, 
for my hand was tired, but my resolution was firm. I told them 
in September, if they did not return to their allegiance and cease 
murdering our soldiers, I would strike at this pillar of their 
strength. And now the promise shall be kept, and not one word 
of it will I ever recall.” 

If we wonder at the slowness with which that great struggle 
arrived at its true theme and issue, we shall do well to note that 
it has a close 
parallel in our 
own history. 

The first bat¬ 
tle of the Rev- 
o 1 u t i o n was 
fought in 
April, 1775, 
but the Dec¬ 
laration of 
Independence 
was not made 
till July, 1776 
—a period of 
nearly fifteen 
months. The 
first battle in 
the war of 
secession took 
place in April, 

1861, and the 
Emancipation 
Proclamation 
was issued in 
September, 

1862—seven- charles sumner. 


folk and Ports- 
mouth), and 
which except¬ 
ed parts are, 
for the pres¬ 
ent, left pre¬ 
cisely as if this 
proclamation 
w ere not 
issued. 

“ And, by 
virtue of the 
power and for 
the purpose 
aforesaid, I do 
order and de¬ 
clare that all 
persons held 
as slaves with¬ 
in said desig¬ 
nated States 
and parts of 
States are and 
henceforward 
shall be free ; 
and that the 
Executive 
Government 

of the United States, including the military and naval authorities 
thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. 

“And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free 
to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence ; and 
I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor 
faithfully for reasonable wages. 

“ And I further declare and make known that such persons, of 
suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the 
United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other 
places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

“And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, 
warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke 
the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of 
Almighty God. 

“ In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 


HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


190 



or seventeen months, however slow for 
an individual, is perhaps for an entire peo¬ 
ple as rapid development of a radical pur¬ 
pose as we could have any reason to ex¬ 
pect. 

In the District of Columbia there were 
three thousand slaves at the time the war 
began. In December, 1861, Henry Wilson, 
senator from Massachusetts, afterward Vice- 
President, introduced in the Senate a bill for the 
immediate emancipation of these slaves, with a pro¬ 
vision for paying to such owners as were loyal an 
average compensation of three hundred dollars for 
each slave. The bill was opposed violently by 
senators and representatives from Kentucky and Maryland, and 
by some others, conspicuous among whom was Mr. Vallandig- 
ham. Nevertheless, it passed both houses, and the President 
signed it April 16, 1862. 


HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. 


JOHN G. WHITTIER. 

stanch supporters of the Union, 
and Mr. Wickliffe offered resolu¬ 
tions declaring that the Presi¬ 
dent has no right whatever to 
interfere with slavery even during 
a rebellion. The whole subject was 
treated in a masterly way by the Hon. 


William Whiting in his book entitled 
“ War Powers under the Constitution of the 
United States.” He says: “The liberation 
of slaves is looked upon as a means of em¬ 
barrassing or weakening the enemy, or of strengthening the 
military power of our army. If slaves be treated as contraband 
of war, on the ground that they may be used by their masters 
to aid in prosecuting war, as employees upon military works. 


teen months. In the one case, as in the other, the interval was 
filled with doubt, hesitation, and divided counsels; and Lincoln’s 
reluctance finds its match in Washington’s confession that when 
he took command of the army (after Lexington, Con¬ 
cord, and Bunker Hill had been fought) he still 
abhorred the idea of independence. And again, 
as the great Proclamation was preceded by 
the attempts of Fremont and Hunter, so 
the great Declaration had been preceded 
by those of Mendon, Mass., Chester, 

Penn., and Mecklenburg, N. C., which 
anticipated its essential propositions by 
two or three years. A period of fifteen 


In Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri slavery continued until 
it was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the National 
Constitution, which in December, 1865, was declared ratified by 
three-fourths of the States, and consequently a part of 
the fundamental law of the land. 

The President’s right to proclaim the slaves 
free, as a war measure, was questioned not 
only by his violent political opponents, 
but also by a considerable number who 
were friendly to him, or at least to the 
cause of the Union, but whose knowl¬ 
edge of international law and war 
powers was limited. Among these 
were Congressman Crittenden and 
Wickliffe, of Kentucky, who were 


WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON AND DAUGHTER 




















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


or as laborers furnishing by their industry the means of carry¬ 
ing on hostilities; or if they be treated as, in law, belligerents, 
following the legal condition of their owners; or if they be 
deemed loyal subjects having a just claim upon the Government 
to be released from their obligations to give aid and service to 
disloyal and belligerent masters, in order that they may be free 
to perform their higher duty of allegiance and loyalty to the 
United States ; or if they be regarded as subjects of the United 
States, liable to do military duty ; or if they be made citizens 
of the United States, and soldiers; or if the authority of the 
masters over their slaves is the means of aiding and comforting 
the enemy, or of throwing impediments in the way of the Gov¬ 
ernment, or depriving it of such aid and assistance, in successful 
prosecution of the war, as slaves would and could afford if re¬ 
leased from the control of the enemy ; or if releasing the slaves 
would embarrass the enemy, and make it more difficult for them 
to collect and maintain large armies ; in either of these cases, the 
taking away of these slaves from the ‘ aid and service’ of the 
enemy, and putting them to the aid and service of the United 
States, is justifiable as an act of war. The ordinary way of 
depriving the enemy of slaves is by declaring emancipation.” 

He then cites abundant precedents and authorities from Brit- 


I 9 i 

ish, French, South American, and other sources, one of the most 
striking of which is this quotation from Thomas Jefferson’s letter 
to Dr. Gordon, complaining of the injury done to his estates by 
Cornwallis : “ He destroyed all my growing crops and tobacco ; 
he burned all my barns, containing the same articles of last 
year. Having first taken what corn he wanted, he used, as was 
to be expected, all my stock of cattle, sheep, and hogs for the 
sustenance of his army, and carried off all the horses capable of 
service. He carried off also about thirty slaves. Had this been 
to give them freedom, he would have done right. From an esti¬ 
mate made at the time on the best information I could collect, I 
suppose the State of Virginia lost, under Lord Cornwallis’s 
hands, that year, about thirty thousand slaves.” Whiting says 
in conclusion : “ It has thus been proved, by the law and usage 
of modern civilized nations, confirmed by the judgment of emi¬ 
nent statesmen, and by the former practice of this Government, 
that the President, as commander-in-chief, has the authority, as an 
act of war, to liberate the slaves of the enemy ; that the United 
States have in former times sanctioned the liberation of slaves— 
even of loyal citizens—by military commanders, in time of war, 
without compensation therefor, and have deemed slaves captured 
in war from belligerent subjects as entitled to their freedom.” 



MAJOR-GENERAL AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE AND STAFF. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

BURNSIDE’S CAMPAIGN. 


McClellan’s inaction—visit and letters of Lincoln to him—superseded by burnside—the position at Fredericksburg— 

ATTACK UPON THE HEIGHTS—THE RESULT GENERAL BURNSIDE’S LACK OF JUDGMENT—PRESIDENT LINCOLN’S NATURAL APTITUDE 

FOR STRATEGY-BRAVERY OF THE SOLDIERS—THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE-GALLANTRY OF THE IRISH BRIGADE. 


AFTER the battle of the Antietam, Lee withdrew to the neigh¬ 
borhood of Winchester, where he was reinforced, till at the end 
of a month he had about sixty-eight thousand men. McClellan 
followed as far as the Potomac, and there seemed to plant his 
army, as if he expected it to sprout and increase itself like a 
field of corn. Ten days after he defeated Lee on the Antietam, 
he -wrote to the President that he intended to stay where he 
was, and attack the enemy if they attempted to recross into 
Maryland ! At the same time, he constantly called for unlimited 
reinforcements, and declared that, even if the city of Washing¬ 


ton should be captured, it would not be a disaster so serious as 
the defeat of his army. Apparently it did not occur to General 
McClellan that these two contingencies were logically the same. 
For if Lee could have defeated that army, he could then have 
marched into Washington; or if he could have captured Wash¬ 
ington without fighting the army whose business it was to 
defend it, the army would thereby be substantially defeated. 

On the ist of October the President visited General McClellan 
at his headquarters, and made himself acquainted with the con¬ 
dition of the army. Five days later he ordered McClellan to 






192 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 




“ cross the Potomac, and give battle to the enemy, or drive him 
south.” The despatch added, “ Your army must move now, 
while the roads are good. If you cross the river between the 
enemy and Washington, and cover the latter by your operation, 
you can be reinforced with thirty thousand men.” Neverthe¬ 
less, McClellan did not stir. Instead of obeying the order, he 
inquired what sort of troops they were that would be sent to 
him, and how many tents he could have, and said his army could 
not move without fresh supplies of shoes and clothing. While 
he was thus paltering, the Confederate General Stuart, who had 
ridden around his army on the peninsula, with a small body of 
cavalry rode entirely around it again, eluding all efforts for his 
capture. On the 13th the President wrote a long, friendly 
letter to General McClellan, in which he gave him much excel¬ 
lent advice that he, as a trained soldier, ought not to have 
needed. A sentence or two will suggest the drift of it : “Are 
you not over-cautious when you assume that you cannot do 
what the enemy is constantly doing ? . 


you 

In coming to us, 


outlined a plan of campaign, but 
characteristic of Lincoln’s modesty 


he [the enemy] tenders us an advantage which we should not 
waive. We should not so operate as to merely drive him away. 
. . . It is all easy if our troops march as well as the enemy, 

and it is unmanly to say they cannot do it.” The letter had 

it closed with the words, 
in military matters, “ This 
letter is in no sense an 
order.” Twelve days 
more of fine weather were 
frittered away in renewed 
complaints, and such in¬ 
quiries as whether 
the President 
w i s h e d 
him 


MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN NEWTON. 


to move at once or wait 
for fresh horses, for the 
general said his horses 
were fatigued and 
had sore tongue. 

Here the Presi¬ 
dent began to show some 
impatience, and wrote: “Will 
you pardon me for asking what the 
horses of your army have done since the battle 
of Antietam that fatigues anything?” The gen¬ 
eral replied that they had been scouting, picketing, 
and making reconnoissances, and that the Presi¬ 
dent had done injustice to the cavalry. Where¬ 
upon Mr. Lincoln wrote again : “ Most certainly I 
intend no injustice to any, and if I have done any 
I deeply regret it. To be told, after more than 
five weeks’ total inaction of the army, and during 


which period we had 
sent to that army 
every fresh horse we 
possibly could, 
amounting in the 
whole to 7,918, that 
the cavalry horses 
were too much fa¬ 
tigued to move, pre¬ 
sented a very cheer¬ 
less, almost hopeless, 
prospect for the 
future, and it may 
have forced some¬ 
thing of impatience 
into my despatches.” 

That day, October 26, 

McClellan began to 
cross the Potomac; 
but it was ten days 
(partly owing to heavy 
rains) before his army 
was all on the south 

side of the river, and meanwhile he had brought up new ques¬ 
tions for discussion and invented new excuses for delay. He 
wanted to know to what extent the line of the Potomac was 
to be guarded ; he wanted to leave strong garrisons at certain 
points, to prevent the army he was driving southward before 
him from rushing northward into Maryland again ; he discussed 
the position of General Bragg’s (Confederate) army, which was 
four hundred miles away beyond the mountains; he said the 
old regiments of his command must be filled up with recruits 
before they could go into action. 

McClellan was a sore puzzle to the people of the loyal States. 
But large numbers of his men still believed in him, and—as is 
usual in such cases—intensified their personal devotion in pro¬ 
portion as the distrust of the people at large was increased. 
After crossing the Potomac, he left a corps at Harper’s Ferry, 
and was moving southward on the eastern side of the Blue 
Ridge, while Lee moved in the same direction on the western 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL J. J. BARTLETT. 


CONFEDERATE SHARP-SHOOTERS ON THE HEIGHTS OF FREDERICKSBURG, 































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


side, when, on November 7> the President solved the riddle that 
had vexed the country, by relieving him of the command. 

The successor of General McClellan was Ambrose E. Burnside, 
then in his thirty-ninth year, who was graduated at West Point 
fifteen years before, had commanded cavalry during the Mexican 
war, had invented a breech-loading rifle which was commercially 
unsuccessful, and at the breaking out of the rebellion was 
treasurer of the Illinois Central Railroad. When the First 
Rhode Island Regiment went to Washington, four days after 
the President s first call for troops, Burnside was its colonel. 
He commanded a brigade at the first battle of Bull Run ; led an 
expedition that captured Roanoke Island, New Berne, and Beau- 


193 

These two generals were warm personal friends, and McClellan 
remained a few days to put Burnside in possession, as far as 
possible, of the essential facts in relation to the position and 
condition of the forces. 

At this time the right wing of Lee’s army, under Longstreet, 
was near Culpeper, and the left, under Jackson, was in the 
Shenandoah Valley. Their separation was such that it would 
require two days for one to march to the other. McClellan said 
he intended to endeavor to get between them and either beat 
them in detail or force them to unite as far south as Gordons- 
ville. Burnside not only did not continue this plan, but gave 
up the idea that the Confederate army was his true objective, 


ATTACK ON FREDERICKSBURG, DECEMBER, 1862. 


fort, N. C., in January, 1862 ; and commanded one wing of Mc¬ 
Clellan’s army at South Mountain and Antietam. Whether he 
was blameworthy for not crossing the Antietam early in the day 
and effecting a crushing defeat of Lee’s army, is a disputed 
question. It might be worth while to discuss it, were it not that 
he afterward accepted a heavier responsibility and incurred a 
more serious accusation. The command of the Army of the 
Potomac had been offered to him twice before, but he had 
refused it, saying that he “ was not competent to command such 
a large army.” When the order came relieving McClellan and 
appointing him, he consulted with that general and with his staff 
officers, making the same objection ; but they took the ground 
that as a soldier he was bound to obey without question, and so 
he accepted the place, as he says, “ in the midst of a violent 
snow-storm, with the army in a position that I knew little of.” 


assumed the city of Richmond to be such, and set out for that 
place by way of the north bank of the Rappahannock and the 
city of Fredericksburg, after consuming ten days in reorganizing 
his army into three grand divisions, under Sumner, Hooker, and 
Franklin. On the 15th of November he began the march from 
Warrenton ; the head of his first column reached Falmouth on 
the 17th, and by the 20th the whole army was there. By some 
blunder (it is uncertain whose) the pontoon train that was to 
have met the army at this point, and afforded an immediate 
crossing of the river, did not arrive till a week later ; and by this 
time Lee, who chose to cover his own capital and cross the path 
of his enemy, rather than strike at his communications, had 
placed his army on the heights south and west of Fredericks¬ 
burg, and at once began to fortify them. His line was about 
five and a half miles long, and was as strong as a good natural 


13 




















FROM A WAR DEPARTMENT PHOTOGRAPH 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


195 



position, earthworks, and an abundance of artillery could make 
it. He could not prevent Burnside from crossing the river ; for 
the heights on the left bank rose close to the stream, com¬ 
manding the intermediate plain, and on these heights Burnside 
had one hundred and forty-seven guns. What with waiting for 
the pontoons and establishing his base of supplies at Acquia 
Creek, it was the 10th of December before the National com¬ 
mander was ready to attempt the passage of the stream. He 
planned to lay down five bridges—three opposite the city and 
the others two miles below—and depended upon his arti 
lery to protect the engineers. 

Before daybreak on the morning of the nth, in a 
thick fog, the work was begun ; but the bridges had 
not spanned more than half the distance when the 


sufficiently to reveal 
of Mississippi rifle- 


sun had risen and the fog lifted 
what was going on. A detachment 
men had been posted in cellars, be¬ 
wails, and at every point where a 
man could be sheltered on the 
south bank; and now the inces¬ 
sant crack of their weapons was 
heard, picking off the men that 
were laying the bridges. One 
after another of the blue-coats 
reeled with a bullet in 
brain, fell into the water, ai 
was carried down by the cu 
rent, till the losses were sc 
serious that it was impos¬ 
sible to continue the work. 

At the lower bridges the 
sharp-shooters, who there 
had no shelter but rifle- 
pits in the open field, 
were dislodged after a 
time, a n d by noo n 
those bridges were 
completed. But /?/ c ' 

along the front of the 
town they had better shelter, the 
National guns could not be depressed 
enough to shell them, and the work on the three 
upper bridges came to a standstill. Burnside tried 
bombarding the town, threw seventy tons of iron into 
it, and set it on fire ; but still the sharp-shooters clung 
to their hiding places, and when the engineers tried to 
renew their task on the bridges, under cover of the 
bombardment, they were destroyed by the same mur¬ 
derous fire. 

At last General Hunt, chief of artillery, suggested 
a solution of the difficulty. Three regiments that 
volunteered for the service—the Seventh Michigan, 
and the Nineteenth and Twentieth Massachusetts—crossed the 
river in pontoon boats, under the fire of the sharp-shooters, 
landed quickly, and drove them out of their fastness, capturing 
a hundred of them, while the remainder escaped to the hills. 
The bridges were then completed, and the crossing was begun ; 
but it was evening of the 12th before the entire army was on 
the Fredericksburg side of the river. 

On the morning of the 13th Burnside was ready to attack, and 
Lee was more than ready to be attacked. He had concentrated 
his whole army on the fortified heights, Longstreet’s corps form- 




W 


ing his left wing and Jackson’s his right, with every gun in posi¬ 
tion, and every man ready and knowing what to expect. The 
weak point of the line, if it had any, was on the right, where the 
ground was not so high, and there was plenty of room for the 
deployment of the attacking force. Here Franklin commanded, 
with about half of the National army; and here, according to 
Burnside’s first plan, the principal assault was to be 

made. But there appears to have been a sudden 

unaccountable change in the plan ; and 
when the hour for action arrived 
Franklin was ordered to send for¬ 
ward a division or two, and hold 
the remainder of his force ready 
for “ a rapid movement down the 
old Richmond road,” while Sum¬ 
ner on the right was ordered to 
send out two divisions to seize 
the heights back of the city. 
Exactly what Burnside ex¬ 
pected to do next, if these 
movements had been suc¬ 
cessful, nobody appears 
to know. 

The division chosen 
to lead Franklin’s attack was 
Meade’s. This advanced rapidly, 
preceded by a heavy skirmish line, while 
his batteries firing over the heads of the troops 
shelled the heights vigorously. Meade’s men crossed 
the railroad under a heavy fire, that had been withheld till they 

were within close range, penetrated 
between two divisions of the first 
Confederate line, doubling back the 
flanks of both and taking many pris¬ 
oners and some battle-flags, scaled 
the heights, and came upon the 
second line. By this time the mo¬ 
mentum of the attack was spent, 
and the fire of the second line, 
delivered on the flanks as well as 
in front, drove them back. The 
divisions of Gibbon and Doubleday 
had followed in support, which re¬ 
lieved the pressure upon Meade; 
and when all three were returning 
unsuccessful and in considerable 
confusion, Birney’s moved out and 
stopped the pursuing enemy. 

Sumner’s attack was made with 
the divisions of French and Han¬ 
cock, which moved through the town 
and deployed in columns under the 
batteries. This was very destructive, 
the men had to meet. 


and 


MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT RANSOM, JR., C. S. A. 


thing that 


fire of the Confederate 
but was not the deadliest 
Marye’s Hill was skirted near its base by an old sunken road, 
at the outer edge of which was a stone wall; and in this road 
were two brigades of Confederate infantry. It could hardly be 
seen, at a little distance, that there was a road at all. When 
French’s charging columns had rushed across the open ground 
under an artillery fire that ploughed through and through their 
ranks, they suddenly confronted a sheet of flame and lead from 
the rifles in the sunken road. The Confederates here were so 






196 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



numerous that each one at the wall had two or three behind to 
load muskets and hand them to him, while he had only to lay 
them flat across the wall and fire them as rapidly as possible, 
exposing scarcely more than his head. Nearly half of French’s 
men were shot down, and the remainder fell back. Hancock’s 
five thousand charged in the same manner, and some of them 
approached within twenty yards of the wall; but within a quarter 
of an hour they also fell back a part of the distance, leaving two 
thousand of their number on the field. Three other divisions 
advanced to the attack, but with no better result ; and all of 
them remained in a position where they were just out of reach 
of the rifles in the sunken road, but were still played upon by 
the Confederate artillery. 

Burnside now grew frantic, and ordered Hooker to attack. 
That officer moved out with three divisions, made a reconnois- 
sance, and went back to tell Burnside it was useless and persuade 
him to give up the attempt. But the commander insisted, and 
so Hooker’s four thousand rushed for¬ 
ward with fixed bayonets, and presently 
came back like the rest, leaving seven¬ 
teen hundred dead or wounded on the 
field. 

The entire National loss in this battle 
was twelve thousand six hundred and 
fifty-three in killed, wounded, or missing, 
though some of the missing afterward 
rejoined their commands. Hancock’s 
division lost one hundred and fifty-six 
officers, and one of his regiments lost 
two-thirds of its men. The Confederate 
loss was five thousand three hundred 
and seventy-seven. Four brigadier-gen¬ 
erals were killed in this battle ; on the 
National side, Generals George D. Bay- 


to the north bank of the Rappahannock, and the sorry campaign 
was ended. 

If it had been at all necessary to prove the courage and 
discipline of the National troops, Fredericksburg proved ic 
abundantly. 

There were 
few among 
them that De¬ 
cember morn¬ 
ing who did 
not look upon 
it as hopeless 
to assault 
those fortified 
slopes ; yet 
they obeyed 
their orders, 




■ 








COLONEL ROBERT NUGENT. 
(Afterward Brevet Brigadier-General.) 


ard and Conrad 
F. Jackson; 
on the Confed¬ 
erate, Generals 
Thomas R. R. 
Cobb and Max- 
cy Gregg. In 
the night the 
Union troops 
brought in their 
wounded and 
buried some 
of their dead. 

Severe as his losses had been, Burnside planned to make a 
fresh attempt the next day, with the Ninth Corps (his old 
command), which he proposed to lead in person ; but General 
Sumner dissuaded him, though with difficulty. In the night 
of the 15th, in the midst of a storm, the army was withdrawn 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL T. F. MEAGHER. 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL G. A. DE RUSSEY. 

and moved out to the work as if they 
expected victory, suffering such frightful 
losses as bodies of troops are seldom called 
upon to endure, and retiring with little 
disorder and no panic. The English cor¬ 
respondent of the London Times , writing 
from Lee’s headquarters, exultingly pre¬ 
dicted the speedy decline and fall of the 
American Republic. If he had been 
shrewd enough to see what was indicated, 
rather than what he hoped for, he would 
have written that with such courage and 
discipline as the Army of the Potomac had 
displayed, and superior resources, the final 
victory was certain to be theirs, however 
they might first suffer from incompetent 
commanders ; that the Republic that had set such an army in 
the field, and had the material for several more, was likely to 
contain somewhere a general worthy to lead it, and was not 
likely to be overthrown by any insurrection of a minority of its 
people. 

There never was any question of the gallantry or patriotism 
of General Burnside, but his woful lack of judgment in the con¬ 
duct of the battle of Fredericksburg (or perhaps it should be 
said, in fighting a battle at that point at all) has ever remained 
inexplicable. His own attempt to explain it, in his official 
report, is brief, and is at least manly in the frankness with which 
he puts the entire blame upon himself. He wrote : “ During 
my preparations for crossing at the place I had first selected, I 
discovered that the enemy had thrown a large portion of his 
force down the river and elsewhere, thus weakening his defences 
in front, and also thought I discovered that he did not anticipate 
the crossing of our whole force at Fredericksburg; and I hoped 
by rapidly throwing the whole command over at that place to 




















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


197 




A HASTY MEAL. 

street, who says : “ General Lee became uneasy when he saw 
the attacks so promptly renewed and pushed forward with such 
persistence, and feared the Federals might break through our 
lines. After the third charge he said to me, ‘ General, they are 
massing very heavily, and will break your line, I am afraid.’ ” 
Longstreet represents himself as having no such fears whatever, 
but it further appears from his testimony that when in the night 
they captured an officer on whom they found an order for 
renewal of the battle the next day, General Lee immediately 
gave orders for the construction of a new line of rifle-pits and 
the placing of more guns in position. 

General Lee, instead of following up his good fortune by 
counter attack, went off to Richmond to suggest other opera¬ 
tions. No such fierce criticism for not reaping the fruits of 
victories has ever been expended upon him as some of the 
National commanders have had to endure for this fault, though 
many of his and their opportunities were closely parallel. In 
Richmond he was told by Mr. Davis that the Administration 
considered the war virtually over, but he knew better. 

The story of the battle, so far as its strictly military aspect is 
concerned, is extremely simple, and makes but a short though 
dreadful chapter in the history of the great struggle. But it 
was full of incidents, though mostly of the mournful kind, and 
the reader would fail to get any adequate conception of what 
was done and suffered on that field without some accounts 
written at the time by participants. General Meagher, com¬ 
manding the Irish brigade, made an interesting report, in which 
he pictured graphically the manner in which that organization 
went into the action and the treatment that it received. A few 
extracts will include the most interesting passages. “ The 
brigade never was in finer spirits and condition. The arms and 
accoutrements were in perfect order. The required amount of 
ammunition was on hand. Both officers and men were comfort¬ 
ably clad, and it would be difficult to say whether those who 
were to lead or those who were to follow were the better pre¬ 
pared or the more eager to discharge their duty. A few minutes 


separate, by a vigorous attack, the forces of the enemy 
on the river below from the forces behind and on the 
crest in the rear of the town, in which case we could 
fight him with great advantage in our favor. To do this 
we had to gain a height on the extreme right of the 
crest, which height commanded a new road lately made 
by the enemy for purposes of more rapid communica¬ 
tion along his lines, which point gained, his positions 
along the crest would have been scarcely tenable, and 
he could have been driven from them easily by an attack 
on his front in connection with a movement in the rear 
of the crest. . . . Failing in accomplishing the main 

object, we remained in order of battle two days—long 
enough to decide that the enemy would not come out 
of his strongholds to fight us with infantry—after which 
we recrossed to this side of the river unmolested, with¬ 
out the loss of men or property. As the day broke, our 
long lines of troops were seen marching to their differ¬ 
ent positions as if going on parade—not the least de¬ 
moralization or disorganization existed. To the brave 
officers and soldiers who accomplished the feat of thus 
recrossing the river in the face of the enemy, I owe 
everything. For the failure in the attack I am respon¬ 
sible, as the extreme gallantry, courage, and endurance 
shown by them was never exceeded, and would have 
carried the points had it been possible. The fact that 
I decided to move from Warrenton on to this line rather against 
the opinion of the President, Secretary of War, and yourself, and 
that you left the whole movement in my hands, without giving 
me orders, makes me the only one responsible.” 

When Burnside’s plan was submitted to the President and 
General Halleck, there was considerable opposition to it, and 
when finally Halleck informed Burnside that the President con¬ 
sented to that plan, he added significantly: “ He thinks it will 
succeed if you move rapidly; otherwise, not.” Though Mr. 
Lincoln was not a soldier, his natural aptitude for strategy has 
been much discussed, and it is therefore interesting to remember 
this saving clause in his consent to the experiment of Freder¬ 
icksburg. How near the National troops, with all their terrible 
disadvantages, came to piercing the lines of the enemy on 
Marye’s Hill, we know from the testimony of General Long- 


RELIEF FOR THE WOUNDED. 

































































198 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


after four o’clock P.M., word was conveyed to me that a gallant 
body of volunteers had crossed the river in boats and taken 
possession of the city of Fredericksburg. Immediately on the 
receipt of this news, an order reached me from Brigadier-General 
Hancock to move forward the brigade and take up a position 
closer to the river. In this new position we remained all night. 
At seven o’clock the following morning we were under arms, 
and in less than two hours the head of the brigade presented 
itself on the opposite bank of the river. Passing along the 
edge of the river to the lower bridge, the brigade halted, coun¬ 
termarched, stacked arms, and in this position, ankle-deep in 
mud, and with little or nothing to contribute to their comfort, 
in complete subordination and good heart, awaited further 
orders. An order promulgated by Major-General Couch, com¬ 
manding the corps, prohibited fires after nightfall. This order 
was uncomplainingly and manfully obeyed by the brigade. 
Officers and men lay down and slept that night in the mud and 
frost, and without a murmur, with heroic hearts, composed them¬ 
selves as best they could for the eventualities of the coming 
day. A little before eight o’clock A.M., Saturday, the 13th inst., 


we received orders to fall in and prepare instantly to take the 
field. The brigade being in line, I addressed, separately, to each 
regiment a few words, reminding it of its duty, and exhorting it 
to acquit itself of that duty bravely and nobly to the last. Im¬ 
mediately after, the column swept up the street toward the scene 
of action, headed by Col. Robert Nugent, of the Sixty-ninth, 
and his veteran regiment—every officer and man of the brigade 
wearing a sprig of evergreen in his hat, in memory of the land 
of his birth. The advance was firmly and brilliantly made 
through this street under a continuous discharge of shot and 
shell, several men falling from the effects of both. Even whilst 
I was addressing the Sixty-ninth, which was on the right of the 
brigade, three men of the Sixty-third were knocked over, and 
before I had spoken my last words of encouragement the mangled 
remains of the poor fellows—mere masses of torn flesh and rags 
—were borne along the line to the hospital of French’s division. 
Emerging from the street, having nothing whatever to protect 
it, the brigade encountered the full force and fury of the enemy’s 
fire, and, unable to resist or reply to it, had to push on to the 
mill-race, which may be described as the first of the hostile de- 



ZOUAVE COLOR-BEARER AT FREDERICKSBURG. 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


199 


fences. Crossing this mill-race by means of a single bridge, the 
brigade, diverging to the right, had to deploy into line of battle. 
This movement necessarily took some time to execute. The 
Sixty-ninth, under Colonel Nugent, being on the right, had to 
stand its ground until the rest of the brigade came up and 
formed. I myself, accompanied by Lieutenant Emmet of my 
staff, crossed the mill-race on foot from the head of the street 
through which the column had debouched. Trudging up the 
ploughed field as well as my lameness would permit me, to the 
muddy crest along which the brigade was to form in line of 
battle, I reached the fence on which the right of the Sixty-ninth 
rested. I directed Colonel Nugent to throw out two companies 
of his regiment as skirmishers on the right flank. This order 
was being carried out, when the other regiments of the brigade, 
coming up with a brisk step and deploying in line of battle, drew 
down upon themselves a terrific fire. Nevertheless the line was 
beautifully and rapidly formed, and boldly advanced, Colonel 
Nugent leading on the right, Col. Patrick Kelly, commanding the 
Eighty-eighth, being next in line, both displaying a courageous 
soldiership which I have no words, even with all my partiality for 
them, adequately to describe. Thus formed, under the unabating 
tempest and deluge of shot and shell, the Irish brigade advanced 
against the rifle-pits, the breastworks, and batteries of the enemy. 

The next day, a little after sunrise, every officer and 
man of the brigade able again to take the field, by order of 
Brigadier-General Hancock, recrossed to Fredericksburg and 
took up the same position, on the street nearest the river, which 
we had occupied previous to the advance, prepared and eager, 
notwithstanding their exhausted numbers and condition, to sup¬ 
port the Ninth Corps in the renewal of the assault of the pre¬ 
vious day, that renewal having been determined on by the 
general-in-chief. Of the one thousand two hundred I had led 
into action the day before, two hundred and eighty only appeared 
on that ground that morning. This remnant of the Irish brigade, 
still full of heart, still wearing the evergreen, inspired by a glow-- 
ing sense of duty, sorrowful for their comrades, but emboldened 
and elated by the thought that they had fallen with the proud 
bravery they did—this noble little remnant awaited the order 
that was once more to precipitate them against the batteries of 
the enemy.” 

Gen. Aaron F. Stevens (afterward member of Congress), who 
at that time commanded the Thirteenth New Hampshire Regi¬ 
ment, made an interesting report, in the course of which he said : 
“ Just after dark we moved to the river, and crossed without 
opposition the pontoon-bridge near the lower end of the city. 
My regiment took up its position for the night in Caroline 
Street, one of the principal streets of the city, and threw out two 
companies as pickets toward the enemy. At an early hour on 
Saturday morning, the eventful and disastrous day of the battle, 
we took up our position with the brigade under the Hill on the 
bank of the river, just below the bridge which we crossed on 
Thursday night. Here we remained under arms the entire day, 
our position being about a mile distant from the line of the 
enemy’s batteries. Occasionally, during the day, fragments of 
shell from his guns reached us or passed over us, falling in the 
river and beyond, doing but little damage. One of our own 
guns, however, on the opposite bank of the river, which threw 
shells over us toward the enemy, was so unfortunately handled 
as to kill two men and wound several others in our brigade. As 
yet all the accounts which I have seen or read, from Union or 
rebel sources, approach not in delineation the truthful and ter¬ 
rible panorama of that bloody day. Twice during the day I 


rode up Caroline Street to the centre of the city toward the point 
where our brave legions were struggling against the terrible com¬ 
bination of the enemy’s artillery and infantry, whose unremitting 
fire shook the earth and filled the plain in rear of the city with 
the deadly missiles of war. I saw the struggling hosts of free¬ 
dom stretched along the plain, their ranks ploughed by the 
merciless fire of the foe. I saw the dead and wounded, among 
them some of New Hampshire’s gallant sons, borne back on the 
shoulders of their comrades in battle, and laid tenderly down in 
the hospitals prepared for their reception, in the houses on either 
side of the street as far as human habitations extended. I 
listened to the roar of battle and the groans of the wounded and 
dying. I saw in the crowded hospitals the desolation of war ; 
but I heard from our brave soldiers no note of triumph, no word 
of encouragement, no syllable of hope that for us a field was to 
be won. In the stubborn, unyielding resistance of the enemy I 
could see no point of pressure likely to yield to the repeated 
assaults of our brave soldiers, and so I returned to my command 
to wait patiently for the hour when we might be called to share 
in the duty and danger of our brave brethren engaged in the 
contest. By stepping forward to the brow of the hill which 
covered us, a distance of ten yards, we were in full view of the 
rebel stronghold—the batteries along the crest of the ridge called 
Stansbury Hill and skirting Hazel Run. For three-fourths of 
an hour before we were ordered into action, I stood in front of 
my regiment on the brow of the hill and watched the fire of the 
rebel batteries as they poured shot and shell from sixteen 
different points upon our devoted men on the plains below. It 
was a sight magnificently terrible. Every discharge of enemy’s 
artillery and every explosion of his shells were visible in the 
dusky twilight of that smoke-crowned hill. There his direct and 
enfilading batteries, with the vividness, intensity, and almost the 
rapidity, of lightning, hurled the messengers of death in the 
midst of our brave ranks, vainly struggling through the murder¬ 
ous fire to gain the hills and the guns of the enemy. Nor was 
it any straggling or ill-directed fire. The arrangement of the 
enemy’s guns was such that they could pour their concentrated 
and incessant fire upon any point occupied by our assailing 
troops, and all of them were plied with the greatest skill and 
animation. During all this time the rattle of musketry was 
incessant. 

“ About sunset there was a pause in the cannonading and 
musketry, and orders came for our brigade to fall in. Silently 
but unflinchingly' the men moved out from under their cover, 
and, when they reached the ground, quickened their pace to a 
run. As the head of the column came in sight of the enemy, at 
a distance of about three-fourths of a mile from their batteries, 
when close to Slaughter’s house, it was saluted with a shower of 
shell from the enemy’s guns on the crest of the hill. It moved 
on by r the flank down the hill into the plain bey'ond, crossing a 
small stream which passes through the city and empties into 
Hazel Run, then over another hill to the line of railroad. We 
moved at so rapid a pace that many of the men relieved them¬ 
selves of their blankets and haversacks, and in some instances of 
their great-coats, which in most cases were lost. By' counter¬ 
march, we extended our line along the railroad, the right resting 
toward the city', and the left near Hazel Run. The words, 

‘ Forward, charge ! ’ ran along the lines. The men sprang for¬ 
ward, and moved at a run, crossed the railroad into a low muddy 
swamp on the left, which reaches down to Hazel Run, the right 
moving over higher and less muddy ground, all the time the 
batteries of the enemy concentrating their terrible fire and pour- 


200 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


ing it upon the advancing lines. Suddenly the cannonading and 
musketry of the enemy ceased. The shouts of our men also 
were hushed, and nothing was heard along the line save the 
command : ‘ Forward, men—steady—close up.’ In this way we 
moved forward, until within about twenty yards of the cele¬ 
brated stone wall. Before we reached the point of which I have 
been speaking, we came to an irregular ravine or gully, into which, 
in the darkness of night, the lines plunged, but immediately 
gained the opposite side, and were advancing along the level 
ground toward the stone wall. Behind that wall, and in rifle- 
pits on its flanks, were posted the enemy’s infantry—according to 
their statements—four ranks deep ; and on the hill, a few yards 
above, lay in ominous silence their death-dealing artillery. It was 


while we were moving steadily forward that, with one startling 
crash, with one simultaneous sheet of fire and flame, they hurled 
on our advancing lines the whole terrible force of their infantry 
and artillery. The powder from their musketry burned in our 
very faces, and the breath of their artillery was hot upon our 
cheeks. The ‘ leaden rain and iron hail’ in an instant forced 
back the advancing lines upon those who were close to them 
in the rear; and before the men could be rallied to renew the 
charge, the lines had been hurled back by the irresistible fire of 
the enemy to the cover of the ravine or gully which they had 
just passed. The enemy swept the ground with his guns, kill¬ 
ing and wounding many—our men in the meantime keeping up 
a spirited fire upon the unseen foe.” 



MARCHING THROUGH TENNESSEE. 


GENERAL grant directing the disposition of troops. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

WAR IN THE WEST. 

CONSCRIPTION ACT PASSED BY CONFEDERATE CONGRESS - GENERAL 

BRAGGS S OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND EAST TENNESSEE—BATTLE 
OF PERRYVILLE— GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE CONFEDERATE 
CHARGE-BATTLE OF IUKA—BATTLE OF STONE RIVER, OR MUR¬ 
FREESBORO’-ESTRANGEMENT BETWEEN GRANT AND ROSECRANS— 

BATTLE OF CORINTH-CONFEDERATE RETREAT-HEAVY LOSSES ON 

BOTH SIDES. 


The Confederate Congress in 1862 passed a sweeping conscrip¬ 
tion act, forcing into the ranks every man of military age. Even 
boys of sixteen were taken out of school and sent to camps of 
instruction. This largely increased their forces in the field, and 
at the West especially they exhibited a corresponding activity. 
General Beauregard, whose health had failed, was succeeded by 
Gen. Braxton Bragg, a man of more energy than ability, who, 
with forty thousand men, marched northward into eastern Ken¬ 
tucky, defeating a National force near Richmond, and another at 
Munfordville. He then assumed that Kentucky was a State of 
the Confederacy, appointed a provisional governor, forced Ken- 















































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


201 


tuckians into his army, and robbed the farmers not only of their 
stock and provisions, but of their wagons for carrying away the 
plunder, paying them in worthless Confederate money. He 
carried with him twenty thousand muskets, expecting to find 
that number of Kentuckians who would enroll themselves in 
his command; but he confessed afterward that he did not even 
secure enough recruits to take up the arms that fell from the 
hands of his dead and wounded. With the supplies collected 
by his army of “ liberators,” as he called them, in a wagon- 
train said to have been forty miles long, he was moving slowly 
back into Tennessee, when General Buell, with about fifty-eight 
thousand men (one-third of them new recruits), marched in 
pursuit. 

Bragg turned and gave battle at Perryville (October 8), and 
the fight lasted nearly all day. At some points it was desperate, 
with hand-to-hand fighting, and troops charging upon batteries 
where the gunners stood to their pieces and blew them from the 
very muzzles. The National left, composed entirely of raw 
troops, was crushed by a heavy onset; but the next portion of 
the line, commanded by Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, not only held 
its ground and repelled the assault, but followed up the retiring 
enemy with a counter attack. Gooding’s brigade (National) lost 
five hundred and forty-nine men out of fourteen hundred and 
twenty-three, and its commander became a prisoner. When 
night fell, the Confederates had been repelled at all points, and 
a portion of them had been driven through Perryville, losing 
many wagons and prisoners. Buell prepared to attack at day¬ 
light, but found that Bragg had moved off in the night with his 
whole army, continuing his retreat to East Tennessee, leaving 
a thousand of his wounded on the ground. He also abandoned 
twelve hundred of his men in hospital at Harrodsburg, with 
large quantities of his plunder, some of which he burned, and 
made all haste to get away. Buell reported his loss in the 
battle as forty-three hundred and forty-eight, which included 
Gens. James S. Jackson and William R. Terrill killed. Bragg’s 
loss was probably larger, though he gave considerably smaller 
figures. 

The battle of Perryville is more noteworthy for its fierce 
fighting and numerous instances of determined gallantry than 
for any importance in its bearing on the campaign. It was 
especially notable for the work of the artillery, and the struggles 
to capture or preserve the various batteries. One National 
battery of eight guns was commanded by Capt. Charles C. 
Parsons, and the Confederates making a fierce charge upon it 
captured seven of the pieces, but not without the most des¬ 
perate hand-to-hand fighting, in the course of which Parsons at 
one time was lying on his back under the guns and firing his 
revolver at the assailants. Sixteen years afterward this man, 
who in the meantime had become a clergyman, sacrificed his life 
in attending to the victims of yellow fever on the Mississippi. 
When Sheridan was heavily pressed by the enemy and his right 
was in special danger, the brigade of Colonel Carlin was sent 
to his relief. Carlin’s men, reaching the brow of a hill, dis¬ 
covered the advancing enemy, and immediately charged at the 
double quick with such impetuosity that they not only drove 
back the Confederates, but passed entirely through their lines 
where they were in momentary danger of being captured en 
masse. But, during the confusion which they caused, they 
skilfully fell back, carrying with them a heavily loaded ammuni¬ 
tion train which they had captured with its guard. Pinney’s 
Fifth Wisconsin battery was worked to its utmost capacity for 
three hours without supports, and withstood several charges, 


piling its front with the bodies of the slc.in. In the Third Ohio 
Regiment six color sergeants were shot in succession, but the flag 
was never allowed to touch the earth. That regiment lost two 
hundred out of five hundred men. A correspondent of the Cin¬ 
cinnati Gazette , who was on the field, thus relates one of the 
many interesting incidents of the battle: “The Tenth Ohio 
were lying upon their faces to the left of the Third, near the 
summit of the same hill, and upon the other side of a lane. 
The retreat of the Third Ohio and Fifteenth Kentucky had left 
the right wing of the Tenth uncovered, and a whole brigade of 
the enemy, forming in mass, advanced toward them over ground 
of such a nature that if the Tenth did not receive warning from 
some source the rebel column would be upon them, and annihilate 
them before they could rise from their faces and change front. 
Colonel Lytle was expecting the enemy to appear in his front, over 
the crest of the hill, and had intended to have the gallant Tenth 
charge them with the bayonet. And they still lay upon their 
faces while the enemy was advancing upon their flank, stealthily 
as a cat steals upon her prey. Nearer and nearer they come. 
Great heavens! Will no one tell the Tenth of their fearful 
peril? Where is the eagle eye which ought to overlook the 
field and send swift-footed couriers to save this illustrious band 
from destruction? Alas, there is none! The heroes of Carnifex 
are doomed. The ma^s of Confederates, which a rising ground 
just to the right of the tent has hitherto concealed from view, 
rush upon the hapless regiment, and from the distance of a hun¬ 
dred yards pour into it an annihilating fire even while the men 
are still upon their faces. Overwhelmed and confounded, they 
leap to their feet and vainly endeavor to change front to meet 
the enemy. It is impossible to do it beneath that withering, 
murderous fire; and for the first time in its history the Tenth 
Regiment turns its back upon the enemy. They will not run ; 
they only walk away, and they are mowed down by scores as 
they go. The noble, gifted, generous Lytle was pierced with 
bullets and fell where the storm was fiercest. One of his ser¬ 
geants lifted him in his arms, and was endeavoring to carry him 
from the field. ‘You may do some good yet,’ said the hero ; ‘ I 
can do no more; let me die here.’ He was left there, and fell 
into the hands of the enemy.” 

On hearing of this disaster to the Tenth Ohio Regiment, which 
formed the right of Lytle’s Seventeenth Brigade, General Rous¬ 
seau immediately rode to the scene of it. He says in his 
report: “Whilst near the Fifteenth Kentucky, I saw a heavy 
force of the enemy advancing upon our right, the same that had 
turned Lytle’s right flank. It was moving steadily up in full 
view of where General Gilbert’s army corps had been during the 
day, the left flank of which was not more than four hundred 
yards from it. On approaching, the Fifteenth Kentucky, though 
broken and shattered, rose to its feet and cheered, and as one 
man moved to the top of the hill where it could see the enemy, 
and I ordered it to lie down. I then rode up to Loomis’s 
battery, and directed him to open upon the enemy. He replied 
he was ordered by General McCook to reserve what ammunition 
he had for close work. Pointing to the enemy advancing, I 
said it was close enough, and would be closer in a moment. He 
at once opened fire with alacrity, and made fearful havoc upon 
the ranks of the enemy. It was admirably done, but the enemy 
moved straight ahead. His ranks were raked by the battery, and 
terribly thinned by the musketry of the Seventeenth Brigade; 
but he scarcely faltered, and finally, hearing that reinforcements 
were approaching, the brigade was ordered to retire and give 
place to them, which it did in good order. The reinforcements 



BATTLE OF STONE RIVER—THE DECISIVE CHARGE OF THE FEDERAL TROQPS ACROSS THE RIVER. 






























































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


203 




MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 

west. There are two roads running south from Iuka, about two 
miles apart, and Grant intended that Rosecrans should approach 
by both of these roads, so as to cut off the enemy’s retreat. But 
Rosecrans marched only by the westernmost road, leaving the 
eastern, known as the Fulton road, open. Hamilton’s division 
was in advance, and at four o’clock in the afternoon, at a point 
two miles from Iuka, the head of his column, ascending a long 
hill, found the enemy deployed across the road and in the woods 
a few hundred yards beyond its crest. Hamilton had thrown 
out a heavy skirmish line, which for four or five miles had kept 
up a running fight with sharp-shooters. The enemy, in force, 
occupied a strong line along a deep ravine, from which they 
moved forward to attack as soon as Hamilton’s men appeared 
on the crest. Hamilton himself, being close to the skirmish 
line, saw the situation with its dangers and its advantages, and 
made haste to prepare for what was coming. He deployed his 
infantry along the crest, got a battery into position under heavy 
fire where it could command the road in front, placed every 
regiment personally, and gave each regimental commander 
orders to hold his ground at all hazards. As the remainder of 
his forces came up, he placed them so as to extend his flanks 
and prevent them from being turned. But while he was doing 
this, the enemy was advancing and the battle was becoming very 
serious. The enemy came on in heavy masses against his 
centre, charging steadily up to his guns, which fired canister 
into them at short range, until nearly every man and horse in 
the battery was disabled, and it was captured. Brig.-Gen. Jere¬ 
miah C. Sullivan then gathered a portion of the right wing, 
which had been thrown into some disorder, and retook the 
battery, driving the Confederates back to their line; but rally¬ 
ing in turn they captured it a second time, and a second time 
it was recaptured. General Stanley’s division was now brought 
up to the assistance of Hamilton’s, and the Confederates were 
driven back once more. They then made an attempt by march- 


were from Mitchell’s divi¬ 
sion, as I understood, and 
were Pea Ridge men. I 
wish I knew who com¬ 
manded the brigade, that 
I might do him justice; 

I can only say that the 
brigade moved directly 
into the fight, like true 
soldiers, and opened a 
terrific fire and drove back 
the enemy. After repuls¬ 
ing the enemy, they re¬ 
tired a few hundred yards 
into a piece of woods to 
encamp in, and during the 
night the enemy advanced 
his pickets in the woods on 
our left front and captured 
a good many of our men 
who went there believing 
we still held the woods.” 

General Hal leek, at 
Washington, now planned 
for Buell’s army a cam¬ 
paign in East Tennessee ; 
but as that was more than 
two hundred miles away, 

and the communications were not provided for, Buell declined 
to execute it. For this reason, and also on the ground that if 
he had moved more rapidly and struck more vigorously he 
might have destroyed Bragg’s army, he was removed from 
command, and Gen. William S. Rosecrans succeeded him. 

In September, when Bragg had first moved northward, a 
Confederate army of about forty thousand men, under Generals 
Price and Van Dorn, had crossed from Arkansas into Missis¬ 
sippi with the purpose of capturing Grant’s position at Corinth, 
and thus breaking 'the National line of defence and cooperat- 

ing with Bragg. 
Price seized Iuka, 
southeast of Cor¬ 
inth, and Grant sent 
out against him a 
force under Rose¬ 
crans, consisting of 
about nine thousand 
men, which included 
the divisions of 
Gens. David S. Stan¬ 
ley and Charles S. 
Hamilton, and the 
cavalry under Col. 
John K. Mizner. It 
was Grant’s inten¬ 
tion that while this 
force moved toward 
Iuka from the south, 
Gen. E. O. C. Orel’s 
command, consisting 
of eight thousand 
men, should move 
upon it from the 


COLONEL WILLIAM P. CARLIN. 
(Afterward Brevet Major-General.) 














204 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


ing through a ravine to fall upon the National left in heavy 
force; but their movement was discovered, and the Tenth Iowa 
Regiment, together with part of a battery, met them with such 
a reception that they quickly withdrew. The front on which 
the troops could be deployed was not long enough to permit 
more than three thousand men of the Nationals to be in action 
at once ; but along this line the fighting was kept up until dark, 
when the enemy retired, and in the morning, when Rosecrans 
prepared to attack him, it was found that he was gone. The 
losses in the National army in this battle were 141 killed, 613 
wounded, and 36 missing. On the Confederate side, where not 
many more men could be engaged at once than on the National, 
the losses were reported as 85 killed, 410 wounded, and 40 miss¬ 
ing, the killed including Brig.-Gen. Henry Little. But these 
figures are probably altogether too small. General Hamilton 
reported that 263 Confederates were buried on the field. 

General Rosecrans, in a congratulatory order to his troops a 
few days later, said : “ You may well be proud of the battle of 
Iuka. On the 18th you concentrated at Jacinto ; on the 19th 
you marched twenty miles, driving in the rebel 
outposts for the last eight; reached the 
front of Price’s army, advantage 
ously posted in unknown woods, 
and opened the action by four 
P.M. On a narrow front, in¬ 
tersected by ravines and 
covered by dense under¬ 
growths, with a single 
battery, Hamilton’s di¬ 
vision went into action 
against the combined 
rebel hosts. On that 
unequal ground, which 
permitted the enemy to 
outnumber them three 
to one, they fought a 
glorious battle, mowing 
down the rebel hordes, 
until, night closing in, 
they rested on their arms on 
the battleground, from which 
the enemy retired during the night, 
leaving us masters of the field. The 
general commanding bears cheerful 
testimony to the fiery alacrity with 

which the troops of Stanley’s division moved up, cheering, to 
support the third division, and took their places to give them an 
opportunity to replenish their ammunition ; and to the mag¬ 
nificent fighting of the Eleventh Missouri under the gallant 
Mower. To all the regiments who participated in the fight, 
he presents congratulations on their bravery and good conduct. 
He deems it an especial duty to signalize the Forty-eighth 
Indiana, which, posted on the left, held its ground until the 
brave Eddy fell, and a whole brigade of Texans came in through 
a ravine on the little band, and even then only yielded a 
hundred yards until relieved. The Sixteenth Iowa, amid the 
roar of battle, the rush of wounded artillery horses, the charge 
of the rebel brigade, and a storm of grape, canister, and 
musketry, stood like a rock, holding the centre; while the 
glorious Fifth Iowa, under the brave and distinguished Matthias, 
sustained by Boomer with part of his noble little Twenty-sixth 
Missouri, bore the thrice defeated charges and cross-fires of the 



MAJOR-GENERAL 
WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS. 


rebel left and centre with a valor and determination seldom 
equalled, never excelled, by the most veteran soldiery. . . . 

The unexpected accident which alone prevented us from cutting 
off the retreat and capturing Price and his army only shows how 
much success depends on Him in whose hands are the accidents 
as well as the laws of life.” 

As the conduct of this battle began a series of causes that 
resulted in an unfortunate estrangement between Grant and 
Rosecrans, the bitterness of which was exhibited by the latter in 
his place in Congress even when Grant was in his dying days, 
it is interesting to note what Grant says of it. In his official 
report, written the day after the battle, he said : “ I cannot speak 
too highly of the energy and skill displayed by General Rose¬ 
crans in the attack, and of the endurance of the troops under 
him.” In his “ Memoirs ” he wrote : “ General Rosecrans had 

previously had his head¬ 
quarters at Iuka. While 
there he had a most ex¬ 
cellent map prepared, 
showing all the roads 
and streams in the sur¬ 
rounding country. He 
was also personally fa¬ 
miliar with the ground, 
so that I deferred very 
much to him in my plans 
for the approach. . . . 
Ord was on the north¬ 
west, and even if a rebel 
movement had been 
possible in that direc¬ 
tion it could have 
brought only temporary 
relief, for it would have 
carried Price's army to 
the rear of the National 
forces and isolated it 
from all support. It 
looked to me that, if 
Price would remain in 
Iuka until we could get there, his annihilation was inevitable. 
On the morning of the 18th of September General Ord moved 
by rail to Burnsville, and there left the cars and moved to 
perform his part of the programme. He was to get as near the 
enemy as possible during the day and intrench himself so as to 
hold his position until the next morning. Rosecrans was to be 
up by the morning of the 19th on the two roads, and the attack 
was to be from all three quarters simultaneously. ... I 
remained at Burnsville with a detachment of nine hundred men 
from Ord’s command and communicated with my two wings by 
courier. Ord met the advance of the enemy soon after leaving 
Burnsville. Quite a sharp engagement ensued, but he drove the 
rebels back with considerable loss, including one general officer 
killed. He maintained his position and was ready to attack by 
daylight the next morning. I was very much disappointed at 
receiving a despatch from Rosecrans after midnight from Jacinto, 
twenty miles from Iuka, saying that some of his command had 
been delayed, and that the rear of his column was not yet up as 
far as Jacinto. He said, however, that he would still be at Iuka 
by two o'clock the next day. I did not believe this possible, 
because of the distance and condition of the roads. I immedi¬ 
ately sent Ord a copy of Rosecrans’s despatch and ordered him to 


MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN PEGRAM, C. S. A. 










CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


205 


be in readiness to attack the moment he heard the sound of guns 
to the south or southeast. During the 19th the wind blew in 
the wrong direction to transmit sound, either toward the point 
where Ord was or to Burnsville where I remained. [This 
appears to be the “ unexpected accident ” to which General 
Rosecrans refers in his congratulatory order.] A couple of 
hours before dark, on the 19th, Rosecrans arrived with the 
head of his column at Barnets. He here turned north without 
sending any troops to the Fulton road. While still moving in 
column up the Jacinto road, he met a force of the enemy and 
had his advance badly beaten and driven back upon the main 
road. In this short engagement his loss was consider¬ 
able for the number engaged, and one battery was 

The wind was still blowin 
hard, and in the wrong direction to trans¬ 
mit sound toward either Ord or me. 

Neither he nor I nor any one 
in either command heard 
a gun that was fired 
upon the battlefield. 

After the engagement 
Rosecrans sent me a de 
spatch announcing the 1 
suit. The courier bearing the 
message was compelled to 
move west nearly to Jacinto be¬ 
fore he found a road leading to 
Burnsville. This made 
it a late 


the enemy had taken advantage of this neglect and retreated by 
that road during the night. I rode into town and found that 
the enemy was not being pursued even by the cavalry. I ordered 
pursuit by the whole of Rosecrans’s command, and went on with 
him a few miles in person. He followed only a few miles after I 
left him, and then went into camp, and the pursuit was continued 
no further. I was disappointed at the result of the battle of 
Iuka, but I had so high an opinion of General Rosecrans that I 







MAJOR-GENERAL LOVELL H. ROUSSEAU. 


hour of 
the night before 

I learned of the battle that had taken place during the after¬ 
noon. I at once notified Ord of the fact and ordered him to 
attack early in the morning. The next morning Rosecrans 
himself renewed the attack and went into Iuka with but little 
resistance. Ord also went in according to orders, without hear¬ 
ing a gun from the south of the town, but supposing the troops 
coming from the southwest must be up before that time. Rose¬ 
crans, however, had put no troops upon the Fulton road, and 


found no fault at the time.” General Grant says 
that the plan of the battle, which included the 
occupation of the Fulton road, was suggested by 
Rosecrans himself. 

A Confederate soldier, who participated in the 
engagement, gave a graphic account of it in a let¬ 
ter, a few extracts from which are interesting and 
suggestive. “ I wrote you a short communication 
from Iuka, announcing its peaceable capture on the 
4th, by the army under General Price. I believe I was a little 
congratulatory in my remarks, and spread out on the rich fruits 
of the bloodless capture. Indeed, it was a sight to gladden 
the heart of a poor soldier whose only diet for some time 
had been unsalted beef and white leather hoe-cake—the stacks 
of cheese, crackers, preserves, mackerel, coffee, and other good 
things that line the shelves of the sutlers’ shops, and fill the 
commissary stores of the Yankee army. But, alas ! The good 

























206 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


things which should have been distributed to the brave men who 
won them were held in reserve for what purpose I know not, 
unless to sweeten the teeth of those higher in authority (whilst 
the men were fed on husks), and I suppose were devoured by 
the flames on the day of our retreat. We held peaceable pos¬ 
session of Iuka one day, and on the next day were alarmed by 
the booming of cannon, and called out to spend the evening in 
battle array in the woods. How on earth, with the woods full 
of our cavalry, they could have approached so near our lines, is 
a mystery! They had planted a battery sufficiently near to 
shell General Price’s headquarters, and were cracking away 
at the Third Brigade in line of battle under General Herbert 
when our brigade (the Fourth) came up at a double quick and 
formed on their left. And then for two hours and fifteen min¬ 
utes was kept up the most terrific fire of musketry that ever 
dinned my ears. There was one continuous roar of small arms, 
while grape and canister howled in fearful concert above our 
heads and through our ranks. General Little, our division 
commander, whose bravery and kindness had endeared him to 
the men under his command, was shot through the head early 
in the action, and fell from his horse dead. He was sitting 
by General Price and conversing with him at the time. The 
Third Brigade was in the hottest of the fire. They charged and 
took the battery, which was doing so much damage, after a 
desperate struggle, piling the ground with dead. The Third 
Louisiana Regiment, of this brigade, entered the fight with 
two hundred and thirty-eight men, and lost one hundred and 
eight in killed and wounded. The Third Texas fared about 
as badly. The troops against which we were contending were 
Western men, the battery manned by Iowa troops, who fought 
bravely and well. I know this, that the events of that evening 
have considerably increased my appetite for peace, and if the 
Yankees will not shoot at us any more I shall be perfectly satis¬ 
fied to let them alone. All night could be heard the groans of 
the wounded and dying of both armies, forming a sequel of hor¬ 
ror and agony to the deadly struggle over which night had kindly 
thrown its mantle. Saddest of all, our dead were left unburied, 
and many of the wounded on the battlefield to be taken in charge 
by the enemy. . . . During the entire retreat we lost but four 
or five wagons, which broke down on the road and were left. 
Acts of vandalism disgraceful to the army were, however, per¬ 
petrated along the road, which made me blush to own such men 
as my countrymen. Cornfields were laid waste, potato-patches 
robbed, barn-yards and smoke-houses despoiled, hogs killed, and 
all kinds of outrages perpetrated in broad daylight and in full 
view of officers. I doubted, on the march up and on the retreat, 
whether I was in an army of brave men fighting for their coun¬ 
try, or merely following a band of armed marauders who are as 
terrible to their friends as foes. The settlements through which 
we passed were made to pay heavy tribute to the rapacity of 
our soldiers. This plunder, too, was without excuse, for rations 
were regularly issued every night.” 

Early in October the combined forces of Price and Van Dorn 
attempted the capture of Corinth, which had been abandoned 
by Beauregard in May, and from that time had been held by 
Grant’s forces. Grant was now in Jackson, Tenn., where he 
had been ordered to make his headquarters, and Rosecrans 
was in immediate command at Corinth with about twenty 
thousand men. The place was especially tempting to the 
Confederates because of the enormous amount of supplies in 
store there, and also for other reasons, which are well stated 
in Van Dorn’s report made after the battle: “Surveying the 


whole field of operations before me, the conclusion forced 
itself irresistibly upon my mind, that the taking of Corinth 
was a condition precedent to the accomplishment of anything 
of importance in West Tennessee. To take Memphis would 
be to destroy an immense amount of property without any 
adequate military advantage, even admitting that it could be 
held without heavy guns against the enemy’s gun and mortar 
boats. The line of fortifications around Bolivar is intersected 
by the Hatchie River, rendering it impossible to take the place 
by quick assault. It was clear to my mind that if a successful 
attack could be made upon Corinth from the west and north¬ 
west, the forces there driven back on the Tennessee and cut 
off, Bolivar and Jackson would easily fall, and then, upon 
the arrival of the exchanged prisoners of war (about nine 
thousand), West Tennessee would soon be in our possession, 
and communication with General Bragg effected through middle 
Tennessee. I determined to attempt Corinth. I had a reason¬ 
able hope of success. Field returns at Ripley showed my 
strength to be about twenty-two thousand men. Rosecrans 
at Corinth had about fifteen thousand, with about eight thou¬ 
sand additional men at outposts from twelve to fifteen miles 
distant. I might surprise him and carry the place before these 
troops could be brought in. It was necessary that this blow 
should be sudden and decisive. The troops were in fine spirits, 
and the whole Army of West Tennessee seemed eager to emu¬ 
late the armies of the Potomac and Kentucky. No army ever 
marched to battle with prouder steps, more hopeful counte¬ 
nances, or with more courage, than marched the Army of 
West Tennessee out of Ripley on the morning of September 
29th, on its way to Corinth.” 

Rosecrans had several days’ notice of the attack, and had 
placed the main body of the troops in an inner line of intrench- 
ments nearer the town than the old Confederate fortifications. 
Skirmishing began on the 3d of October, when the Confederates 
approached from the north and west. The skirmishers were 
soon driven in, and the advance troops, under McArthur and 
Oliver, made a more determined resistance than Rosecrans had 
intended ; his idea in thrusting them forward being that they 
should merely develop the enemy’s purpose, find out what point 
he intended to attack, and then fall back on the main body. In 
the afternoon this advanced detachment had been pushed back 
to the main line, and there the fighting became very obstinate 
and bloody. General Hamilton’s division was on the right, 
Davies’s next, Stanley’s in reserve, and McKean on the left. 
The force of the first heavy blow fell upon McKean and Davies. 
As the Confederates overlapped Davies a little on his right, 
General Rosecrans ordered Hamilton to move up his left and 
connect with Davies, then to swing his right around the enemy’s 
left and get in his rear. Hamilton asked for more definite in¬ 
structions than he had received verbally from the staff officer, 
and Rosecrans sent him a written order, which he received at 
five o’clock. Hamilton says : “ A simple order to attack the 
enemy in flank could have reached me by courier from General 
Rosecrans any time after two P. M. in fifteen minutes. I con¬ 
strued it [the written order] as an order for attack, and at once 
proceeded to carry it out.” A somewhat similar misunderstand¬ 
ing arose between General Hamilton and his brigade com¬ 
manders, in consequence of which Buford’s brigade went astray 
and a precious hour was lost. During that time the battle was 
apparently going in favor of the Confederates, although they 
were purchasing their advantages at heavy cost. Each com. 
mander believed that if he could have had an hour more of sua* 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


207 


light the victory would have been his that day. In the evening 
Rosecrans assembled his division commanders and made his 
dispositions for a renewal of the battle on the morrow. 

At half-past four o’clock in the morning the Confederates 
opened the fight with their artillery, to which that of Rosecrans 
promptly replied, and extended their infantry lines farther to 
the north of the town. Here, on their extreme left, they formed 
behind a low hill, and then suddenly advanced in line of battle 
only three hundred yards distant from the National intrench- 
ments. They were soon subjected to a cross-fire from the bat¬ 
teries, their line was broken, and only fragments of it reached 
the edge of the town, from which they were soon driven away 
by the reserves. Rosecrans then sent forward one of Hamilton’s 
brigades to attack the broken enemy, which prevented them 
from re-forming 
and drove them 
into the woods. 

At the most ad¬ 
vanced point of 
the National 
line, which was 
a small work 
called Battery 
Robinett, the 
heaviest fight¬ 
ing of the day 
took place. 

Here for more 
than two hours 
the roar of ar¬ 
tillery and small 
arms was in¬ 
cessant and the 
smoke was in 
thick clouds. 

Through this 
heavy smoke 
the Confeder¬ 
ates made three 
determined 
charges upon 
Battery Robin¬ 
ett, and the 
troops on either 
side of it, all of 
which were re¬ 
pelled. The heavy assaulting columns were raked through and 
through by the shot, but they persistently closed up and moved 
forward until, in one instance, a colonel carrying the colors actu¬ 
ally planted them on the edge of the ditch, and then was im¬ 
mediately shot. After this the Confederates gave up the fight 
and slowly withdrew. At sunset General McPherson arrived 
from Jackson with reinforcements for the Nationals, and Gen¬ 
eral Idurlbut was on the way with more. General Rosecrans 
says : “ Our pursuit of the enemy was immediate and vigorous, 
but the darkness of the night and the roughness of the country, 
covered with woods and thickets, made movement impracticable 
by night, and slow and difficult by day. General McPherson s 
brigade of fresh troops with a battery was ordered to start at 
daylight and follow the enemy over the Chewalla road, and Stan¬ 
ley’s and Davies’s divisions to support him. McArthur, with all 
of McKean’s division except Crocker’s brigade, and with a good 


battery and a battalion of cavalry, took the route south of the 
railroad toward Pocahontas; McKean followed on this route 
with the rest of his division and Ingersoll’s cavalry; Hamilton 
followed McKean with his entire force.” But General Grant 
says in his “ Memoirs ” : “ General Rosecrans, however, failed 
to follow up the victory, although I had given specific orders 
in advance of the battle for him to pursue the moment the 
enemy was repelled. He did not do so, and I repeated the 
order after the battle. In the first order he was notified that 
the force of four thousand men which was going to his assist¬ 
ance would be in great peril if the enemy was not pursued. 
General Ord had joined Hurlbut on the 4th, and, being senior, 
took command of his troops. This force encountered the head 
of Van Dorn’s retreating column just as it was crossing the 

Hatchie by a 
bridge some ten 
miles out from 
Corinth. The 
bottom land 
here was 
swampy and 
bad for the oper¬ 
ations of troops, 
making a good 
place to get an 
enemy into. 
Ord attacked 
the troops that 
had crossed 
the bridge and 
drove them 
back in a panic. 
Many were 
killed, and 
others were 
drowned by be¬ 
ing pushed off 
the bridge in 
their hurried re¬ 
treat. Ord fol¬ 
lowed, and met 
the main force. 
He was too 
weak in num¬ 
bers to assault, 
but he held the 

bridge and compelled the enemy to resume his retreat by another 
bridge higher up the stream. Ord was wounded in this engage¬ 
ment, and the command devolved on Hurlbut. Rosecrans did 
not start in pursuit till the morning of the 5th, and then took 
the wrong road. Moving in the enemy’s country, he travelled 
with a wagon train to carry his provisions and munitions of war. 
His march was therefore slower than that of the enemy, who was 
moving toward his supplies. Two or three hours’ pursuit on the 
day of battle, without anything except what the men carried on 
their persons, would have been worth more than any pursuit 
commenced the next day could have possibly been. Even when 
he did start, if Rosecrans had followed the route taken by the 
enemy, he would have come upon Van Dorn in a swamp, with a 
stream in front and Ord holding the only bridge ; but he took 
the road leading north and toward Chewalla instead of west, 
and, after having marched as far as the enemy had moved to 



MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD O. C. ORD AND STAFF. 
































(FROM A PAINTING BY WILLIAM T. TREGO.! 






























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


2og 


get to the Hatchie, he was as far from battle as when he started. 
Hurlbut had not the numbers to meet any such force as Van 
Dorn’s if they had been in any mood for fighting, and he might 
have been in great peril. I now regarded the time to accomplish 
anything by pursuit as past, and after Rosecrans reached Jones¬ 
boro’ I ordered him to return.” 

General Grant considered that General Rosecrans had made 
the same serious mistake twice, at Iuka and at Corinth ; and for 
this reason Rosecrans was soon relieved from further service in 
that department. The Confederate authorities also were dis¬ 
satisfied with their general, for they accounted the defeat at 
Corinth a heavy disaster, and Van Dorn was soon superseded 
by Gen. John C. Pemberton. 

Rosecrans superseded Buell October 24th, when his army— 
thenceforth called the Army of the Cumberland—was at Bowling 
Green, slowly pursuing Bragg. Rosecrans sent a portion of it to 
the relief of Nashville, which was besieged by a Confederate force, 
and employed the remainder in repairing the railroad from Louis¬ 
ville, over which his supplies must come. This done, about the 
end of November he united his forces at Nashville. At the 
same time Bragg was ordered to move forward again, and went 
as far as Murfreesboro’, forty miles from Nashville, where he 
fortified a strong position on Stone River, a shallow stream 
fordable at nearly all points. There was high festivity among 
the secessionists in Murfreesboro’ that winter, for Bragg had 
brought much plunder from Kentucky. No one dreamed that 


Rosecrans would attack the place before spring, and several 
roving bands of guerilla cavalry were very active, and performed 
some exciting if not important exploits. The leader of one of 
these, John H. Morgan, was married in Murfreesboro’, the cere¬ 
mony being performed by Bishop and Gen. Leonidas Polk, and 
Jefferson Davis being present. It is said that the floor was car¬ 
peted with a United States flag, on which the company danced, 
to signify that they had put its authority under their feet. 

The revelry was rudely interrupted when Rosecrans, leaving 
Nashville with forty-three thousand men, in a rain-storm, the 
day after Christmas, encamped on the 30th within sight of Bragg’s 
intrenchments. 

A correspondent of the Louisville Journal, who went over 
the ground at the time and witnessed the battle, gave a careful 
description of its peculiarities, which is necessary to a complete 
understanding of the action: “As the road from Nashville to 
Murfreesboro’ approaches the latter place, it suddenly finds itself 
parallel to Stone River. The stream flowing east crosses the 
road a mile this [west] side of Murfreesboro’. Abruptly chang¬ 
ing its course, it flows north along the road, and not more than 
four hundred yards distant, for more than two miles. It is a 
considerable stream, but fordable in many places at low water. 
The narrow tongue of land between the turnpike road and the 
river is divided by the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, which, 
running down the centre of the wedge-like tract, bisects the 
turnpike half a mile this side of where the latter crosses the river. 



CHARGE OF THE FEDERALS AT CORINTH. 


14 






















210 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


Just in rear of the spot where the third milestone from Mur¬ 
freesboro’ stands, the turnpike and railroad—at that point about 
sixty yards apart—run through a slight cut, and this a few rods 
farther on is succeeded by a slight fill. The result is to convert 
both railroad and turnpike for a distance of two or three hundred 
yards into a natural rifle-pit. On each side of the road at this 
point there are open fields. That on the left extends to a cur¬ 
tain of timber which fringes the river, and also half a mile to the 
front along the road, where it gives place to an oak wood of 
no great density or extent. To the left and front, however, it 
opens out into a large open plain, which flanks the wood just 
mentioned, and extends up the river in the direction of Mur¬ 
freesboro’ for a mile. In the field on the left of the railroad 
there is a hill of no great height sloping down to the railroad 
and commanding all the ground to the front and right. It was 
here that Guenther’s and Loomis’s batteries were posted in the 
terrible conflict of Wednesday. The open field on the right of 
the turnpike road, three hundred yards wide, is bounded on the 
west by an almost impenetrable cedar forest. Just in rear of 
the forest, and marking its extreme northern limit, is a long, 
narrow opening, containing about ten acres. There is a swell 
in the field on the right of the road, corresponding with the one 
on the left. The crest of this hill is curiously concave. From 
its beginning point at the corner of the cedars, the northern end 
of the crest curves back upon itself, so that after fortifying the 
front of the position it renders the right flank well-nigh impreg¬ 
nable.” 

Rosecrans intended to attack the next day; but Bragg antici¬ 
pated him, crossed the river before sunrise, concealed by a thick 
fog, reached the woods on the right of the National line, and 
burst out upon the bank in overwhelming force. McCook’s 
command, on the extreme right, was crumbled and thrown back, 
losing several guns and many prisoners. Sheridan’s command, 



MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. McPHERSON. 


next in line, made 
a stubborn fight 
till its ammuni¬ 
tion was nearly 
exhausted, and 
then slowly re¬ 
tired. General 
Thomas’s com¬ 
mand, w h i c h 
formed the cen¬ 
tre, now held the 
enemy back till 
Rosecrans estab¬ 
lished a new line, 
nearly at right 
angles to the first, 
with artillery ad- 
van tageou sly 
posted, when 
Thomas fell back 
to this and main¬ 
tained his ground. 

Through the fore¬ 
noon the Confed¬ 
erates had seemed to have everything their own way, and they 
had inflicted grievous loss upon Rosecrans, besides sending 
their restless cavalry to annoy his army in the rear. But here, 
as usual, the tide was turned. The first impetuous rush of the 
Southern soldier had spent itself, and the superior staying quali¬ 
ties of his Northern opponent began to tell. Bragg hurled his 
men again and again upon the new line ; but as they left the 
cedar thickets and charged across the open field they were 
mercilessly swept down by artillery and musketry fire, and every 
effort was fruitless. Even when seven thousand fresh men were 
drawn over from Bragg’s right and thrown against the National 
centre, the result was still the same. The day ended with 
Rosecrans immovable in his position ; but he had been driven 
from half of the ground that he held in the morning, and had 
lost twenty-eight guns and many men, while the enemy’s cavalry 
was upon his communications. Finding that he had ammunition 
enough for another battle, he determined to remain where he 
was and sustain another assault. His men slept on their arms 
that night, and the next day there was no evidence of any dis¬ 
position on either side to attack. Both sides were correcting 
their lines, constructing rifle-pits, caring for their wounded, and 
preparing for a renewal of the fight. 

This came on the second day of the new year, when there 
was some desultory fighting, and Rosecrans advanced a division 
across the stream to strike at Bragg’s communications. Breck- 
enridge’s command was sent to attack this division, and drove it 
back to the river, when Breckenridge suddenly found himself 
subjected to a terrible artillery fire, and lost two thousand men 
in twenty minutes. Following this, a charge by National 
infantry drove him back with a loss of four guns and many 
prisoners, and this ended the great battle of Stone River, or 
Murfreesboro’. After the repulse of Breckenridge, Rosecrans 
advanced his left again, and that night occupied with some of 
his batteries high ground, from which Murfreesboro’ could be 
shelled. The next day there was a heavy rain-storm, and in the 
ensuing night the Confederate army quietly retreated, leaving 
Murfreesboro' to its fate. Rosecrans reported his loss in killed 
and wounded as eight thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL FRANK C. ARMSTRONG, C. S. A. 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


211 


and in prisoners as somewhat fewer than twenty-eight hundred. 
Bragg acknowledged a loss of over ten thousand, and claimed 
that he had taken over six thousand prisoners. 

The number of men engaged on the National side was about 
forty-three thousand, and on the Confederate about thirty-eight 
thousand, according to the reports, which are not always reliable. 

The losses on the National side included Brig.-Gens. Joshua 
W. Sill and Edward N. Kirk among the killed, while on the 
Confederate side Brig.-Gens. James E. Rains and Roger W. 
Hanson were killed. 

The incidents of this great and complicated battle were very 
numerous, and have been related at great length by different 
correspondents and participants. The cavalry fighting that pre¬ 
ceded the infantry engagement was severe, and in some respects 
brilliant. This arm of the service was commanded on the 
National side by Gen. David S. Stanley, and on the Confederate 
by Gen. Joseph Wheeler. Col. R. H. 

G. Minty, commanding the First Bri¬ 
gade of the National cavalry, says in 
his account of the first day’s battle : 

“Crossing Overall’s Creek, I took 
up position parallel to and about 
three-quarters of a mile from 1 
Murfreesboro’ and Nashvil 
pike ; the Fourth Michigan fori: 
inc a line of dismounted ski 1 
mishers close to the edge o 
the woods. My entire force at 
this time numbered nine hun¬ 
dred and fifty m e n . The 
enemy advanced rapidly with 
twenty-five hundred cavalry, 
mounted and dismounted, 
and three pieces of artillery. 

They drove back the 
Fourth Michigan, and then 
attacked the Seventh 
Pennsylvania with great j OH 
fury, but met with a de¬ 
termined resistance. I went for¬ 
ward to the line of dismounted skirmishers, 
and endeavored to move them to the right to strengthen 
the Seventh Pennsylvania; but the moment the right of the 
line showed itself from behind the fence where they were 
posted, the whole of the enemy’s fire was directed on it, 
turning it completely round. At this moment the Fifteenth 
Pennsylvania gave way and retreated rapidly, leaving the 
battalion of the Seventh Pennsylvania no alternative but to 
retreat. I fell back a couple of fields and re-formed in the 
rear of a rising ground, d he rebel cavalry followed us up 
promptly into the open ground, and now menaced us with 
three strong lines. General Stanley ordeied a chaige, and 
he himself led two companies of the Fourth Michigan, with 
about fifty men of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania, against the 
line in front of our left. He routed the enemy, and cap¬ 
tured one stand of colors. At the same time I charged the 


A correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial , in an account 
of the battle written on the field, says: “Colonel Innes with 
the Ninth Michigan engineers, posted at Fa Vergne to protect 
the road, had just been reinforced by several companies of the 
Tenth Ohio, when Wheeler’s cavalry brigade made a strong dash 
at that position. Colonel Innes had protected himself by a 
stockade of brush, and fought securely. The enemy charged 
several times with great fury, but were murderously repulsed. 
About fifty rebels were dismounted, and nearly a hundred of 
the horses were killed. Wheeler finally withdrew, and sent in 
a flag of truce demanding surrender. Colonel Innes replied, 
‘ We don’t surrender much.’ Wheeler then asked permission 
to bury his dead, which was granted. . . . General Rose- 

crans, as usual, was in the midst of the fray, directing the 
movement of troops and the range of batteries.” 

Some of the things that soldiers have to endure, which are 
not often mentioned among the stirring events of the field, 
are indicated in the report of Col. Jason Marsh of the Seventy- 
fourth Illinois Regiment. He says: “My com¬ 
mand was formed in line of battle close behind a 
narrow strip of cedar thicket, nearly covering our 
front, and skirting a strip of open level ground about 
twenty rods wide to the cornfield occupied by the 
enemy’s pickets. Being thus satisfied of the close 
proximity of the enemy in strong force, and appre- 
an attack at any moment, I deemed it 


first line in our 



front with the Fourth Michigan 


Tennessee, and drove them from the field. The second line 
was formed on the far side of a lane with a partially de¬ 
stroyed fence on each side, and still stood their ground. I re¬ 
formed my men and again charged. The enemy again broke 
and were driven from the field in the wildest confusion.” 


MAP OF THE BATTLEFIELDS OF STONE RIVER, OR MURFREESBORO'. 
































212 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


necessary to use the 
utmost precaution 
against surprise, and, 
in addition to general 
instructions to biv¬ 
ouac without fires, 
and to maintain a 
cautious, quiet vigi¬ 
lance, I ordered my 
command to stack 
arms, and each man 
to rest at the butt of 
his musket without 
using his shelter tent. 
Although the night 
was dark, chilly, and 
somewhat rainy, and 
the men cold, wet, 
weary, and hungry, I 
deemed it objection¬ 
able to use their shel¬ 
ter tents, not only 
because of the hin¬ 
drance in case of a 
sudden attack, but even in a dark night they would be some 
guide to the enemy to trace our line. At a little before four 
o’clock A. M., our men were quietly waked up, formed into line, 
and remained standing at their arms until moved by subsequent 
orders. As soon as it became sufficiently light to observe ob¬ 
jects at a distance, I could plainly discern the enemy moving in 
three heavy columns across my front, one column striking out of 
the cornfield and moving defiantly along the edge of the open 
ground not more than eighty rods from my line. It was plainly 
to be seen that the fire of my skirmishers took effect in their 
ranks, and in emptying their saddles; to which, however, the 
enemy seemed to pay no attention.” 

Some of the most stubborn fighting of the day was done by 
Palmer’s division, and especially by Hazen’s brigade of that 
division, on the National left, in the angle between the rail¬ 
road and the turnpike. When the right of Rosecrans’s army 
had been driven back, heavy columnsvaf the Confederates were 
directed against the exposed flank of his left, which was also sub¬ 
jected to a fierce artillery fire. Palmer’s men formed along the 
railroad and in the woods to the right of the pike, with Cruft’s 
brigade nearest to the enemy, and several batteries were hastily 
brought up to check the advancing tide. The Confederates 
moved steadily onward, apparently sure of a victory, overpowered 
Cruft and drove him back, and were still advancing against 
Hazen, some of whose regiments had expended their ammuni¬ 
tion and were simply waiting with fixed bayonets, when Grose’s 
brigade came to the relief of Hazen, and all stood firm and met 
the enemy with a terrific and unceasing fire of musketry, to 
which Parsons’s remarkable battery added a rain of shells and 
canister. The ranks of the Confederates were thinned so rapidly 
that one regiment after another gave up and fell back, until a 
single regiment was left advancing and came within three hun¬ 
dred yards of the National line. At this point, when every one 
of its officers and half its men had been struck down, the re¬ 
mainder threw themselves flat upon the ground, and were unable 
either to go forward any farther or to retreat. In the afternoon 
the Confederates made two more similar attempts, but were met 
in the same way and achieved no success. 


Rousseau’s division, which had been held in reserve, was 
brought into action when the fight became critical, and per¬ 
formed some of the most gallant work of the day. A par¬ 
ticipant has given a vivid description of some of the scenes in 
Rousseau’s front: “ The broken and dispirited battalions of our 
right wing, retreating by the flank, were pouring out of the corn¬ 
fields and through the skirts of the woods, while from the far 
end of the field rose the indescribable crackle and slowly curling 
smoke of the enemy’s fire. The line of fire now grew rapidly 
nearer and nearer, seeming to close in slowly, but with fatal cer¬ 
tainty, around our front and flank; and presently the long gray 
lines of the enemy, three or four deep, could be seen through 
the cornstalks vomiting flame on the retreating host. The right 
of Rousseau’s division opened its lines and let our brave but 
unfortunate columns pass through. The gallant and invincible 
legion came through in this way with fearfully decimated ranks, 
drawing away by hand two pieces of our artillery. When all the 
horses belonging to the battery, and all the other guns, had been 
disabled, the brave boys refused to leave these two behind, and 
drew them two miles through fields and thickets to a place of 
safety. It was a most touching sight to see these brave men, in 
that perilous hour, flocking around Rousseau like children, with 
acclamations of delight, and every token of love, as soon as they 
recognized him, embracing his horse, his legs, his clothes. Fly¬ 
ing back to the open ground which was now to be the scene of 
so terrific a conflict, Rousseau galloped rapidly across it, and read 
with a single eagle glance all of its advantages. Guenther’s and 
Loomis’s batteries were ordered to take position on the hill on 
the left of the railroad, and Stokes’s Chicago battery, which had 
got with our division, was placed there also. History furnishes 
but few spectacles to be compared with that which now ensued. 
The rebels pressed up to the edge of the cedar forest and swarmed 
out into the open field. I saw the first few gray suits that dotted 
the dark green line 
of the cedars with 
their contrasted color 
thicken into a line of 
battle, and the bright 
glitter of their steel 
flashed like an end¬ 
less chain of lightning 
amid the thick and 
heavy green of the 
thicket. This I saw 
before our fire, open¬ 
ing on them around 
the whole extent of 
our line, engirdled 
them with a belt of 
flame and smoke. 

After that I saw them 
no more, nor will any 
human eye ever see 
them more. Guen¬ 
ther, Loomis, and 
Stokes, with peal after 
peal, too rapid to be 
counted, mowed them 
down with double- 
shotted canister; the 
left of our line of 

infantry poured a lieutenant-general Joseph wheeler, c. s. a. 


W rr ' i 



BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL D. S. STANLEY. 
















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


213 


continuous sheet of flame into' their front, while the right 
of our line, posted in its remarkable position by the genius 
of Rousseau, enveloped their left flank and swept their entire 
line with an enfilading fire. Thick smoke settled down upon 
the scene; the rim of the hill on which our batteries stood 


the secessionists at the failure of Lee’s invasion of Maryland and 
Bragg’s of Kentucky. Pollard, the Southern historian, wrote, 
“No subject was at once more dispiriting and perplexing to the 
South than the cautious and unmanly reception given to our 
armies both in Kentucky and Maryland.” They seemed unable 


~-- z c 





BURYING A COMRADE. 

seemed to be surrounded by a wall of living fire ; 
the turnpike road and the crest of the hill on the 
right were wrapped in an unending blaze; flames 
seemed to leap out of the earth and dance through 
the air. No troops on earth could withstand such 
a fire as that. One regiment of rebels, the boldest 


of their line, advanced to within seventy-five yards 
of our line, but there it was blown out of exist¬ 
ence. It was utterly destroyed ; and the rest of the 
rebel line, broken and decimated, fled like sheep into 
the depths of the woods. The terrific firing ceased, 
the smoke quickly rolled away, and the sun shone out 
bright and clear on the scene that was lately so shrouded 
in smoke and mortal gloom. How still everything was! Every¬ 
body seemed to be holding his breath. As soon as the firing 
ceased, General Rousseau and his staff galloped forward to the 
ground the rebels had advanced over. Their dead lay there in 
frightful heaps, some with the life-blood not yet all flowed from 
their mortal wounds, some propped upon their elbows and gasp¬ 
ing their last. The flag of the Arkansas regiment lay there on 
the ground beside its dead bearer. Every depression in the 
field was full of wounded, who had crawled thither to screen 
themselves from the fire, and a large number of prisoners came 
out of a little copse in the middle of the field and surrendered 
themselves to General Rousseau in person. Among them was 
one captain. They were all that were left alive of the bold 
Arkansas regiment that had undertaken to charge our line.” 

There was great disappointment and dissatisfaction among 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
OBERT B. VANCE, C. S 

to comprehend 
how there 
could be such 

a thing as a major-general john c. Breckinridge, c. s. a. 

slave State 

that did not want to break up the Union. Pollard, in his 
account of the response of the people of Maryland to Lee’s 
proclamation, says, “ Instead of the twenty or thirty thousand 
recruits which he had believed he would obtain on the soil of 
Maryland, he found the people content to gaze with wonder on 
his ragged and poorly equipped army, but with little disposition 
to join his ranks.” 




































DELAWARE INDIANS ACTING AS SCOUTS FOR THE FEDERAL ARMY IN THE WEST. 








A SUTLER'S CABIN. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

MINOR EVENTS OF THE SECOND YEAR. 

LARGE ARMIES IN THE FIELD BOMBARDMENT AND CAPTURE OF FORT PULASKI BATTLE OF BLUE’S GAP, VA.—MARCHING OVER THE SNOW 

-OPERATIONS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY BATTLES OF WINCHESTER AND McDOWELL CAPTURE OF NORFOLK, VA., BY GEN. JOHN 

E. WOOL-WEST VIRGINIA CLEAR OF CONFEDERATES-FIGHTING WITH BUSHWHACKERS-OPERATIONS UNDER GENERAL BURNSIDE ON 

THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST-UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE CHARLESTON—ENGAGEMENTS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY-GUERILLA 

RAID UNDER THE COMMAND OF GEN. JOHN H. MORGAN—EAST TENNESSEEANS LOYAL TO THE UNION-OPERATIONS IN EAST TENNESSEE 

UNDER GENERAL NEGLEY AND COLONEL BUFORD—RAPID AND DARING RAIDS BY GENERAL FOREST-BATTLES AROUND NASHVILLE- 

FIGHTING GUERILLAS IN MISSOURI-FIGHTING IN NEW MEXICO—INDIAN OPERATIONS IN THE NORTHWEST. 

In the second year of the war, though the struggle did not then culminate, some of the largest armies were gathered and 
some of the greatest battles fought. At the East, McClellan made his Peninsula campaign with Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, 
and the Seven Days, and Pope his short and unfortunate campaign known as the Second Bull Run, followed by the moderate 
victory of Antietam and the horror of Fredericksburg. At the West, with smaller armies, the results were more brilliant 
and satisfactory. Grant had electrified the country when he captured Fort Donelson and received the first surrender of a 
Confederate army; and this was followed in April by the battle of Shiloh, which was a reverse on the first day and a vic¬ 
tory on the second, and still later by the capture of Corinth. Thomas had gained his first victory at Mill Springs, and Buell 
had fought the fierce battle of Perryville, where the genius of Sheridan first shone forth. Two great and novel naval engage¬ 
ments had taken place—the fight of the iron-clads in Hampton Roads, and Farragut’s passage of the forts and capture of New 
Orleans. Amid all this there were hundreds of minor engagements, subsidiary expeditions and skirmishes, all costing something 
in destruction of life and property. Some of them were properly a portion of the great campaigns ; others were separate 
actions, and still others were merely raids of Confederate guerillas, which had become very numerous, especially at the West. 
This chapter will be devoted to brief accounts of the more important and interesting of these, generally omitting those occurring 








216 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


in the course and as a part of any great campaign. While they 
had little to do with the results of the struggle, some account 
of them is necessary to any adequate idea of the condition of 
the country and the sufferings of that generation of our people. 

On the 6th of January a force of about 2,500, principally Ohio 
and Indiana troops, was sent out by General Kelly, under com¬ 
mand of Colonel Dunning, to attack a Confederate force of 
about 1,800 men strongly posted at Blue’s Gap, near Romney, 
Va. They marched over the snow in a brilliant moonlight 
night, and as they neared the Gap fired upon a small detach¬ 
ment that was attempting to destroy the bridge over the stream 
that runs through it. The Gap is a natural opening between 
high hills with very precipitous sides, and was defended with two 
howitzers and rifle-pits. There were also entrenchments on the 
hills. The Fourth Ohio Regiment was ordered to carry those 
on the one hill, and the Fifth Ohio those on the other, which 
they did with a rush. The advance then ran down the hills on 
the other side and quickly captured the two pieces of artillery. 
After this the soldiers burned Blue’s house and mill, and also a 
few other houses, on the ground that they had been used to 
shelter the enemy, who had fired at them from the windows. 
In this affair the Confederates lost nearly 40 men killed and 
about the same number captured. There was no loss on the other 
side. The fertile Shenandoah Valley, between the Blue Ridge 
and the Alleghenies, was important to both sides, strategetically, 
and to the Confederates especially as a source of supplies. In 
1861 Gen. Thomas J. Jackson (commonly called “Stonewall 
Jackson ”) was given command there with a Confederate force 
of about 11,000 men. But he did nothing of consequence dur¬ 
ing the autumn and winter. The National forces there were com¬ 
manded at first by General Fremont, and afterward by General 
Banks. The first serious conflict was at Winchester, March 23, 
1862. Winchester was important for military purposes because 
it was at the junction of several highroads. Jackson’s army 
during the winter and spring had been reduced about one-half, 
but when he learned that the opposing force was also being 
reduced by the withdrawal of troops to aid General McClellan, 
he resolved to make an attack upon the force of General Shields 
at Winchester. His cavalry, under Turner Ashby, a brilliant 
leader who fell a few months later, opened the engagement with 
an attack on Shields's cavalry aided by other troops, and was 
driven back with considerable loss. In this engagement General 
Shields was painfully wounded by a fragment of shell. The 
next day at sunrise the battle was renewed at Kernstown, a 
short distance south of Winchester, and lasted till noon. About 
6,000 men were engaged on the Confederate side, and somewhat 
more than that on the National. The Confederates were driven 
back half a mile by a brilliant charge, and there took a strong 
position and posted their artillery advantageously. Other 
charges followed, with destructive fighting, when they retired, 
slowly at first, and afterward in complete rout, losing three 
guns. They were pursued and shelled by a detachment under 
Colonel Kimball until they had passed Newtown. The National 
loss in this action was nearly 600; the Confederate, a little 
over 700. 

The next important engagement in this campaign took place, 
May 8th, near McDowell. After a slow retreat by the Con¬ 
federates, which was followed by the National forces under Gen¬ 
eral Schenck, the former turned to give battle, and in heavy force, 
probably about 6,000, attacked General Milroy’s brigade and the 
Eighty-second Ohio Regiment, numbering in all about 2,300. 
Milroy’s advance retired slowly, one battery shelling the advanc¬ 


ing enemy upon his main body, and the next day it was dis¬ 
covered that the Confederates had posted themselves on a ridge 
in the Bull Pasture Mountain. Milroy’s force went out to 
attack him, and when two-thirds of the .way up the mountain 
began the battle. It was soon found that this was only the 
advance of the Confederates, which slowly fell back upon the 
main body posted in a depression at the top of the mountain. 
One regiment after another was pushed forward, and the fighting 
was pretty sharp for two or three hours, when Milroy’s men gave 
up the contest as hopeless and fell back. An incident of this 
fight that illustrates the humors of war is told of Lieut.-Col. 
Francis W. Thompson of the Third West Virginia Regiment in 
Milroy’s command. He was writing a message, holding the 
paper against the trunk of a tree, when a bullet struck it and 
fastened it to the bark. “ Thank you,” said he; “ I am not post¬ 
ing advertisements, and if I were I would prefer tacks.” The 
National loss in this action was reported at 256, and the Con¬ 
federate at 499. General Fremont’s army, moving up the valley, 
reached Harrisonburg June 6th, and there was a spirited action 
between a portion of his cavalry and that of the Confederates. 
The fight fell principally upon the First New Jersey cavalry 
regiment, which, after apparently driving the enemy a short dis¬ 
tance, fell into an ambuscade, where infantry suddenly appeared 
on both sides of the road, protected by the stone walls, and fired 
into the regiment, which sustained considerable loss, including 
the capture of Colonel Wyndham. Other forces, under Colonel 
Cluseret and General Bayard, were then pushed forward, and the 
enemy, which was the rear guard of Jackson’s army, commanded 
by Gen. Turner Ashby, was driven from the field. During 
this action each side successively suffered from an enfilading 
fire, and General Ashby was killed. Three Confederate color 
sergeants were shot, and a considerable number of officers either 
fell or were captured. Capt. Thomas Haines of the New Jersey 
cavalry, who was one of the last to retire from the ambush, was 
approached and shot by a Virginia officer in a long gray coat, 
who sat upon a handsome horse ; and the next moment a com¬ 
rade of the captain’s, rising in his saddle, turned upon the foe 
shouting, “ Stop,” and shot the Virginian. 

While Fremont’s force was thus following up Jackson directly, 
General Shields’s division was moving southward on the eastern 
flank of the Shenandoah, expecting to intercept him. Jackson’s 
purpose was rather to get away than to fight, for by this time he 
was very much wanted before Richmond. Two days after the 
affair at Harrisonburg, Fremont overtook, at Cross Keys, Ewell's 
division, which Jackson had left there to delay Fremont’s ad¬ 
vance, while he should prepare to cross the Shenandoah with 
his whole force. Fremont attacked promptly and met a spirited 
resistance, which he gradually overcame, although at consider¬ 
able loss. Stahel’sbrigade,on his left, was the heaviest sufferer. 
At the close of the action Ewell retired, and Fremont’s troops 
slept on the field. Fremont had lost nearly 700 men. The 
Confederate loss is unknown. The next day Shields, coming 
up east of the river, encountered Jackson’s main force at Port 
Republic, and was attacked by it in overwhelming numbers. 
His men, however, stood their ground and made a brilliant 
fight, even capturing one gun and a considerable number of 
prisoners, but were finally routed, and lost several of their own 
guns. Fremont was prevented from crossing to the aid of 
Shields by the fact that Jackson had promptly burned the 
bridge. In this engagement Shields lost about 1,000 men, half 
of whom were captured. Jackson’s loss in the two engage¬ 
ments together was reported at 1,150, and his loss in the entire 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


217 



campaign at about 1,900. After this battle he hurried away to 
join Lee before Richmond, while Fremont and Shields received 
orders from Washington to give up the pursuit, and thus ended 
the campaign in the valley. 

On the 10th of May, Gen. John E. Wool, with 5,000 men, 
landed at Willoughby’s Point, Va., and marched on Norfolk. 


UNITED STATES MILITARY TLLEGRAPH 


As he approached the city he was met by the mayor 
and a portion of the Common Council, who formally 
surrendered it. On taking possession, he appointed 
Gen. Egbert L. Vielc military governor, and a little later 
he occupied Norfolk and Portsmouth. His capture of 
Norfolk caused the destruction of the Mcrrimac , which 
the Confederates blew up on the nth. The navy yard, 
with its workshops, storehouses, and other buildings, was 
in ruins ; but General Wool’s captures included 200 cannon 
and a large amount of shot and shell. The Norfolk Day 
Book , a violent secession journal, was permitted to continue 
publication until it assailed Union citizens who took the oath 
of allegiance, and then it was suppressed. 


West Virginia had been pretty effectively cleared of Confeder¬ 
ates during the first year of the war, but a few minor engage¬ 
ments took place on her soil during the second year. One of 
the most brilliant of these was an expedition to Blooming Gap 
under Gen. Frederick W. Lander, in February. General Lander 
crossed the Potomac with 4,000 men, marched southward, and 
bridged the Great Cacapon River. This bridge was one hundred 
and eighty feet long, and was built in four hours in the night. 
It was made by placing twenty wagons in the stream, using 


them as piers, and putting planks across them. General Lander 
then, with his cavalry, pushed forward seven miles to Blooming 
Gap, expecting to cut off the retreat of a strong Confederate 
force that was posted there and hold it until his infantry could 
come up. He found that they had already taken the alarm and 
moved out beyond the Gap, but by swift riding he came up with 

a portion of them. Bringing up the Eighth 
Ohio and Seventh Virginia regiments of 
infantry for a support, he ordered a charge, 
which he lead in person, against a 
sharp fire. With a few followers 
he overtook a group of Confederate 
officers, cut off their retreat, and 
then dismounted, greeted them 
with, “ Surrender, gentlemen,” and 
held out his hand to receive the 
sword of the leader. Five of the 
officers surrendered to him, and 


MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT H. M1LROY. 


four to members of his staff. 
Meanwhile the Confederate 
infantry had rallied and 
made a stand. At this 
point Lander’s cavalry 
became demoralized and 
would not face the fire ; 
but he now advanced his 
infantry, which cleared the road, cap¬ 
tured many prisoners, and pursued the flying 
enemy eight miles. The total Confederate loss was 
near 100. The National loss was seven killed and wounded. 
Among the latter was Fitz-James O’Brien, the brilliant poet 
and story writer, who died of his wound two months later. The 
Eighth Ohio Regiment was commanded by Col. Samuel S. Car- 
roll, who received special praise for his gallantry in this affair, 
and two years later, at the request of General Grant, was pro¬ 
moted to a brigadier-generalship for his brilliant services in 








































2 l8 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


the Wilderness. General Lander, who was 
especially complimented for this affair in a 
letter from President Lincoln, died in March 
from the effects of a wound received the 
previous year. He was one of the most 
patriotic and earnest men and promising 
officers in the service, and, like his staff 
officer who fell here, was himself somewhat 
of a poet. 

There were many little bands of bush¬ 
whackers in the mountainous portions of 
the territory covered by the seat of war. 

Commonly they occupied themselves only 
in seeking opportunities for murder and 
robbery of Union citizens, but occasionally 
they made a stand and showed fight when 
the bluecoats appeared. Early in May one 
company of the Twenty-third Ohio infantry 
had a fight with such a band at Clark’s Hol¬ 
low, W. Va. Under command of Lieutenant Bottsford they 
scouted the hills until they found the camp of the bushwhack¬ 
ers, which had just been abandoned. Resting for the night at 
the only house in the hollow, Bottsford’s men were attacked at 
daybreak by the gang they had been hunting, who outnum¬ 
bered them about five to one. They took possession of the 
house, made loop-holes in the chinking between the logs, and, 
being all sharp-shooters, were able to keep the enemy at bay. 
The leader of the bushwhackers called to his men to follow him 
in a charge upon the house, assuring them that the Yankees 
would quickly surrender; but as he immediately fell, and three 
of his men, endeavoring to get to him, had the same fate, the 
remainder retreated. Soon afterward the rest of the regiment, 
commanded by Lieut.-Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, came up and 
made pursuit. The flying bushwhackers set fire to the little 
village of Princeton and disappeared over the mountain. In 
this affair the National loss was one killed and 21 wounded ; of 
the bushwhackers, 16 were killed and 67 wounded. 

On the 10th of September, at Fayetteville, the Thirty-fourth 
Ohio Regiment, under command of Col. John T. Toland, looking 
for the enemy near Fayetteville, W. Va., found 
more of him than they wanted. 

The Confederates were in 
heavy force, commanded 
by Gen. William W. Lor- 
ing, and were posted in 
the woods on the summit 
of a steep hill. After three 
hours of fighting Toland 
was unable to gain the 
Avoods or to flank the 
enemy, and was obliged to 
retire, while the Confeder¬ 
ates fired upon him from 
the heights as he passed. 

He had lost, in killed, 
wounded, and missing, 109 
men. The loss of the Con¬ 
federates was not ascertained, 
but was probably very slight. 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT. 


After Burnside had estab¬ 
lished a basis of operations on 



COLONEL 


percy wyndham 


the North Carolina coast there were numer¬ 
ous small expeditions thence to the interior. 
These were partly for the purpose of for- 
aging, partly for observation to detect any 
movements of large bodies of Confederate 
troops, and partly to give protection and 
encouragement to Union citizens, of whom 
were many in that State. On June 5th a 
reconnoissance in force was made from 
Washington, N. C., for the purpose of test¬ 
ing the report that a considerable force of 
cavalry and infantry had been gathered near 
Pactolus. The expedition was commanded 
by Colonel Potter of the First North Caro¬ 
lina (National) volunteers, and was accom¬ 
panied by Lieutenant Avery of the Marine 
artillery with three boat-howitzers. The day 
was oppressively hot, and the march labori¬ 
ous. All along the route slaves came from 
their work in the field, leaned upon the fences, and gave the 
soldiers welcome in their characteristic way. The enemy were 
first found at Hodge’s Mills, where they were strongly posted 
between two swamps with the additional protection from two 
mills. They had cut away the flooring of the mill flumes to 
prevent the cavalry from reaching them, and on the approach of 
the National advance they opened fire. The artillery was at 
once ordered forward within half musket range, and opened such 
a sharp and accurate fire that in forty-five minutes it completely 
riddled the buildings and brought down many Confederate 
sharp-shooters from the trees. When the main body of the 
troops rushed forward to charge the position, it was found that 
the Confederates had disappeared. The National loss was 16 
men killed or wounded ; the Confederate loss was unknown, but 
was supposed to be nearly a hundred, including the colonel 
commanding. In their flight they left behind them large num¬ 
bers of weapons and accoutrements. This action is known as 
the battle of Tranter’s Creek. 

On the 2d of September it became known to the commander 
of the Federal force occupying Plymouth, N. C., that a detach¬ 
ment of about 1,400 Confederates was march¬ 
ing on that town with the 
avowed intention of burn¬ 
ing it. Hastily bringing 
together a company of 
Hawkins’s Zouaves, a com¬ 
pany of loyal North Caro¬ 
linians, and a few civilians 
who were willing to fight 
in defence of their homes, 
making in all about 300 
men, the captain in com¬ 
mand sent them out under 
the charge of Orderly-Ser¬ 
geant Green. Three miles 
from the town they met the 
enemy, which consisted of in¬ 
fantry and cavalry commanded 
by Colonel Garrett. They 
were bivouacked in the woods, 
and Green’s force, making a 
sudden dash, surprised them 
Julius h. stahel "" an d fought the whole force for 


m *JOR-general 



CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


219 


an hour, when they broke and fled. Colonel Garrett and 40 of 
his men were captured, and about 70 were killed or wounded. 
Green lost three men. The civilians who had joined the ex¬ 
pedition proved to be among the most efficient of the volun¬ 
teers. 

Four days later (September 6th) the Confederates attempted 
a similar enterprise against Washington, N. C. Early in the 
morning three companies of the National cavalry, with three 
guns, had gone out on the road toward Plymouth, when the 
Confederate cavalry dashed in at the other end of the town, fol¬ 
lowed by a body of about 400 infantry. The troops remaining 
in the town were surprised in their barracks, and a special effort 
was made to capture the loyal North Carolinians. But the men 
quickly rallied, the Confederate cavalry was driven back, and a 
slow street fight ensued. The troops that had gone toward 
Plymouth were recalled, and guns were planted where they 
could sweep the streets. The National gunboats attempted to 
aid the land forces, but were largely deterred by a heavy fog. 
When, however, they got the range of the houses behind which 
the Confederates were sheltered, the latter quickly retreated, 
carrying off with them four pieces of artillery. During the fight 
the gunboat Picket was destroyed by the explosion of her mag¬ 
azine. The National loss was about 30, and the Confederate 
considerably larger. 


at daybreak. The orders 
were that the advance 
should be made in silence, 
with no firing that could 
be avoided. Stevens’s men 
pushed forward, captured 
the Confederate picket, 
and approached the works 
through an open field. But 
the enemy were not sur¬ 
prised, and a heavy fire of 
musketry and artillery was 
opened upon them almost 
from the first. It was found 
that the front presented by 
the work was too narrow 
for proper deployment of 
much more than a regi¬ 
ment, and the assailants 
suffered accordingly. 

There was also a line of 
abatis to be broken through, 
and a deep ditch ; and yet 
a portion of the assaulting forces actually reached the parapet, 
but, of course, found it impossible to carry the works. The 
Eighth Michigan, which was in the advance, lost 182 men out of 
534, including 12 of its 22 officers. Col. William M. Fenton, who 
commanded this regiment, says : “ The order not to fire, but use 
the bayonet, was obeyed, and the advance companies reached 
the parapet of the works at the angle on our right and front, 
engaging the enemy at the point of the bayonet. During our 
advance the enemy opened upon our lines an exceedingly de¬ 
structive fire of grape, canister, and musketry, and yet the regi¬ 
ment pushed on as veterans, divided only to the right and left 
by a sweeping torrent from the enemy’s main gun in front. The 
enemy’s fire proved so galling and destructive that our men on 
the parapet were obliged to retire under its cover. The field 
was furrowed across with cotton ridges, and many of the men 
lay there, loading and firing as deliberately as though on their 
hunting grounds at home.” Even had they been able to carry 
the work, they could not have held it long, for its whole inte¬ 
rior was commanded by elaborate rifle-pits in the rear. Artil¬ 
lery was brought up and well served, but made no real impres¬ 
sion upon the enemy. When it became evident that no success 
was possible, General Stevens withdrew his command in a slow 
and orderly manner. General Beauregard says: “ The point 
attacked by Generals Benham and I. I. Stevens was the strong¬ 
est one of the whole line, which was then unfinished and was 
designed to be some five miles in length. The two Federal 
commanders might have overcome the obstacles in their front 
had they proceeded farther up the Stone. Even as it was, the 
fight at Secessionville was lost, in a great measure, by lack of 
tenacity on the part of Generals Benham and Stevens. It was 
saved by the skin of our teeth.” The National loss in this action 
was 683 men, out of about 3,500 actually engaged. The Confed¬ 
erates, who were commanded by Gen. N. G. Evans, lost about 200. 

In October an expedition was planned to set out from 
Flilton Head, S. C., go up Broad River to the Coosahatchie 
and destroy the railroad and bridges in that vicinity, in order to 
sever the communications between Charleston and Savannah. 
It was under the command of Brig.-Gen. J. M. Brannan, and 
included about 4,500 men. Ascending Broad River on gunboats 




Throughout the war there was a strong desire to capture 
or punish the city of Charleston, which was looked upon as the 
cradle of secession, and also to close its harbor to blockade run¬ 
ners. Elaborate and costly operations on the seaward side were 
maintained for a long time, but never with any real success. 
The lowlands that stretch out ten or twelve miles south of the 
harbor are cut by many winding rivers and inlets, and broken 
frequently by swamps. At a point a little more than four miles 
south of the city was the little village of Secessionville, which 
was used as a summer resort by a few planters. It is on com¬ 
paratively high ground, and borders on a deep creek on the one 
side and a shallow one on the other. Across the neck of land 
between the two was an earthwork about two hundred yards 
long, known as Battery Lamar. There were similar works at 
other similar points in the region between Secessionville and the 

southern shore of the 
harbor. The Nation¬ 
al forces on these 
islands in 1862 were 
commanded by Gen. 
H. W. Benham, who 
in June planned an 
advance for the pur¬ 
pose of carrying the 
works at Secession¬ 
ville and getting 
within striking dis¬ 
tance of the city. 
The division of Gen. 
Isaac I. Stevens was 
to form the assault¬ 
ing column, an d 
Wright’s division and 
Williams’s brigade to 
act as its support. 
The movement was 
made on June 16th, 




LIEUTENANT-COLONEL RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 
(Afterward Brevet Major-General.) 









220 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 



and transports, October 22d, they landed at the junction of the 
Pocotaligo and Tullafiny, and immediately pushed inland toward 
Pocotaligo bridge. They marched about five miles before they 
encountered any resistance, but from that point were fired upon 
by batteries placed in commanding positions. As one after 
another of these was bombarded or flanked, the Confederates 
retired to the next, burning the bridges behind them, and in 
some places the pursuing forces were obliged to wade through 
swamps and streams nearly shoulder deep. At the Pocotaligo 
there was a heavy Confederate force well posted behind a 
swamp, with artillery, commanded by General Walker, and here 
Brannan’s artillery ammunition gave out. As the day was now 
nearly spent, and there seemed no probability of reaching the 
railroad, Brannan slowly retired and returned to Hilton Head. 
A detachment which he had sent out 
under Col. William B. 

Barton, of 




HILTON 


NEGRO Q UAR the Forty, 

eighth New York Regi¬ 
ment, had marched directly to the Coosahatchie and poured a 
destructive fire into a train that was filled with Confederate sol¬ 
diers coming from Savannah to the assistance of General Walker. 
He then tore up the railroad for a considerable distance, and 
pushed on toward the town, but there found the enemy in a posi¬ 
tion too strong to be carried, and, after exchanging a few rounds, 
retired to his boats. The National loss in this expedition was 
about 300; that of the Confederates was probably equal. 


The situation of Fort Pulaski relatively to Savannah was quite 
similar to that of Fort Sumter relatively to Charleston. It stood 


on an island in the mouth of Savannah River and protected the 
entrance to the harbor. Just one year after the bombardment 
and reduction of Sumter by the Confederate forces, Fort Pulaski 
was bombarded and reduced by the National forces. This work 
was of similar construction with Fort Sumter, having brick walls 
seven and a half feet thick and twenty-five feet high. It was on 
Cockspur Island, which is a mile long by half a mile wide, and 
commanded all the channels leading up to the harbor. At the 


A NORTH CAROLINA SWAMP. 


opening of the war it was seized by the Confederate 
authorities, and it was garrisoned by 385 men, under 
command of Col. Charles H. Olmstead. It mounted 
forty heavy guns, which protected blockade-runners 
and kept out National vessels. Soon after the cap¬ 
ture of Port Royal, Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore was 
ordered to make a reconnoissance of this work and 
the ground on Tybee Island southeast of it, with a view to its 
reduction. He reported that it was possible to plant batteries 
of rifled guns and mortars on Tybee Island, and also on Jones 
Island, with which he believed the work could be reduced. 
Jones Island is northwest of Cockspur Island. The Forty-sixth 
New York Regiment, commanded by Colonel Rosa, was sent to 
occupy Tybee Island, and a passage was opened between the 
islands and the mainland north of Savannah, so that guns could 
be brought through and placed on Jones Island. This was done 
with tremendous labor, the mortars weighing more than eight 
tons each and having to be dragged over deep mud on plank 
platforms, most of the work being done at night. The Seventh 
Connecticut Regiment was now sent to join the Forty-sixth New 
York on Tybee, and the construction of batteries and magazines 

































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


221 



BATTLE OF SECESSIONVILLE, JAMES ISLAND, S. C. 


on that island was begun. Here, also, the guns had to be carried 
across spongy ground, 250 men being required for the slow 
movement of each piece, and all the work being done at night 
and in silence; for the batteries were to be erected within easy 
reach of the guns of the fort. Their construction occupied 
about two months, and screens of bushes were contrived to 
conceal from the Confederates what was going on. There were 
eleven batteries ranged along the northern edge of Tybee Island, 
mounting twenty heavy guns and sixteen thirteen-inch mortars. 
When all was ready, the fort was summoned to surrender by 
Gen. David Hunter, who had recently been placed in command 
of the department. Colonel Olmstead replied : “ I can only say 
that I am here to defend the fort, not to surrender it.” There¬ 
upon the batteries opened fire upon the fort, and a bombard¬ 
ment of thirty hours ensued—April 10 and II. At the end of 
that time ten of the fort’s guns were dismounted, and, as the fire 
of the rifled guns was rapidly reducing its masonry to ruins, it 
was evident that it could not hold out much 
longer; whereupon Colonel Olmstead surren¬ 
dered. The only casualties were one man 
killed on the National side, and three wound¬ 
ed in the fort. It was found that the mortars 
had produced very little effect, the real work 
being done by the rifled guns. General Hun¬ 
ter said in his report: “ The result of this 
bombardment must cause, I am convinced, 
a chanee in the construction of fortifications 
as radical as that foreshadowed in naval archi¬ 
tecture by the conflict between the Monitor 
and the Mcrrimac. No works of stone or 
brick can resist the impact of rifled artillery of 
heavy calibre.” And General Gillmore said : 

“ Mortars are unavailable for the reduction of 
works of small area like Fort Pulaski. They 
cannot be fired with sufficient accuracy to 
crush the casemate arches.” A fortnight 
later, the attempt to reduce Forts Jackson 
and St. Philip led Farragut to the same con¬ 
clusion concerning the use of mortars. 

One who participated in the bombardment 


relates an amusing incident. The batteries were under the im¬ 
mediate command of Lieut, (afterward General) Horace Porter, 
who went artrund to every gun to ascertain whether its captain 
was provided with everything that would be necessary when the 
firing should begin. At one mortar battery fuse plugs were’ 
wanting, and the officer was in despair. This battery had the 
position nearest to the fort, and its four mortars were useless 
without the plugs. Finally he remembered that there was a 
Yankee regiment on the island, and remarked, “All Yankees are 
whittlers. If this regiment could be turned out to-night, they 
might whittle enough fuse plugs before morning to fire a thou¬ 
sand rounds.” Thereupon he rode out in the darkness to the 
camp of that regiment, which was immediately ordered out to 
whittle, and provided all the fuse plugs that were needed. The 
first gun was fired by Lieut. P. H. O’Rourke, who afterward 
fell at the head of his regiment at Gettysburg. It is said that 
the first gun against Sumter had been fired by a classmate of 
his. One who was in the fort says: “At the 
close of the fight all the parapet guns were 
dismounted except three. Every casemate 
gun in the southeast section of the fort was 
dismounted, and the casemate walls breached 
in almost every instance to the top of the 
arch. The moat was so filled with brick and 
mortar that one could have passed over dry 
shod. The parapet walls on the Tybee side 
were all gone. The protection to the maga¬ 
zine in the northwest angle of the fort had 
all been shot away, the entire corner of the 
magazine was shot off, and the powder ex¬ 
posed. Such was the condition of affairs 
when Colonel Olmstead called a council of offi¬ 
cers in the casemate, and they all acquiesced 
in the necessity of a capitulation in order to 
save the garrison from destruction by an ex¬ 
plosion, which was momentarily threatened.” 

On the 16th of April the Eighth Michi¬ 
gan Regiment, Col. William M. Fenton, with 
a detachment of Rhode Island artillery, was 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL EGBERT L. VIELE. 



























FORT PULASKI DURING BOMBARDMENT, APRIL 11, 1852. 






















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


223 


sent from Tybee Island, Ga., to make a reconnoissance of 
Wilmington Island. On landing, they marched inland by 
three different roads, and soon discovered the enemy in some 
force. They took up a position for defence and were attacked 
by the Thirteenth Georgia Regiment. When Colonel Fenton 
ordered the bugler to sound the charge for his main body, his 
advance mistook it for retreat, fell back, and threw his line into 
confusion. At this moment the enemy advanced and began 
firing. Order was soon restored, and through the vigorous 
efforts of Lieut. C. IT Wilson one company was carried to the 
right, through the woods, and made a flank attack upon the 
enemy’s left. Thereupon the Confederates slowly retired, leav¬ 
ing their dead and wounded on the field. The National loss 
was 45 men; Confederate loss, unknown. 

On the 10th of January an expedition consisting of 5,000 men 
•—infantry, cavalry, and artillery—set out from Cairo to make 
an extended reconnoissance in the neighborhood of Columbus, 
Ky., and in the direction of Mayfield. It was led by John A. 
McClernand, who was temporarily in command of that district. 
Nearly every point of any consequence within fifteen or twenty 
miles was visited, roads were discovered that had not been laid 
down on any map, the position of the enemy at Columbus was 
correctly ascertained, and much information was obtained re¬ 
garding the disposition of the inhabitants toward the Govern¬ 
ment. The march of about one hundred and forty miles was 
made over icy and miry roads with considerable difficulty, and 
proved useful for future operations, although it was not enlivened 
by any conflict. 

On the 15th of February Bowling Green, which had been con¬ 
sidered an important point in the line of defence that was first 
broken by General Grant at Fort Henry, was evacuated by the 
Confederates, who went to join their comrades at Fort Donel- 
son. The National troops under General Buell, marching forty 
miles in twenty-eight hours, took possession of the place in the 
afternoon. 

Many of the gaps in the Alleghenies were strategically impor¬ 
tant because they were the natural places for the crossing of the 
road that connected the States east and west of that range, and 
there were frequent expeditions and small actions at these gaps 
by which one side or the other sought to clear them of the 
enemy. One of these took place in March, 1862, when it was 
discovered that a somewhat irregular Confederate force of about 
500 men had taken possession of Pound Gap, Eastern Kentucky, 
built huts, and gathered supplies for a permanent occupation. 
A road to Abingdon, Va., passes through this gap. General 
James A. Garfield, whose defeat of Humphrey Marshall on the 
Big Sandy has been recorded in an earlier chapter, set out a 
month later, March 13th, with a force of 900 men to clear the 
Gap. It was a laborious march of two days in snow and rain and 
mud, with roads obstructed by felled trees, and streams whose 
bridges had been destroyed. Arriving at Elkton Creek, two 
miles below the Gap, Garfield sent out his cavalry to reconnoitre 
the position of the enemy, and himself with the infantry climbed 
the mountain a mile or two below the Gap, and thence moved 
along the summit to attack them in the flank. When this force 
arrived at the Gap, the enemy were found deployed on the 
summit at its opposite side. Garfield deployed his own force 
down the eastern slope, and then ordered them to charge through 
the ravine and up the hill held by the enemy, which they 
promptly did. But before they could ascend the southern slope 
the whole Confederate force disappeared. Nothing was left for 
the National troops to do but to ransack the captured camp, 


pack up what they could of the large quantity of supplies, burn 
the remainder, and return whence they came. 

When Kentucky was invaded by the Confederate forces of 
Bragg, Humphrey Marshall, and Kirby Smith, the movement 
was accompanied and assisted by a raid from a large band of 
guerillas, or partisan rangers as they called themselves, led by 
a bold rider named John H. Morgan. The principal resistance 
to Morgan was at Cynthiana, July 17th, about fifty miles south 
of Cincinnati. The National troops occupying that town were 
commanded by Lieut.-Col. J. J. Landrum, and numbered about 
340, a part of them being home guards not very well armed or 
disciplined, with one field gun. Morgan’s men approached the 
town suddenly, drove in the pickets, and began shelling the 
place without giving any notice for the women and children to 
be removed. Landrum immediately placed his one gun in the 
public square, where it could be turned so as to sweep almost 
any of the roads entering the town, and posted all of his force 
except the artillery in the outskirts where he supposed the 
enemy were approaching, putting most of them at the bridge 
overlooking. But to his surprise Morgan’s force was very large 
in comparison with his own, and entered the town from a differ¬ 
ent direction. In a little while Landrum’s men found themselves 
practically surrounded, and subjected to a sharp fire both front 
and rear, the guerillas having the shelter of the houses. The 
artillerymen in the square were subjected to so hot a fire from 
the riflemen that they were obliged to abandon their gun. 
Colonel Landrum writes: “ I rode along the railroad to Rankin’s 
Hotel to ascertain what position the enemy was taking. Here 
I met an officer of the rebel band, aid to Colonel Morgan, who 
demanded my surrender. I replied, ‘ I never surrender,’ and 
instantly discharged three shots at him, two of which took effect 
in his breast. He fell from his horse, and I thought him dead ; 
but he is still living, and will probably recover, notwithstanding 
two balls passed through his body.” A portion of Landrum’s 
force, posted north of the town, was overpowered and forced to 
surrender. With another portion he attempted to drive the 
enemy from the bridge and take their battery, but found them 
so strong there as to render this hopeless, while all the time he 
was subjected to a fire from the rear. Finally he determined 
with the remainder of his men to cut his way through and 
escape. He emerged from the town in a southeast direction, 
met and routed a small detachment of the enemy, and was 
pursued by another detachment when he made a stand, posting 
his men behind the fences, and for a considerable time held them 
in check. When his ammunition was exhausted he gave orders 
for every man to save himself as he could, and thus his command 
was dispersed. In this affair the National forces lost about 70 
men killed or wounded. The loss of the guerillas is unknown, 
but they left behind them a considerable number of wounded, and 
the capture of the town must have cost them about 100 men. 
In this raid Morgan is said to have commanded from 900 to 1,200 
men, to have ridden over 1,000 miles, captured 17 towns, and 
paroled nearly 1,200 prisoners. 

The smaller guerilla raids in Kentucky that year were more 
numerous than any popular history could find space to record. 
Some of them, however, were spiritedly met and severely pun¬ 
ished. On the 29th of July a band of over 200 attacked the 
village of Mt. Sterling. The provost-marshal of the place, Capt. 
J. J. Evans, at once put every able-bodied man in the village 
under arms, and posted them on both sides of the street by 
which the guerillas were about to enter. He had hardly done 
this when in came the enemy, yelling wildly and demanding 


224 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


their surrender. The answer was a well-aimed volley which 
brought down the whole of their front rank, and which was 
rapidly followed by other volleys that soon put them to flight. 
In their retreat they met a detachment of the Eighteenth Ken¬ 
tucky Regiment, under Major Bracht, which had been in pursuit 
of them, and when these troops charged upon them they scat¬ 
tered in the fields and woods, leaving horses, rifles, and other 
material. Their loss was about ioo. 

On the 23d of August the Seventh Kentucky cavalry, a new 
regiment commanded by Col. Leonidas Metcalfe, had a fight 
with Confederate troops at Big Hill, about fifteen miles from 
Richmond. With 400 of his men he set out to attack the 
enemy, and near the top of the hill dismounted to fight on foot. 
He says: “We moved forward amid a shower of bullets and 
shells, which so terrified my raw, undisciplined recruits, that I 
could not bring more than IOO of them in sight of the enemy. 
The great majority mounted their horses and fled, without even 
getting a look at the foe. It was impossible to rally them, and 
they continued their flight some distance north of Richmond.” 
The hundred men who stood their ground fought the enemy 
for an hour and a half and finally compelled them to fall back. 
Soon afterward a new attack was made upon Metcalfe’s men 
by about 100 Confederates who dashed down the road expect¬ 
ing to capture them. But he had placed 200 men of a Tennes¬ 
see infantry regiment in the bushes by the roadside, and their 


A WOUNDED ZOUAVE. 

(From a War Department photograph.) 


fire brought down many of the enemy and dispersed the remain¬ 
der. A few minutes later still another attack was made by 
another detachment, and, as before, the Tennesseeans met it with 
a steady fire and drove them off. Metcalfe’s men then retired 
to Richmond, whither the Confederates pursued them and de¬ 
manded a surrender of the town. Metcalfe replied that he 
would not surrender but would fight it out, and, as he presently 
received reinforcements, the enemy departed. He lost in this 
affair about 50 men. The Confederate loss is unknown. 

On the same days when the great battle of Groveton or second 
Bull Run was fought in Virginia (August 29th and 30th, 1862), 
one of the severest of the engagements consequent upon Kirby 
Smith’s invasion took place at Richmond, Ky. The National 
forces numbered about 6,500, largely new troops, and were com¬ 
manded by Brig.-Gen. M. D. Manson. Kirby Smith had a force 
at least twice as large. Early in the afternoon of the 29th the 
Confederates drove in Manson’s outpost, and he, having had 
early information of their approach, marched out to meet them. 
About two miles from the town he took possession of a high 
ridge commanding the turnpike, and formed his line of battle 
with artillery on the flank. The enemy soon attacked in some 
force, and were driven off by the fire from the guns. Manson 
then advanced another mile, where he bivouacked, and sent out 
his cavalry to reconnoitre. Early in the morning of the 30th 
the enemy advanced again, when Manson’s men drove them back 

and formed on a piece of 
high wooded ground near 
Rogersville. Here the en¬ 
emy attacked him in earnest 
and in great force, attempt¬ 
ing to turn his left flank, 
which faced about and 
fought stubbornly. More 
of his forces were now 
brought to the front and 
placed in line, and the battle 
became quite severe. At 
length the enemy, with 
largely superior numbers, 
succeeded in breaking his 
left wing, which retreated 
in disorder. “ Up to this 
time,” says General Man- 
son, “ I had maintained my 
first position for three hours 
and forty minutes, during 
all of which time the artil¬ 
lery, under command of 
Lieutenant Lamphere, had 
kept up a constant fire, ex¬ 
cept for a very short time 
when the ammunition had 
become exhausted. The 
Fifty-fifth Indiana, the Six¬ 
teenth Indiana, the Sixty- 
ninth Indiana, and the Sev¬ 
enty-first Indiana occupied 
pro m inent and exposed 
positions from the com¬ 
mencement of the engage- 
ment, and contended against 
the enemy with a determina- 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


225 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
HUMPHREY MARSHALL, C. S. A. 


driven back in confusion. 
Manson succeeded in or¬ 
ganizing a rear guard 
which assisted the escape 
of his main force, but 
was itself defeated and 
broken to pieces in a 
later encounter. Manson, attempting to escape through the 
enemy’s lines, was fired upon, and his horse was killed, he 
being soon afterward taken prisoner. His loss in this engage¬ 
ment was about 900 killed or wounded, besides many prisoners. 
The Confederate loss was reported at about 700. 

On the 9th of October a National force, commanded by Col. 
E. A. Parrott, marched out and met the enemy at a place called 
Dogwalk, near Lawrenceburg. Parrott placed his men in an 


GENERAL E. KIRBY SMITH, C. S. A. 


cavalry, under Gen. N. B. 
Forrest, captured Lexington, 
Tenn. The town was defended 
by the Eleventh Illinois cavalry, 
commanded by Col. Robert G. 
Ingersoll, which withstood the 
enemy in a fight of three hours, 
and was then compelled to re¬ 
treat, leaving two guns in the 
hands of the Confederates, who had lost 
about 40 men. 

The State of Tennessee, like some 
others of the Southern States, had its 
mountain region and its lowland ; and, as 
was generally true in such cases in the 
Confederacy, the people of the mountain regions were more 
inclined to be true to the Union, while those of the lowlands 
favored secession. This fact, together with the position it occu¬ 
pied, made Tennessee a debatable ground almost throughout 
the war. Besides the great battles that were fought on her soil 
—Shiloh, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Franklin, and Nashville— 
there were innumerable minor engagements of varying severity 
and importance. 

On the 24th of March, 1862, a regiment of loyal Tennesseeans, 
commanded by Col. James Carter, left their camp at Cumberland 
Ford and made a march of forty miles through the mountains 
to Big Creek Gap, where they fought and defeated a body of 
Confederate cavalry, and captured a considerable supply of tents, 
arms, provisions, wagons, and horses. 

Union City, Term., was a small village at the junction of the 


tion and bravery worthy of older soldiers. The three remaining 
regiments of General Cruft’s brigade arrived just at the time 
when our troops were in full retreat and the rout had become 
general. The Eighteenth Kentucky was immediately deployed 
into line, and made a desperate effort to check the advance in 
the enemy, and contended with him, single-handed and alone, for 
twenty minutes, when after a severe loss they were compelled 
to give away before overwhelming numbers.” Deploying his 
cavalry as a rear guard, and placing one gun to command the 
road, Manson retreated to his position of the evening before and 
again formed line of battle. Here the enemy soon attacked 
him again, advancing through the open fields in great force. At 
this moment he received an order from his superior, General 
Nelson, directing him to retire if the enemy ad¬ 
vanced in force ; but it was then too late to obey, 
for within five minutes the battle was in progress 
along the whole line. The right of the Confed¬ 
erates was crushed by Manson’s artillery fire, and 
the enemy then made a determined effort to 
crush Manson’s right, which, 
after being several times gal¬ 
lantly repelled, they at length 
succeeded in doing. General 
Nelson now appeared upon the 
field, and by his orders Manson’s 
men fell back and took up a 
new position very near the town. 

Here they sustained another 
attack for half an hour, and then 
were broken and once more 


advantageous position, with two pieces of artillery, and soon 
saw the Confederate skirmishers advancing toward it. He sent 
out his own skirmishers to meet them, and placed his guns to 
command the road. The artillery was used very effectively, 
especially in driving the enemy from a dwelling-house where 


they had opened a severe fire on the line 
after a fight that lasted from eight A. M. till 
federates retired, leaving a 
portion of their dead and 
wounded on the field. 

Parrott lost fourteen men. 

On the 18th of Decem¬ 
ber a force of Confederate 


of skirmishers, and 
afternoon the Con- 




15 




















226 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



railroads from Columbus and Hickman, and on the 30th of 
March an expedition was sent out from Island No. 10, under 
Col. Abram Buford, to make a reconnoissance there. Buford 
had four regiments of infantry, with two companies of cavalry 
and a detachment of artillery. They made a forced march of 
twenty-four hours, and discovered a body of Confederate troops 
drawn in line of battle across the road near the town. The 
flanks of the Confederate line were protected by woods, and 
Buford sent off his cavalry to make a detour and get in their 
rear. In a wheat field at the right of the road he found an 
eminence suitable for his artillery, and it went into position at 
a gallop. Almost in one moment the Confederates were sub¬ 
jected to a fire from rifle-guns, saw a line of bayonets coming 
straight at them in front, and discovered that hostile horsemen 
with drawn sabres were in their rear. Naturally (and perhaps 
properly) they immediately turned and fled without firing a 
gun. They numbered about 1,000 men, infantry and cavalry. 
A few prisoners were taken, together with the camp and all that 

it contained. The tents and 


people in that part of the State. Crossing the mountains to 
the Sequatchie Valley, the expedition first met the enemy at 
Sweeden’s Cove. They were soon put to flight, however, by 
Negley’s guns, and were then pursued by his cavalry, who over¬ 
took them after a chase of two or three miles, rode among 
them, and used their sabres freely until the Confederates were 
dispersed. The next 
day the expedition 
proceeded toward 
Chattanooga, where 
they found a large 
Confederate force 
with intrenchments 
and several guns in 
position. In the 
afternoon the Con¬ 
federates opened fire 
with rifles and artil¬ 
lery, to which Neg- 






* 




barracks 




were now burned, 
and the National forces marched to Hick¬ 
man. 

Early in June an expedition commanded 
by Brig.-Gen. James S. Negley, setting out 
from Columbia, marched eastward and 
southward toward Chattanooga, for the pur¬ 
pose of reconnoitring and threatening that 
place, bringing some relief to the perse¬ 
cuted Unionists of East Tennessee, and 
ascertaining the truth of a report that the Confederates were 
about to make a strong movement to recapture Nashville. 
Their first capture was at Winchester, of a squad of cavalry¬ 
men, including a man who was at once a clergyman, principal 
of a female seminary, and captain in the Confederate service. 
This man had made himself notorious by capturing and bring¬ 
ing in Union men to the town, where they were given the 
alternative of enlisting as Confederate soldiers or being hanged. 
Andrew Johnson, military-governor of Tennessee, who had him¬ 
self suffered much persecution at the hands of the secessionists, 
and was very bitter toward them, had declared that rich rebels 
should be made to pay for the depredations of the roving 
Confederate bands upon Union men. In accordance with this, 
General Negley arrested a considerable number of well-known 
secessionists in Marion County and assessed them two hundred 
dollars apiece, appropriating the money to the relief of Union 


MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM NELSON. 

ley’s guns made reply, and the can¬ 
nonading was kept up for two hours, 
during which the National gunners 
exhibited the greater skill and final¬ 
ly silenced the enemy’s batteries. 
These were repaired during the en¬ 
suing night, and the next day were 
bombarded again, until it was dis¬ 
covered that the town had been 
evacuated. It is related that dur¬ 
ing this fight a man appeared on 
the Confederate intrenchments dis¬ 
playing a black flag, and was instant¬ 
ly shot down. In his report General 
Negley said: “The Union people in 
East Tennessee are wild with joy. 
They meet us along the road by hun¬ 
dreds. I shall send you a number 
of their principal persecutors from the Sequatchie valley.” 

About this time the roving Confederate cavalry, commanded 
by Gen. N. B. Forrest, who two years later obtained such an 
unenviable reputation for his conduct at Fort Pillow, began to 
attract special attention by the rapidity and daring of its move¬ 
ments. On the 13th of July he made an attack on Murfreesboro’ 
at the head of about 3,000 men. The town was garrisoned by 
about 800, not very skilfully disposed or very well disciplined. 
The attack fell principally on the Ninth Michigan Regiment, 
which fought courageously hand to hand for twenty minutes 
and put the enemy to flight, losing about 90 men. The attack 
was soon renewed by a larger force, and finally resulted in the 
defeat of the Michigan men. Meanwhile another portion of 
Forrest’s command had attacked the court-house, where a 
portion of the garrison took shelter and kept up a destructive 
fire from the windows. Being unable to drive them out, the 


MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES S. NEGLEY. 

















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


227 




Confederates set fire to the building, when 
the garrison were, of course, compelled to 
retire. The Confederates captured and pa¬ 
roled most of the garrison, packed up and 
carried off what they could of plunder, and 
burned a large quantity of camp equipage 
and clothing. The garrison was commanded 
by Brig.-Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden, who 
was severely censured for the mismanage¬ 
ment that made the disaster possible. 

Early in August Colonel De Courcey went 
out with his brigade from Cumberland Gap 
southward toward Tazewell on a foraging 
expedition. Near that town they were at¬ 
tacked by four Confederate regiments under 
Colonel Rains, and the advance regiment of 
De Courcey’s force was immediately deployed 
across the road with artillery on the flank. 

The enemy charged in columns, and was re¬ 
ceived in silence until he had approached 
within two hundred and fifty yards, when 
a terrible fire was opened upon him and 
threw him into disorder. In the meanwhile 
a battery of six guns, unobserved by the 
Confederates, had gained an eminence in their rear, and when 
it began firing they at once turned and fled. The National loss 
in this short but brilliant action was 68, 50 of whom were 
prisoners, being two companies who were out on detached 
service and were suddenly surrounded. The Confederate loss 
was about 200. 

Brig.-Gen. R. W. Johnson, setting out with a force of infantry, 
cavalry, and artillery to pursue the raider Morgan and his men, 
found them (August 21st) at 
Galletin, and ordered an attack. 

All seemed to be going well 
for a time, until confusion be¬ 
gan to appear in his command, 
and soon a panic arose and 
half of his men ran away. He 
and some of his officers tried 
in vain to rally them, and final¬ 
ly he was obliged to order a re¬ 
treat of such of his men as had 
stood their ground. He then 
marched for Cairo on the Cum¬ 
berland, but, before reaching 
that place, found the enemy 
pressing so closely in his rear 
that he was obliged to form 
line of battle to receive them. 

Again, when the firing became 
brisk, most of his men broke 
and fled, while with the re¬ 
mainder of his command he 
held the enemy in check until 
the fugitives were enabled to 
cross the river, when he and his 
little band were surrounded and 
captured. He had lost 30 men 
killed, and 50 wounded, and 75 
were made prisoners. 

On the 31st of August there 


was a severe skirmish near Bolivar, between 
two regiments of infantry and two detach¬ 
ments of cavalry, and a large Confederate 
force, which lasted about seven hours, and 
was brought to a close by an artillery fire and 
a gallant charge from the National troops. In 
this charge Lieutenant-Colonel Hogg, of the 
Second Illinois cavalry, fell in a hand-to-hand 
fight with Colonel McCullough. The next 
day, two regiments of infantry, with two 
companies of cavalry and a battery, com¬ 
manded by Colonel Dennis, moving to at¬ 
tack this Confederate force in the rear, en¬ 
countered them at Britton’s Lane, near 
Denmark. Dennis, who had about 800 men, 
selected a strong position and awaited attack 
in a large grove surrounded by cornfields. 
The Confederates, commanded by Brigadier- 
General Armstrong, numbered at least 5,000, 
and were able merely to surround the little 
band. They soon captured the transporta¬ 
tion train and two guns, but before the fight 
was over Dennis’s men recaptured them. 
For four hours the Confederates persisted in 
making successive charges, all of which were gallantly repelled, 
when they retired, leaving Dennis in possession of the field. 
Their loss in killed and wounded was about 400. Dennis lost 
60 men. 

In October General Negley, commanding at Nashville, learning 
that a considerable Confederate force under Generals Anderson, 
Harris, and Forrest was being concentrated at La Vergne, fifteen 
miles eastward, for the purpose of assaulting the city, sent out 

a force of about 2,500 men, 
under command of Gen. John 
M. Palmer, to attack them. A 
portion of this force marched 
directly by the Murfreesboro’ 
road, while the remainder made 
a detour to the south. The 
Confederate pickets and vi- 
dettes were on the alert, and 
made a skirmish for several 
miles, enabling the main body 
to prepare for the attack. The 
battle was opened by fire of the 
Confederate artillery, but this 
was soon silenced when a shell 
exploded their ammunition 
chest. Almost at the same 
moment the detachment that 
had made a detour came up 
and struck the Confederates on 
the flank, at the same time de¬ 
ploying skilfully so as to cut off 
tlfeir retreat. In this difficult 
situation the Confederates held 
their ground and fought for 
half an hour before they broke 
and retreated in confusion. 
They had lost about 80 men 
killed or wounded, and 175 
were captured, besides three 


ANDREW JOHNSON. 

Military Governor of Tennessee, afterward President. 


A SONG AROUND THE CAMPFIRE. 
















GOING TO THE FRONT—REGIMENTS PASSING THE ASTOR HOUSE, NEW YORK. 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


229 


guns, a considerable amount of stores, stand of colors, etc. 
General Palmer lost 18 men. 

On the 18th of November 200 men of the Eighth Kentucky 
Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel May, was guarding a sup¬ 
ply train bivouacked on an old camp-meeting ground at Rural 
Hills, seventeen miles southeast of Nashville. While they were 
at breakfast the next morning the crack of rifles was heard, and 
in a moment two columns of Confederate cavalry were seen 
rushing upon them from their front and their right. The boys 
in blue seized their muskets, fell into line, ai;d in a moment met 
the enemy with a sharp and continuous fire. Presently a section 
of National artillery was brought into action, and not only played 
upon the enemy immediately in front, but also upon a larger 
body that w r as discovered somewhat more than a mile away. 
This was answered by two or three Confederate guns, and the 
fight was continued for half an hour, when the assailants with¬ 
drew, leaving a dozen dead men on the field. Colonel May lost 
no men. 

A similar affair took place on the 6th of December, at 
Lebanon, where the Ninety-third Ohio Regiment, under Col. 
Charles Anderson, was guarding a forage train. Seeing an 
enemy in front, who were evidently preparing to intercept the 
train, he marched his regiment in double-quick time through the 
fields skirting the road, in order to get ahead of the train and 
prevent an attack upon it. By the time he got there the Con¬ 
federates were in position to receive him, and a sharp fight 
ensued, which ended in the flight of the Confederates. In these 
little affairs there was often displayed a dash and courage by 
individual soldiers, which in a war of less gigantic dimensions * 
would have immortalized them. Every historian of the Revolu¬ 
tionary war thinks it necessary to record anew the fact that 
when the flagstaff of Fort Moultrie was shot away Sergeant 
Jasper leaped down from the parapet and recovered it underfire. 
Without disparaging his exploit, it may be said that it was sur¬ 
passed in hundreds of instances by men on both sides in the 
civil war. In the little action just described, William C. Stewart, 
a color-bearer, was under fire for the first time in his life. Col¬ 
onel Anderson says he “ stood out in front of his company and 
of the regiment with his tall person and our glorious flag 
elevated to their highest reach ; nor could he be persuaded to 
seek cover or to lower his colors.” 

At Hartsville on the Cumberland, about forty miles from 
Murfreesboro’, 1,900 National troops, under command of Col. 
Absalom B. Moore, were encamped in a position which would 
have been very strong if held by a larger force, but was danger¬ 
ous for one so small. Against this place Morgan the raider, at 
the head of 4,000 men, marched on the 7th of December. He 
crossed the river seven miles from Hartsville, at a point where 
nobody supposed it could be crossed by any such force, on 
account of the steepness of the banks. With a little digging he 
made a slope, down which he slid his horses, and at the water’s 
edge his men remounted. Coming up unexpectedly by a by¬ 
road, they captured all the National pickets except one, who 
gave the alarm and ran into the camp. The Nationals formed 
quickly in line of battle, but at the first fire the One Hundred 
and Eighth Ohio broke, leaving the flank exposed. The Con¬ 
federates saw their advantage, seized it, and quickly poured in a 
cross-fire, which compelled the remainder of Moore’s forces to 
fall back, though they did not do it without first making a 
stubborn fight. Soon afterward Colonel Moore, considering it 
sufficiently evident that further resistance was useless, raised a 
white flag and surrendered his entire command. 


A similar surrender took place at Trenton, December 20th, 
when Forrest’s cavalry attacked that place for the purpose of 
breaking the railroad and cutting off General Grant’s supplies. 
Col. Jacob Fry, who was in command there, had been notified 
by Grant to look out for Forrest, as he was moving in that direc¬ 
tion. He got together what force he could, consisting largely 
of convalescents and fugitives, and numbering but 250 in all, and 
prepared to make a defence. He had a few sharp-shooters, whom 
he placed on two buildings commanding two of the principal 
streets, and when in the afternoon the enemy appeared, charging 
in two columns, they were met by so severe a fire from these 
men that they quickly moved out of range. Forrest then planted 
a battery of six guns where it could command the position held 
by the Nationals, and opened fire with shells. Colonel Fry says: 
“Seeing that we were completely in their power, and had done 
all the damage to them we could, I called a council of officers. 
They were unanimous for surrender. . . . The terms of the 

surrender were unconditional; but General Forrest admitted us 
to our paroles the next morning, sending the Tennessee troops 
immediately home, and others to Columbus under a flag of 
truce.” 

Thus far in his raiding operations General Forrest had had 
things mainly his own way, but in the closing engagement he 
was not so fortunate. While he was marching toward Lexington 
a force of 1,500 men, commanded by Col. C. L. Dunham, was 
sent out to intercept him, and came upon a portion of his troops 
at Parker’s Cross Roads, five miles south of Clarksburg, on the 
30th of December. After some preliminary skirmishes Dunham, 
seeing that he was soon to be attacked, placed his men in readi¬ 
ness, and with two pieces of artillery opened fire. This was 
replied to by the Confederates with six guns, and Dunham then 
retreated some distance to a good position on the crest of a 
ridge, placing his wagon train in the rear. The enemy in heavy 
column soon emerged from the woods, and made a movement 
evidently intended to gain his flank and rear; whereupon he 
promptly changed his position to face them, and opened fire. 
But the Confederate artillery gained a position where it could 
enfilade his lines, and at the same time he was attacked in 
the rear by a detachment of dismounted cavalry. Again he 
promptly changed his position, facing to the rear, and drove off 
the enemy with a considerable loss, completing their rout by a 
brilliant bayonet charge. A detachment of cavalry also made 
two charges upon him from another direction, and both times 
was repelled. This was the end of the principal fighting of 
the day. A few minutes later Forrest sent in a flag of truce 
demanding an unconditional surrender, to which Colonel Dun¬ 
ham replied: “You will get away with that flag very quickly, 
and bring me no more such messages. Give my compliments to 
the general, and tell him I never surrender. If he thinks he can 
take me, come and try.” In the course of the battle Dunham’s 
wagon train was captured, and he now called for volunteers to 
retake it. A company of the Thirty-ninth Iowa offered them¬ 
selves for this task and quickly accomplished it, not only recap¬ 
turing the train but bringing in also several prisoners, including 
Forrest’s adjutant-general and three other officers. Reinforce¬ 
ments for Dunham now approached, and the Confederates 
departed. The National loss, in killed, wounded, and missing, 
was 220. The Confederate loss is unknown. Another instance 
of peculiar individual gallantry is here mentioned by the colonel 
in his report. “ As our line faced about and pressed back in 
their engagement of the enemy in our rear, one of the guns of 
the battery was left behind in the eage of the woods. All the 


230 


CAMEFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




horses belonging to it had 
been killed but two. After 
everybody had passed and 
left it, Private E. A. Top- 
liff, fearing that the enemy 
might capture it, alone and 
under a smart fire disen¬ 
gaged the two horses, 
hitched them to the piece, 
and took it safely out.” 


Although the struggle 
to determine whether Mis¬ 
souri should remain in the 
Union or go out of it had 
been decided in the first 
year of the war, her soil 
was by no means free from 
contention and bloodshed 
in the second year. The 
brigadier-general Justus Mckinstry. earliest conflict took place 

in Randolph County, Janu¬ 
ary 8th, where 1,000 Confederates, under Colonel Poindexter, 
took up a strong position at Roan’s Tanyard, on Silver Creek, 
seven miles south of Huntsville. Here they were attacked by 
about 500 men under Majors Torrence and Hubbard, and after 
half an hour’s fighting were completely routed. Their defeat 
was owing mainly to the inefficiency of their commander. The 
victors burned the camp and a considerable amount of stores. 

In February Captain Nolen, of the Seventh Illinois cavalry, 
with 64 men, while re- 
connoitring near 
Charleston, struck a 
small detachment of 
Confederate cavalry 
under Jeff Thompson. 

Nolen pursued them 
for some distance, and 
when Thompson made 
a stand and brought 
up his battery to com¬ 
mand the road, the 
Illinois men promptly 
charged upon it, cap¬ 
tured four guns, and 
put the Confederates 
to flight. 

The most infamous 
of all the guerilla lead¬ 
ers was one Quantrell, 
who seemed to take 
delight in murdering 
prisoners, whether 
they were combatants 
or non-combatants. 

His band moved with 
the usual celerity of 
such, and, like the 
others, was exceeding¬ 
ly difficult to capture, 
or even find, when any 
considerable force set 


out to attack it. On the 22d of March a detachment of the Sixth 
Kansas Regiment overtook Quantrell near Independence, killed 
seven of his men, and caused the remainder to retreat precipi¬ 
tately, except eleven of them who were captured. 

Another encounter with Quantrell’s guerilla band was had at 
Warrensburg, March 26, where he attacked a detachment of a Mis¬ 
souri regiment commanded by Major Emery Foster. Although 
Quantrell had 200 men, and Foster but 60, the latter, skilfully 
using a thick plank fence for protection, succeeded in inflicting 
so much loss upon the guerillas that they at length retired. Nine 
of them were killed and 17 wounded. The National loss was 13, 
including Major Foster wounded. The -same night about 500 
guerillas attacked four companies of militia at Humonsville, but 
were defeated and driven off with a loss of 15 killed and a large 
number wounded. 

On the 26th of April the Confederate general John S. Marma- 
duke attacked the town.of Cape Girardeau, but after a smart 
action was driven off, with considerable loss, by the garrison, 
under Gen. John McNeil. In the evening of the next day 
the cavalry force that formed the advance guard on his retreat 
was surprised and attacked near Jackson by the First Iowa 
cavalry and other troops. Two howitzers, loaded with musket 
balls, were fired at them when they were not more than thirty 
yards away, and the next instant the Iowa cavalry swooped 
down upon them in a spirited charge, from which not one of 
the Confederates escaped. All that were not killed were cap¬ 
tured, together with a few guns, horses, etc. 

One of the most desperate fights with guerillas took place 
near Memphis, Mo., on the 18th of July. A band of 600 
had chosen a strong position for their camp, partly concealed 


A MILITARY PONTOON BRIDGE. 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


231 



by heavy brush and timber, when they were attacked by a 
force of cavalry and militia, commanded by Major John Y. 
Clopper. Clopper first knew their location when they fired 
from concealment upon his advance guard, and he immediately 
made dispositions for an attack. His men made five successive 
charges across open ground, and were five times repelled ; but, 
nothing disheartened, and having now learned the exact posi¬ 
tion of the concealed enemy, they advanced in a sixth charge, 
and engaged him hand to hand. The result of the fight was the 
complete defeat of the ^ guerillas, who fled, leaving 

their dead and wounded 
in the woods. Clopper 
83 men. 

In these affairs the 
guerillas were by no 
means always defeat¬ 
ed. When in Augusi 
a band of 800 had 
been gathered by 
one Hughes, it was 
determined to 
make an attack 
upon the small 
National gar¬ 
rison at Inde¬ 
pendence, prin¬ 
cipally for the 
purpose of ob¬ 
taining addi¬ 
tional arms. 

The gueril¬ 
las surprised, 

captured, and murder- 40 l "<e, c 

ed the picket before they could 
give an alarm, and then entered the town by 
two roads, and attacked the various build¬ 
ings where detachments of the garrison were 
stationed. A gallant resistance was made 
at every possible point; but as the guerillas 
outnumbered the defenders two to one, and 
there was no prospect of any relief, Lieut.- 
Col. J. T. Buell, commanding the town, finally 
surrendered. Hughes and many of his men 
had been killed. Several of the buildings 
were riddled with balls, and 26 of the garri¬ 
son lost their lives. 

Again, at Lone Jack, Mo., five days later (August 16th), 
were successful in a fight with the State militia. 


ing in among the colored 
hand-to-hand en- 
colored 


on the field and 
lost 


Mir... 




seH £RW ' 




JEFF 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
M. THOMPSON, C. 


place on the 29th of October, near Butler, in Bates County. A 
band of them, who had been committing depredations, and were 
threatening several towns, were pursued by 220 men of the First 
Kansas colored regiment, commanded by white officers. The 
guerillas in superior force attacked them near Osage Island, 
charging upon them and making every demonstration of special 
hatred for the blacks ; but the colored men stood their ground 
like any other good soldiers, and dealt out severe punishment to 
the guerillas. When, finally, the cavalrymen succeeded in rid- 

troops, many desperate 
counters ensued. Not a 
soldier would surren¬ 
der; and one of the 
leaders of the gueril¬ 
las, in describing the 
action, said that “ the 
black devils fought 
like tigers.” The 
character of much 
of the guerilla 
fighting may be 
seen from a few 
incidents of this 
battle. While 
Lieutenant 
Gardner was 
lying wound¬ 
ed and in¬ 
sensible, a 
guerilla ap. 
- proached 

H ' s ' him, cut his re- 

volver from the belt, and 
fired it at his head. Fortunately the 
ball only grazed the skull, and the next in¬ 
stant a wounded colored soldier near by 
raised himself sufficiently to level his musket 
and shoot the miscreant dead. Captain Crew 
had been killed, and a guerilla was rifling 
his pockets, when another wounded colored 
soldier summoned strength enough to get to 
his feet and despatch the guerilla with his 
bayonet. On the approach of reinforcements 
for the little band, the guerillas retreated. 
The National force lost about 20 men. 


s. A. 


the guerillas 


Major Foster at the head of 600 mjlitiamen was hunting guer¬ 
illas, when he suddenly found more than he wanted to see at 
one time. They were estimated at 4,000, and on the approach 
of Foster’s little force they turned and attacked him. Foster’s 
men fought gallantly for four hours, and were not overpowered 
until they had lost 160 men, the loss of the guerillas being 
about equal. On the approach of National reinforcements the 
guerillas retreated. 

A month later, at Shirley’s Ford on Spring River, the Third 
Indiana Regiment, commanded by Colonel Ritchie, attacked 
and defeated a force of 600 guerillas, including about 100 Chero¬ 
kee Indians, 60 of whom were killed or wounded before they 
retreated. 

One more desperate fight with guerillas in that State took 


Northern Arkansas, as well as southern Missouri, was infested 
by bands of Confederate guerillas, though it was not so rich a 
field for their operations, as the number of Unionists in that 
State was comparatively small. 

In February, the First Missouri cavalry, hunting guerillas 
there, were fired upon from ambush at Sugar Creek, and 18 
men fell, 
art i Her}, 


The regiment immediately formed’ for action, and 
was brought up and the woods were shelled, but with 
no result except the unseen retreat of the enemy. 


At Searcy Landing, on Little Red River, 150 men of the 
National force had a fight with about twice their number of 
Confederates, whom they routed with a loss of nearly 100 men. 

On the 22d of October, Brig.-Gen. James G. Blunt, command¬ 
ing a division of the Army of the Frontier, set out from Pea 
Ridge with two brigades. After a toilsome march of thirty 






232 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



PRACTICE BATTERY, NAVAL ACADEMY, ANNAPOLIS, MD. 


miles he came upon a Confederate force at Old Fort Wayne, 
near Maysville, which consisted of two Texas regiments and 
other troops, numbering about 5,000 in all. He found them in 
position to receive battle, but believing that they intended to 
retreat he made haste to attack them with his advance guard 
and shell them with two howitzers. The enemy promptly 
answered the artillery fire and showed no signs of retreating, 
but on the contrary attempted to overwhelm the little force. 
General Blunt hurried forward the main body of his troops and 
flanked the enemy upon both wings, then making a charge upon 
their centre and capturing their artillery. This completely broke 
them up, and they fled in disorder, being pursued for seven miles. 
Blunt lost about a dozen men, and found 50 of the enemy’s dead 
on the field. 

On the 26th of November General Blunt learned that Marma- 
duke’s Confederate command was at Cane Hill, and immediately 
set out to attack it with 5,000 men and 30 guns. After a march 
of thirty-five miles he sent spies into the enemy’s camp to learn 
its exact location and condition, who discovered that on one of the 
approaches there were no pickets out. He therefore made his 


dispositions for an attack on that side, and was not discovered 
until he was within half a mile of their lines, when they opened 
upon him with artillery. He replied with one battery, and kept up 
a brisk fire while he sent back to hurry up the main body of his 
troops. Placing guns on an eminence, he shelled the enemy 
very effectively, and then formed his command in line for an 
advance, expecting a desperate resistance, but found to his sur¬ 
prise that they had quietly retreated. They made a stand a few 
miles distant at the base of the Boston Mountains, and there he 
attacked them again, when they retired to a lofty position on 
the mountain side, with artillery on the crest. The Second and 
Eleventh Kansas and Third Cherokee regiments stormed this 
position and carried it, when the enemy fled in disorder and was 
pursued for three miles through the woods. Here another stand 
was made by their rear guard, which was promptly charged by 
Blunt’s cavalry. But the position defended was in a defile, and 
the cavalry suffered severely. Bringing up his guns, Blunt was 
about to shell them out, when they sent in a flag of truce with 
a request for permission to remove their dead and wounded. 
General Blunt granted this, but it proved that the flag of truce 




CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


233 


* 




was only a trick of Marmaduke’s to obtain time to escape with 
his command. Darkness now came on, and the pursuit was 
abandoned. Blunt had lost about 40 men, and Marmaduke 
about 100. 

A much more important action than of those just recorded 
took place at Prairie Grove on the 7th of December. Learning 
that General Hindman’s forces had joined those of General Mar¬ 
maduke, making an army of about 25,000 men, General Blunt, 
fearing an attack, ordered the divisions commanded by Gen. 
F. J. Herron to join him at once. Herron obeyed the order 
promptly ; but the Confederates, learning of this movement, 
made an advance for the purpose of interposing between Blunt 
and Herron. They attacked Herron first, who drove back their 
advance and then found them in position on a ridge command¬ 
ing the ford across Illinois Creek. Herron sent a detachment of 
his men to cut a road through the woods and come in upon their 
flank, thus drawing their fire in that direction and enabling his 
main force to cross the ford. This movement was successful, and 
in a short time his command had crossed and brought its guns to 
bear upon the enemy’s position. He then pushed forward his 
infantry in several charges, one of which captured a battery, but 
all of which were finally repelled. The Confederates then made 
a grand charge in return and came within a hundred yards of 
Herron’s guns, but the fire of artillery and musketry was too much 
for them, and they retired in disorder. Again, in his turn, Herron 
charged with two regiments, again captured a battery, and again 
was forced to retire. While this action was in progress Blunt 
was pressing forward to the relief of Herron with his command, 
and now came in on the right, joined in the fight and defeated 
the enemy, who repeated their trick with a flag of truce and 
escaped in the night. In this battle the total National loss, 
killed, wounded, and missing, was 1,148. The Confederate loss 
is not exactly known, but was much larger, and included General 
Stein among the killed. 

The great war extended not only over the Southern States, 
but into some of the Territories. In the summer of 1861 the 
Confederate government commanded Gen. H. H. Sibley to 
organize a brigade in Texas and march northward into New 
Mexico for the conquest of that Territory. He moved up the 
Rio Grande in January, 1862, and early in February came within 
striking distance of Fort Craig, on the western bank of the river, 
which was the headquarters of Col. (afterward Gen.) E. R. S. 
Canby, who commanded the National forces in New Mexico. 
Canby planned to attack him, and 
began by sending a force of cav¬ 
alry with two batteries to cut 
off the Texans from their 


CONSTRUCTING WINTER QUARTERS. 


supply of 
water at the 
river. In that 
vicinity, on 
account of 
the steep 
banks, there 
was only one 
point where 
the stream 
could be 
reached. This 
detachment, 
however, was 
a little too 
late, as the 
Confederates 
had already 
gained the 

water. Colo- allan Pinkerton and secret service officers. 

nel Roberts, 

in command of the detachment, fired upon them with his bat¬ 
teries, dismounted one of their guns, and drove them off. Rob¬ 
erts then crossed to the eastern bank, and the fight was renewed 
with varying success, until the Confederates charged upon and 
captured some of his guns. Colonel Canby then came upon the 
field with more of his forces and ordered an advance to attack 
the enemy where he appeared to be lurking in the edge of a 
wood. But the Confederates did not wait to be attacked. After 
a sharp musketry fire on the right flank, they made desperate 
charges to capture Canby’s two batteries. The one against Hall’s 
battery was made by cavalry, and the horsemen were struck 
down so rapidly by the fire of the guns that they could not 
reach it. The other was made by infantry, armed principally 
with revolvers. The guns, commanded by Captain McRae, were 
served rapidly and skilfully, and made awful slaughter of the 
Texans ; but they continually closed up the gaps in their ranks 
and steadily pushed forward until the battery was theirs. The 
infantry supports, who should have prevented this capture, 
miserably failed in their duty and finally ran away from 
the field. McRae and his men remained at their guns till the 
last minute, and most cf them, including Captain McRae, 
were killed. With the loss of the battery, hope of victory 
was gone, and the National troops retired to the fort. 
Canby had in this fight about 1,500 men, and lost about 200. 
The Confederates numbered about 2,000, and their loss is 
unknown. 

Another fight in this territory took place at 
Apache Canon, twenty miles from Santa F6, on 
the 28th of March, where Major Chivington with 
1,300 men and six guns overtook and attacked 
a force of about 2,000 Texans. The first shots 
were fired by a small party of the Texans in am¬ 
bush, who were immediately rushed upon and dis¬ 
posed of by the advance guard of the Nationals. 
Chivington then pressed forward, surprised and 
captured the pickets, and about noon attacked 
the main force of the enemy. The battle lasted 
four hours, and Chivington with his six guns had 
a great advantage over the Texans, who had but 
one. The result was a complete defeat of the 
Confederates and capture of their entire train 











234 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



HEADQUARTER GUARD, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 


consisting of sixty-four wagons. The Texans had made four 
attempts to capture Chivington’s guns, as they had captured 
Canby’s, but only met with heavy loss. The total Confederate 
loss was over 300 killed or wounded, and about 100 taken 
prisoners. Chivington’s loss was 150. 

In obedience to an Act of Congress, Lieut.-Com. Thomas S. 
Phelps, in command of the steamer Corwin , was detached from 
the North Atlantic blockading squadron and ordered to make a 
regular survey of the Potomac River, to facilitate the operations 
of the army, no survey of this river ever having been made. He 
began the work in July, 1862, and rapidly pushed it to its com- 



BRINGING IN A PRISONER. 


by the artillery and cavalry of the Confederates. During the 
winter months it was frequently necessary to break the ice in 
order to prosecute the work. While thus engaged, he assisted 
materially in the blockade of the river and in breaking up the 
haunts of the contrabandists. The magnitude of the work may 
be imagined from the fact that on the Kettle-bottoms alone, 
a section of the river about ten miles in length by an average 
of four miles in width, more than six hundred miles of sound¬ 
ings were run, necessitated by the immense number of small 
shoals on this ground which were dangerous to navigation. 
The length of river surveyed was ninety-seven miles. 

Enraged by real or fancied wrongs in the failure of payment 
of annuities, the Sioux Indians took the opportunity when the 
Government, as they supposed, had all it could do to grapple 
with the rebellion, to indulge in a general uprising in the North¬ 
west. In August they attacked several frontier towns of 
Minnesota and committed horrible atrocities. The village of 
New Ulm was almost destroyed, and more than 100 of its citi¬ 
zens—men, women, and children—were massacred. They also 
destroyed the agencies at Redwood and Yellow Medicine, and 
attacked the villages of Hutchinson and Forest City, but from 
these latter were driven off. They besieged Fort Ridgley, but 
did not succeed in capturing it. Altogether they committed 
about 1,000 murders. Col. H. H. Sibley with a strong force 
was sent against them, and in September overtook several 
bodies of the Sioux, all of whom he defeated. In the principal 
battle two cannon, of which the Indians have always been in 
mortal terror, were used upon them with great effect. The 
Indians asked for a truce to rescue their wounded and bury their 
dead, but Sibley declined to grant any truce until they should 
return the prisoners whom they had carried off. Ultimately 
about 1,000 Indians were captured. Many of them were tried 
and condemned, and 39 were hanged. 




































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


235 


CHAPTER XX. 


EMPLOYMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS. 

ENLISTMENT OF COLORED SOLDIERS DENOUNCED IN THE SOUTH—NEGRO ASSISTANTS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES—CONFEDERATE THREATS 
AGAINST NEGRO SOLDIERS AND THOSE WHO LED THEM—DEMOCRATIC JOURNALS IN THE NORTH DENOUNCE^THE ENLISTMENT OF COL¬ 
ORED SOLDIERS—INTENSITY OF FEELING ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY—INTERESTING CRITICISMS BY COUNT GUROWSKI—BLACK SOLDIERS 

IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR—BRAVERY OF COLORED TROOPS—OPINION OF COL. THOMAS W. HIGGINSON—AN INTERESTING STORY 

NEGRO SENTINELS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES. 



event 


A/ 


THE COOK. 


1863 began with several 
of the first importance. 
On December 31st and Jan¬ 
uary 2d there was a great 
battle in the West, 
which has just been 
described. On New 
Year’s Day the final 
proclamation of eman¬ 
cipation was issued, 
and measures were 
taken for the immedi¬ 
ate enlistment of 
black troops. On that 
day, also, in the State 
of New York, which 
furnished one-sixth of 
all the men called into 
the National service, 
the executive power 
passed into hands unfriendly to the Administration. 

The part of President Lincoln’s proclamation that created 
most excitement at the South was not that which declared the 
freedom of the blacks—for the secessionists professed to be 
amused at this as a papal bull against a comet—but that which 
announced that negroes would thenceforth be received into the 
military service of the United States. Whatever might be said 
of the powerlessness of the Government to liberate slaves that 
were within the Confederate lines, it was plain enough that a 
determination to enlist colored troops brought in a large resource 
hitherto untouched. Military men in Europe, having only sta¬ 
tistical knowledge of our negro population, and not understand¬ 
ing the peculiar prejudices that hedged it about, had looked on 
at first in amazement, and finally in contempt, at its careful 
exclusion from military service. The Confederates had no 
special scruples about negro assistance on their own side ; for 
they not only constantly employed immense numbers of blacks 
in building fortifications and in camp drudgery, but had even 
armed and equipped a few of them for service as soldiers. In a 
review of Confederate troops at New Orleans, in the first year of 
the war, appeared a regiment of free negroes, and early the next 
year the legislature of Virginia provided for the enrolment of 
the same class. 

But the idea that emancipated slaves should be employed to 
fight against their late masters and for the enfranchisement of 
their own race, appeared to be new, startling, and unwelcome ; 
and the Confederates, both officially and unofficially, threatened 
the direst penalties against all who should lead black soldiers, 
as well as against such soldiers themselves. General Beauregard 
wrote to a friend in the Congress at Richmond : “Has the bill 


for the execution of Abolition prisoners, after January next, been 
passed ? Do it, and England will be stirred into action. It is 
high time to proclaim the black flag after that period. Let the 
execution be with the garrote.” Mr. Davis, late in December, 
1862, issued a proclamation outlawing General Butler and all 
commissioned officers in his command, and directing that when¬ 
ever captured they should be reserved for execution, and added, 
“ That all negro slaves captured in arms be at once delivered 
over to the executive authorities of the respective States to 
which they belong, to be dealt with according to the laws of 
said States,” and, “ That the like orders be executed with respect 
to all commissioned officers of the United States, when found 
serving in company with said slaves.” The Confederate Con¬ 
gress passed a series of resolutions in which it was provided that 
on the capture of any white commissioned officer who had 



EVENING AT A NEGRO CABIN. 



































236 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


armed, organized, or led negro troops against the Confederacy, 
he should be tried by a military court and put to death or other¬ 
wise punished. 

Democratic journalists and Congressmen at the North were 
hardly less violent in their opposition to the enlistment of black 
men. They denounced the barbarity of the proceeding, declared 
that white soldiers would be disgraced if they fought on the 
same field with blacks, and anon demonstrated the utter inca¬ 
pacity of negroes for war, and laughed at the idea that they 
would ever face an enemy. Most of the Democratic senators 
and representatives voted against the appropriation bills, or 
supported amendments providing that “ no part of the moneys 
shall be applied to the raising, arming, equipping, or paying of 
negro soldiers,” and the more eloquent of them drew pitiful 
pictures of the ruin and anarchy that were to ensue. Represen¬ 
tative Samuel S. Cox, then of Ohio, said : “ Every man along 
the border will tell you that the Union is forever rendered hope¬ 
less if you pursue this policy of taking the slaves from the 
masters and arming them in this civil strife.” 

It is impossible at this distance of time, and after the question 
of slavery in our country has been so thoroughly settled that 
nobody disputes the righteousness and wisdom of its abolition, 
to convey to younger readers an adequate idea either of the 
diversity of opinion or the intensity of feeling on the subject, 
when it was still under discussion and was complicated with 
great military and political problems. Not only before the 
Emancipation Proclamation was issued, but for a considerable 
time afterward, these opinions were tenaciously held and these 
feelings expressed. The so-called conservatives of the Northern 
States constantly affirmed that abolitionists of whatever degree, 
and active secessionists, were equally wrong and blameworthy; 
that the latter had no right to break up the Union for any 
cause, and that the former had no right to emancipate the 
slaves even to save the Union. They assumed that the Con¬ 
stitution of the United States was perpetual, perfect, and 
infallible for all time, and ignored the natural antagonism 
between the systems of slave labor and free labor. In June, 
1862, the conservative members of Congress held a meeting, 
and adopted a declaration of principles which included the 
following: “At the call of the Government a mighty army, 
the noblest and most patriotic ever known, sprung at once into 
the field, and is bleeding and conquering in defence of its Govern¬ 
ment. Under these circumstances it would, in our opinion, be 
most unjust and ungenerous to give any new character or direc¬ 
tion to the war, for the accomplishment of any other than the 
first great purpose, and especially for the accomplishment of 
any mere party or sectional scheme. The doctrines of the 
secessionists and abolitionists, as the latter are now represented 
in Congress, are alike false to the Constitution and irreconcilable 
to the peace and unity of the country. The first have already 
involved us in a cruel civil war, and the others—the abolitionists 
—will leave the country but little hope of the speedy restora¬ 
tion of the Union or peace, if the schemes of confiscation, 
emancipation, and other unconstitutional measures which they 
have lately carried, and attempted to carry, through the House 
of Representatives, shall be enacted into the form of laws and 
remain unrebuked by the people. It is no justification of such 
acts that the crimes committed in the prosecution of the re¬ 
bellion are of unexampled atrocity, nor is there any such 
justification as State necessity known to our government or 
laws.” 

On the other hand, at a great mass meeting held in Union 


Square, New York City, July 15, 1862, a series of resolutions 
was adopted which included the following: 

“ That we are for the union of the States, the integrity of the 
country, and the maintenance of this Government without any 
condition or qualification whatever, and at every necessary 
sacrifice of life or treasure. 

“That we urge upon the Government the exercise of its 
utmost skill and vigor in the prosecution of this war, unity of 
design, comprehensiveness of plan, a uniform policy, and the 
stringent use of all the means within its reach consistent with 
the usages of civilized warfare. 

“ That we acknowledge but two divisions of the people of the 
United States in this crisis—those who are loyal to its Constitu¬ 
tion and every inch of its soil and are ready to make every 
sacrifice for the integrity of the Union and the maintenance of 
civil liberty within it, and those who openly or covertly endeavor 
to sever our country or to yield to the insolent demand of its 
enemies; that we fraternize with the former and detest the 
latter; and that, forgetting all former party names and distinc¬ 
tions, we call upon all patriotic citizens to rally for one 
undivided country, one flag, one destiny.” 

The extreme of opinion in favor of immediate and unqualified 
emancipation, and of employment of colored troops, with im¬ 
patience at all delay in adopting such a policy, was represented 
picturesquely, if not altogether justly, by Count Gurowski. 
Adam Gurowski was a Pole who had been exiled for partici¬ 
pating in revolutionary demonstrations, and after a varied career 
had come to the United States, where he engaged in literary 
pursuits, and from 1861 to 1863 was employed as a translator in 
the state department at Washington. He was now between 
fifty and sixty years of age, and was a keen observer and merci¬ 
less critic of what was going on around him. He had published 
several books in Europe, and his diary kept while he was in the 
state department has also been put into print. It is exceedingly 
outspoken in every direction ; and though it is often unjust, and 
represents hardly more than his own exaggerated eccentricity, 
yet in many respects he struck at once into the heart of 
important truths which slower minds comprehended less readily 
or less willingly. The following extracts are suggestive and 
interesting. Their dates range from April, 1862, to April, 1863. 

“ Mr. Blair [Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General] worse and 
worse ; is more hot in support of McClellan, more determined to 
upset Stanton ; and I heard him demand the return of a poor 
fugitive slave woman to some of Blair’s Maryland friends. Everv 
day I am confirmed in my creed that whoever had slavery for 
mammy is never serious in the effort to destroy it. Whatever 
such men as Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Blair will do against slavery 
will never be radical by their own choice or conviction, but will 
be done reluctantly, and when under the unavoidable pressure 
of events. . . . Mr. Lincoln is forced out again from one of 

his pro-slavery intrenchments; he was obliged to yield, and to 
sign the hard-fought bill for emancipation in the District of 
Columbia. But how reluctantly, with what bad grace he signed 
it! Good boy; he wishes not to strike his mammy. And to 
think that the friends of humanity in Europe will credit this 
emancipation not where it is due, not to the noble pressure 
exercised by the high-minded Northern masses! Mr. Lincoln, 
his friends assert, does not wish to hurt the feelings of any one 
with whom he has to deal. Exceedingly amiable quality in a 
private individual, but at times turning almost to be a vice in 
a man intrusted with the destinies of a nation. So he never 
could decide to hurt the feelings of McClellan, and this after all 


237 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



NEGRO CABIN ON SOUTHERN PLANTATION. 


an act of justice and of self-conscientious force, as an utterance 
of the lofty, pure, and ardent aspirations and will of a high- 
minded people. Europe may see now in the proclamation an 
action of despair made in the duress of events. . . . Every 

time an Africo-American regiment is armed or created, Mr. 
Lincoln seems as though making an effort, or making a gracious 
concession in permitting the increase of our forces. It seems 
as if Mr. Lincoln were ready to exhaust all the resources 
of the country before he boldly strikes the Africo-American 
vein.” 

One hundred and seventy thousand negroes were enlisted, and 
many of them performed notable service, displaying, at Fort 
Wagner, Olustee, and elsewhere, quite as much steadiness and 
courage as any white troops. If the expressions of doubt as to 
the military value of the colored race were sincere, they argued 
inexcusable ignorance; for black soldiers had fought in the ranks 
of our Revolutionary armies, and Perry’s victory on Lake Erie 
in 1813—which, with the battle of the Thames, secured us the 
great Northwest—was largely the work of colored sailors. 

The President recognized the obligation of the Gov¬ 
ernment to protect all its servants by every 
means in its power, and issued a proclama¬ 
tion directing that “ for every soldier of 
the United States killed in violation 
of the laws of war, a rebel soldier 
shall be executed; and for every 
one enslaved by the enemy or 
sold into slavery, a rebel soldier 


the numerous proofs of his in¬ 
capacity. But Mr. Lincoln hurts 
thereby, and in the most sensible 
manner, the interests, nay, the lives 
of the twenty millions of peo¬ 
ple. . . . The last draft could be 

averted from the North if the four 
millions of loyal Africo-Americans were 
called to arms. But Mr. Lincoln, with the 
Sewards, the Blairs, and others, will rather see 
every Northern man shot than to touch the pal¬ 
ladium of the rebels. . . . Proclamation conditionally abolish¬ 

ing slavery from 1863. The conditional is the last desperate effort 
made by Mr. Lincoln and by Mr. Seward to save slavery. The 
two statesmen found out that it was dangerous longer to resist 
the decided, authoritative will of the masses. But if the rebellion 
is crushed before January 1st, 1863, what then? If the rebels 
turn loyal before that term? Then the people of the North will 
be cheated. The proclamation is written in the meanest and the 
most dry routine style; not a word to evoke a generous thrill, 
not a word reflecting the warm and lofty comprehension and 
feelings of the immense majority of the people on this question 
of emancipation. Nothing for humanity, nothing to humanity. 
How differently Stanton would have spoken! General Wads¬ 
worth truly says that never a noble subject was more belittled by 
the form in which it was uttered. . . . The proclamation of 

September 22d may not produce in Europe the effect and the 
enthusiasm which it might have evoked if issued a year ago, as 


PLANTER’S RESIDENCE IN LOUISIANA. 





























238 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


shall be placed at hard labor on the public works.” But such 
retaliation was never resorted to. 

Before the war it had been a constant complaint of the South¬ 
erners, that the discussion of schemes for the abolition of slavery, 
and the scattering of documents that argued the right of every 
man to liberty,' were likely to excite bloody insurrection among 
the slaves. And many students of this piece of history have 
expressed surprise that when the war broke out the blacks did 
not at once become mutinous all over the South, and make it 
impossible to put Confederate armies in the field. But it must 
be remembered, that although the struggle resulted in their 
liberation, yet when it was begun no intention was expressed 
on the part of the Government except 
a determination to save the Union, and 
the war had been in progress a year 
and a half before the blacks had any 
reason to suppose it would benefit 
them whichever way it might turn. 

They were often possessed of more 
shrewdness than they were credited 
with. Their sentiments up to the time 
of the Emancipation Proclamation were 
perhaps fairly represented by one who 
was an officer's servant in an Illinois 
regiment, and was at the battle of Fort 
Donelson. A gentleman who afterward 
met him on the deck of a steamer, and 
was curious to know what he thought 
of the struggle that was going on, 
questioned him with the following 
result : 

“ Were you in the fight ? ” 

“ Had a little taste of it, sa.” 

“ Stood your ground, did you? ” 

“ No, sa ; I runs.” 

“ Run at the first fire, did you ? ” 

“ Yes, sa ; and would ha’ run soona 
had I know’d it war cornin’.” 

“ Why, that wasn’t very creditable 
to your courage.” 

“ Dat isn’t in my line, sa; cookin’s 
my perfeshun.” 

“ Well, but have you no regard for your reputation ? ” 

“ Refutation’s nuffin by de side ob life.” 

“ Do you consider your life worth more than other people’s?” 

“ It’s worth more to me, sa.” 

“ Then you must value it very highly? ” 

“Yes, sa, I does; more dan all dis wuld ; more dan a million 
of dollars, sa: for what would dat be wuf to a man wid de bref 
out of him ? Self-perserbashum am de fust law wid me.” 

“ But why should you act upon a different rule from other 
men r 

“ Because different men set different values upon dar lives: 
mine is not in de market.” 

“ But if you lost it, you would have the satisfaction of know¬ 
ing that you died for your country.” 

“ What satisfaction would dat be to me when de power ob 
feelin’ was gone ? ” 

“ Then patriotism and honor are nothing to you ? ” 

“Nuffin whatever, sa: I regard dem as among de vanities: 
and den de Gobernment don’t know me; I hab no rights; may 
be sold like old hoss any day, and dat’s all.” 


“ If our old soldiers were like you, traitors might have broken 
up the Government without resistance.” 

“Yes, sa; dar would hab been no help for it. I wouldn’t put 
my life in de scale ’ginst any^gobernment dat ever existed ; for 
no gobernment could replace de loss to me.” 

“ Do you think any of your company would have missed you 
if you had been killed?” 

“ May be not, sa; a dead white man ain’t much to dese sogers, 
let alone a dead nigga; but I’d a missed myself, and dat was de 
pint wid me.” 

Incidents like this were eagerly reported by journals that 
chose to argue that the colored men would not fight in any case, 

and such assertions were kept up and 
repeated by them long after they had 
fought most gallantly on several fields. 
Somebody in describing one of these 
battles used the expression, “ The col¬ 
ored troops fought nobly,” and this was 
seized upon and repeated sneeringly in 
hundreds of head-lines and editorials, 
always with an implication that it was 
buncombe, until the readers of those 
journals were made to believe that such 
troops did not fight at all. The fact was 
that their percentage of losses on the 
whole number that went into the ser¬ 
vice was slightly greater than that of 
the white troops; and when we con¬ 
sider that they fought with a prospect 
of being either murdered or sold into 
slavery, if they fell into the hands of 
the enemy, it must be acknowledged 
that they were entitled to a full measure 
of credit. Immediately after the proc¬ 
lamation of emancipation was issued, 
Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant-general of 
the army, was sent to Louisiana, where 
he explained his mission in a speech to 
the soldiers, in the course of which he 
said: 

“ Look along the river, and see the 
multitude of deserted plantations upon 
its banks. These are the places for these freedmen, where they 
can be self-sustaining and self-supporting. All of you will some 
day be on picket-duty; and I charge you all, if any of this un¬ 
fortunate race come within your lines, that you do not turn them 
away, but receive them kindly and cordially. They are to be 
encouraged to come to us; they are to be received with open 
arms; they are to be fed and clothed ; they are to be armed. 
This is the policy that has been fully determined upon. I am 
here to say that I am authorized to raise as many regiments of 
blacks as I can. I am authorized to give commissions, from the 
highest to the lowest; and I desire those persons who are earnest 
in this work to take hold of it. I desire only those whose hearts 
are in it, and to them alone will I give commissions. I don’t 
care who they are, or what their present rank may be. I do not 
hesitate to say, that all proper persons will receive commissions. 

“ While I am authorized thus in the name of the Secretary of 
War, I have the fullest authority to dismiss from the army any 
man, be his rank what it may, whom I find maltreating the freed¬ 
men. This part of my duty I will most assuredly perform if any 
case comes before me. I would rather do that than give com- 



.. 


*■ 


COLONEL ROBERT G. SHAW. 

(Commanding the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Colored Regiment.) 


i 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


239 


missions, because such men are unworthy the name of soldiers. 
This, fellow soldiers, is the determined policy of the Adminis¬ 
tration. You all know, full well, when the President of the 
United States, though said to be slow in coming to a determi¬ 
nation, once puts his foot down, it is there ; and he is not going 
to take it up. He has put his foot down. I am here to assure 
you that my official influence shall be given that he shall not 
raise it.” 

Major-Gen. B. M. Prentiss then made a speech, in which he 
said, that “ from the time he was a prisoner, and a negro sen¬ 
tinel, with firm step, beat in front of his cell, and with firmer 


knowledge of the gun, and, above all, a readiness of ear and 
imitation which for purposes of drill counterbalances any defect 
of mental training. As to camp life, they have little to sacri¬ 
fice ; they are better fed, housed, and clothed than ever in their 
lives before, and they appear to have fewer inconvenient vices. 
They are simple, docile, and affectionate almost to the point of 
absurdity. The same men who stood fire in open field with 
perfect coolness, on the late expedition, have come to me blub¬ 
bering in the most irresistibly ludicrous manner on being trans¬ 
ferred from one company in the regiment to another. This 
morning I wandered about where different companies were 



voice commanded silence within, he prayed God for the day of 
revenge ; and he now thanked God that it had come.” 

General Prentiss, it will be remembered, had been captured 
at the battle of Shiloh, and from this incidental testimony it 
appears that he found the Confederates had negroes doing duty 
as sentinels at least. 

Col. Thomas W. Higginson, who saw much service in General 
Saxton’s department on the coast of South Carolina, and who 
there raised and commanded a regiment of colored troops, 
wrote: “ It needs but a few days to show up the absurdity of 
distrusting the military availability of these people. They have 
quite as much average comprehension as whites of the need 
of the thing, as much courage I doubt not, as much previous 


target shooting, and their glee was contagious. Such exulting 
shouts of ‘ Ki! ole man,’ when some steady old turkey-shooter 
brought his gun down for an instant’s aim and unerringly hit the 
mark ; and then, when some unwary youth fired his piece into 
the ground at half cock, such infinite guffawing and delight, such 
rolling over and over on the grass, such dances of ecstasy, as 
^nade the Ethiopian minstrelsy of the stage appear a feeble imi¬ 
tation.” 

The first regiment of colored troops raised at the North 
was the P'ifty-fourth Massachusetts, commanded by Col. Robert 
G. Shaw, who fell at their head in the desperate assault on Fort 
Wagner. The whole-heartedness w'lth which, when once per¬ 
mitted to enlist, the colored soldiers entered into the war, is 





















240 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


indicated by the fact that their en¬ 
thusiasm added not only to the mus¬ 
kets in the field, but also to the music 
and poetry in the air. A private in 
the regiment just mentioned produced 
a song which, whatever its defects as 
poetry, can hardly be criticised for its 
sentiments. 

Fremont told them, when the war it first 
begun, 

How to save the Union, and the way it 
should be done; 

But Kentucky swore so hard, and Old Abe 
he had his fears, 

Till every hope was lost but the colored 
volunteers. 

Chorus. 

Oh, give us a flag all free without a slave ! 

We’ll fight to defend it as our fathers 
did so brave. 

The gallant Comp’ny A will make the 
rebels dance ; 

And we’ll stand by the Union, if we only 
have a chance. 

McClellan went to Richmond with two hundred thousand brave; 
He said, "Keep back the niggers," and the Union he would save. 
Little Mac he had his way, still the Union is in tears : 

Now they call for the help of the colored volunteers. 

Cho. —Oh, give us a flag, etc. 

Old Jeff says he’ll hang us if we dare to meet him armed— 

A very big thing, but we are not at all alarmed ; 

For he first has got to catch us before the way is clear, 

And “that’s what's the matter” with the colored volunteer. 

Cho. —Oh, give us a flag, etc. 

So rally, boys, rally ! let us never mind the past. 

We had a hard road to travel, but our day is coming fast ; 

For God is for the right, and we have no need to fear; 

The Union must be saved by the colored volunteer. 

Cho. —Oh, give us a flag, etc. 

How many of them Jeff Uavis did hang, or otherwise murder, 
will never be known; but it is certain that many of those cap¬ 
tured were disposed of in some manner not in accordance with 
the laws of war. At the surrender of Port Hudson not a single 
colored man was found alive, although it was known that thirty- 
five had been taken prisoners by the Confederates during the 
siege. It is no wonder that when they did go into battle they 
fought with desperation. The first regular engagement in which 
they took part was the battle of Milliken’s Bend, La., June 7, 
1863 ; concerning which an eye-witness wrote: 


“ A force of about five hundred 
negroes, and two hundred men of the 
Twenty-third Iowa, belonging to the 
Second Brigade, Carr’s division (the 
Twenty-third Iowa had been up the 
river with prisoners, and was on its 
way back to this place), was surprised 
in camp by a rebel force of about two 
thousand men. The first intimation 
that the commanding officer received 
was from one of the black men, who 
went into the colonel’s tent, and said, 

‘ Massa, the secesh are in camp.’ The 
colonel ordered him to have the men 
load their guns at once. He instantly 
replied : ‘ We have done did that now, 
massa.’ Before the colonel was ready, 
the men were in line, ready for action. 
As before stated, the rebels drove our 
force toward the gunboats, taking 
colored men prisoners and murdering 
them. This so enraged them that they rallied, and charged the 
enemy more heroically and desperately than has been recorded 
during the war. It was a genuine bayonet charge, a hand-to-hand 
fight, that has never occurred to any extent during this prolonged 
conflict. Upon both spies men were killed with the butts of 
muskets. White and black men were lying side by side, pierced 
by bayonets, and in some instances transfixed to the earth. In 
one instance, two men—one white and the other black—were 
found dead, side by side, each having the other’s bayonet through 
his body. If facts prove to be what they are now represented, 
this engagement of Sunday morning will be recorded as the most 
desperate of this war. Broken limbs, broken heads, the man¬ 
gling of bodies, all prove that it was a contest between enraged 
men—on the one side, from hatred to a race; and on the other, 
desire for self-preservation, revenge for past grievances and the 
inhuman murder of their comrades. One brave man took his 
former master prisoner, and brought him into camp with great 
gusto. A rebel prisoner made a particular request that his own 
negroes should not be placed over him as a guard.” 

Capt. M. M. Miller, who commanded a colored company in 
that action, said: “ I went into the fight with thirty-three men, 
and had sixteen killed, eleven badly wounded, and four slightly. 
The enemy charged us so close that we fou ght with our bayo¬ 
nets hand to hand. I have six broken bayonets to show how 
bravely my men fought. The enemy cried, ‘No quarter!’ but 
some of them were very glad to take it when made prisoners. 
Not one of my men offered to leave his place until ordered to 
fall back. No negro was ever found alive that was taken a 
prisoner by the rebels in this fight.” 



* 



\ 

\ 


\ 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


241 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH HOOKER. 


CHAPTER XXI. 

CHANCEL LORSVILLE. 

“ FIGHTING JOE HOOKER ”-LETTER FROM PRESIDENT LINCOLN—RE¬ 
STORING THE DISCIPLINE OF THE ARMY- CAPTURING THE 

HEIGHTS OF FREDERICKSBURG—SKILLFUL MOVEMENT BY “STONE¬ 
WALL ” JACKSON—HEROIC CHARGE OF CAVALRY COMMANDED 

BY MAJOR PETER KEENAN-ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING OF GENERAL 

JACKSON—DEFEAT OF THE NATIONAL FORCES—GENERAL HOOK¬ 
ER’S EXPLANATION OF HIS FAILURE—NUMEROUS INTERESTING 
INCIDENTS. 

AFTER Burnside’s failure at Fredericksburg, he was super¬ 
seded, January 25, 1863, by General Joseph Hooker, who had 
commanded one of his grand divisions. Hooker, now forty- 
eight years old, was a graduate of West Point, had seen service 
in the Florida and Mexican wars, had been through the penin¬ 
sula campaign with McClellan, was one of our best corps com- 
manders, and was a favorite with the soldiers, who called him 
“ Fighting Toe Hooker. In giving the command to General 
Hooker, President Lincoln accompanied it with a remarkable 
letter, which not only exhibits his own peculiar genius, but sug¬ 
gests some of the complicated difficulties of the military and 
political situation. He wrote: “ I have placed you at the head 
of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon 
'what appear to me sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for 
you to know there are some things in regard to which I am not 
quite satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skilful 
soldier, which of course I like. I also believe you do not mix 
politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have 
confidence in yourself, which is a valuable if not indispensable 


quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, 
does good rather than harm ; but I think that during General 
Burnside’s command of the army you have taken counsel of your 
ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you 
did a great wrong to the country, and to a most meritorious and 
honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to 
believe it, of your recently saying, that both the army and the 
government needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, 
but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only 
those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What f 
now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictator¬ 
ship. The Government will support you to the utmost of its 
ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will 
do for all commanders. I much fear that the spirit which you 
have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their com¬ 
mander, and withholding confidence from him, will now turn 
upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. 
Neither you nor Napoleon, were he alive again, could get any 
good out of any army while such a spirit prevails in it. And 
now, beware of rashness ! Beware of rashness! But with energy 
and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories.” 

Hooker restored the discipline of the Army of the Potomac, 
which had been greatly relaxed, reorganized it in corps, and 
opened the spring campaign with every promise of success. 
The army was still on the Rappahannock, opposite Fredericks¬ 
burg, and he planned to cross over and strike Lee’s left. Mak¬ 
ing a demonstration with Sedgwick’s corps below the town, he 
moved a large part of his army up-stream, crossed quickly, and had 
forty-six thousand men at Chancellorsville before Lee guessed 
what he was about. This “ ville ” was only a single house, 
named from its owner. Eastward, between it and Fredericks¬ 
burg, there was open country; west of it was the great thicket 
known as the Wilderness, in the depths of which, a year later, a 
bloody battle was fought. 

Instead of advancing into the open country at once, and strik¬ 
ing the enemy’s flank, Hooker lost a day in inaction, which gave 
Lee time to learn what was going on and to make dispositions 
to meet the emergency. Leaving a small force to check Sedg- 
wick, who had carried the heights of Fredericksburg, he moved 
toward Hooker with nearly all his army, May 1st, and attacked at 
various points, endeavoring to ascertain Hooker’s exact position. 
By nightfall of this same day, Hooker appears to have lost con¬ 
fidence in the plans with which he set out, and been deserted by 
his old-time audacity; for instead of maintaining a tactical offen¬ 
sive, he drew back from some of his more advanced positions, 
formed his army in a semicircle, and awaited attack. His left 
and his centre were strongly posted and to some extent in¬ 
trenched ; but his right, consisting of Howard’s corps, was “ in 
the air,” and, moreover, it faced the Wilderness. When this 
weak spot was discovered by the enemy, on the morning of the 
2d, Lee sent Jackson with twenty-six thousand men to make a 
long detour, pass into the Wilderness, and, emerging suddenly 
from its eastern edge, take Howard by surprise. Jackson’s men 
were seen and counted as they passed over the crest of a hill; 
they were even attacked by detachments from Sickles’s corps; 
and Hooker sent orders to Howard to strengthen his position, 
advance his pickets, and not allow himself to be surprised. But 
Howard appears to have disregarded all precautions, and in the 
afternoon the enemy came down upon him, preceded by a rush 
of frightened wild animals driven from their cover in the woods 
by the advancing battle-line. Howard’s corps was doubled up, 
thrown into confusion, and completely routed. The enemy was 



242 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


coming on exultingly, when General Sickles sent Gen. Alfred 
Pleasonton with two regiments of cavalry and a battery to occupy 
an advantageous position at Hazel Grove, which was the key- 
point of this part of the battlefield. Pleasonton arrived just in 
time to see that the Confederates were making toward the same 
point and were likely to secure it. There was 
but one way to save the army, and Pleasonton 
quickly comprehended it. He ordered Major Peter 
Keenan, with the Eighth Pennsylvania cavalry 
regiment, about four hundred strong, to charge 
immediately upon the ten thousand Confederate 
infantry. “It is the same as saying we must be 
killed,” said Keenan, “ but we’ll do it.” This 
charge, in which Keenan and most of his command 
were slain, astonished the enemy and stopped their 
onset, for they believed there must be some more 
formidable force behind it. * 

In the precious minutes thus gained, Pleasonton 
brought together twenty-two guns, loaded them 
with double charges of canister, and had them 
depressed enough to make the shot strike the 
ground half-way between his own line and the 
edge of the woods where the enemy must emerge. 

When the Confederates 
resumed their charge, 
they were struck by 
such a storm of iron as 
nothing human could 
withstand ; other troops 
were brought up to the 
support of the guns, and 
what little artillery the 
Confederates had ad¬ 
vanced to the front was 
knocked to pieces. 

Here, about dusk, Gen¬ 
eral Jackson rode to the 
front to reconnoitre. As 
he rode back again with 
his staff, some of his own 
men, mistaking the horse¬ 
men for National cavalry, 
fired a volley at them, by 
which several were killed. 

Another volley inflicted 
three wounds upon Jack- 
son; and as his frightened 
horse dashed into the 
woods, the general was 
thrown violently against 
the limb of a tree and 
injured still more. Afterward, when his men were bearing 
him off, a National battery opened fire down the road, one of 


* This is the story of Keenan’s charge as told by General Pleasonton, and generally 
accepted, which has been made the theme of much comment and several poems. 
Nobody questions that the charge was gallantly made, and resulted in heavy loss to 
the intrepid riders ; but several participants have recorded their testimony that it 
did not take place by order of General Pleasonton or in any such manner as he relates 
—in fact, that it was rather an unexpected encounter with the enemy when the regi¬ 
ment was obeying orders to cross over from a point near Hazel Grove to the aid of 
General Howard. Among these is Gen. Pennock Huey, who was the senior major in 
command of the regiment, and was one of the few officers that survived the charge. 


the men was struck, and the general fell heavily to the ground. 
He finally reached the hospital, and his arm was amputated, 
but he died at the end of a week. Jackson’s corps renewed 
its attack, under Gen. A. P. Hill, but without success, and 
Hill was wounded and borne from the field. 

The next morning, 
May 3d, it was renewed 
again under Stuart, the 
cavalry leader, and at the 
same time Lee attacked 
in front with his entire 
force. The Confederates 
had sustained a serious 
disaster the evening be¬ 
fore, in the loss of Lee’s 
ablest lieutenant; but now 
a more serious one befell 
the National army, for 
General Hooker was ren¬ 
dered insensible by the 
shock from a cannon-ball 
that struck a pillar of the 
Chancellor house, against 
which he was leaning. 
After this there was no 
plan or organization to 
the battle on the National 
side—though each corps 
commander held his own 
as well as he could, and 
the men fought valiantly 
—while Lee was 'at his 
best. The line was forced 
back to some strong in- 
trenchments that had been prepared the night be¬ 
fore, when Lee learned that Sedgwick had defeated 
the force opposed to him, captured Lredericksburg 
heights, and was promptly advancing upon the 
Confederate rear. Trusting that the force in his 
front would not advance upon him, Lee drew off 
a large detachment of his army and turned upon 
Sedgwick, who after a heavy fight was stopped, 
and with some difficulty succeeded in crossing the 
river after nightfall. Lee then turned again upon 
Hooker; but a great storm suspended operations 
for twenty-four hours, and the next night the Na¬ 
tional army all recrossed the Rappahannock, leav¬ 
ing on the field fourteen guns ; thousands of small- 
arms, all their dead, and many of their wounded. 
In this battle or series of battles, the National loss 
was about seventeen thousand men, the Confed¬ 
erate about thirteen thousand. Hooker had commanded 
about one hundred and thirteen thousand five hundred, to 
Lee’s sixty-two thousand (disregarding the different methods 
of counting in the two armies) ; but as usual they were not 
in action simultaneously ; many were hardly in the fight at all. 
and at every point of actual contact, with the exception of 
Sedgwick’s first engagement, the Confederates were superior 
in numbers. 

Three general officers were killed in this battle. On the 
National side, Major-Gens. Hiram G. Berry and Amiel W. 
Whipple; on the Confederate side, Brig.-Gen. E. F. Paxton 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK. 
























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


243 



General Jackson, as already mentioned, was mortally wounded, 
and several others were hurt, some of them severely. 

Sedgwick’s part of this engagement is sometimes called the 
battle of Salem Heights, and sometimes the second battle of 
Fredericksburg. 

Two coincidences are noticeable in this action. First, each com¬ 
mander made a powerful flank movement against his opponent’s 
right, and neither of these movements was completely successful, 
although they were most gallantly and skilfully made. Second, 
each commander, in his after explanations accounting for his 
failure to push the fight any farther, declared that he could not 
conscientiously order his men to assail the strong intrenchments 
of the enemy. 

General Hooker’s explanation of his failure, so far as it could 
be explained, was given in a conversation with Samuel P. Bates, 
his literary executor, who visited the ground with him in 1876. 
Mr. Bates says : “ Upon our arrival at the broad, open, rolling 
fields opposite Banks’s Ford, three or four miles up the stream, 
General Hooker explained, waving his hand significantly : ‘ Here 
on this open ground I intended to fight my battle. But the 
trouble was to get my army on it, as the banks of the stream 
are, as you see, rugged and precipitous, and the few fords were 
strongly fortified and guarded by the enemy. By making a 
powerful demonstration in front of and below the town of Fred¬ 
ericksburg with a part of my army, I was able, unobserved, to 
withdraw the remainder, and, marching nearly thirty miles up 
the stream, to cross the Rappahannock and the Rapidan unop¬ 
posed, and in four days’ time to arrive at Chancellorsville, within 
five miles of this coveted ground. . . . But at midnight Gen¬ 


eral Lee had moved out with his whole army, and by sunrise was 
in firm possession of Jackson’s Ford, had thrown up this line of 
breastworks, which you can still follow with the eyes, and it was 
bristling with cannon from one end to the other. Before I had 
proceeded two miles the heads of my columns, while still upon 
the narrow roads in these interminable forests, where it was im¬ 
possible to manoeuvre my forces, were met by Jackson with a 
full two-thirds of the entire Confederate army. I had no alter¬ 
native but to turn back, as I had only a fragment of my com¬ 
mand in hand, and take up the position about Chancellorsville 
which I had occupied during the night, as I was being rapidly 
outflanked upon my right, the enemy having open ground on 
which to operate. . . . Very early on the first day of the 

battle I rode along the whole line and examined every part, 
suggesting some changes and counselling extreme vigilance. 
Upon my return to headquarters I was informed that a contin¬ 
uous column of the enemy had been marching past my front 
since early in the morning. This put an entirely new phase 
upon the problem, and filled me with apprehension for the safety 
of my right wing, which was posted to meet a front attack from 
the south, but was in no condition for a flank attack from the 
west. I immediately dictated a despatch to Generals Slocum 
and Howard, saying that I had good reason to believe that the 
enemy was moving to our right, and that they must be ready to 
meet an attack from the west. . . . The failure of Howard 

to hold his ground cost us our position, and I was forced, in the 
presence of the enemy, to take up a new one.’ ” * 


* “ Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,” vol. iii. p. 217, et sey. 
























RATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE, SUNDAY, MAY 3, 1863.—REPELLING ATTACK OF CONFEDERATES. 






campfire and battlefield. 


245 



LIEUTENANT-GENERAL THOMAS J. ("STONEWALL") JACKSON, C. S. A. 



self behind an empty cracker-box, the sides of which were half 
an inch in thickness, exposed his person as little as possible, 
and felt as secure as the ostrich with his head buried in the sand. 

“The ominous silence of the sharp-shooters in front was a sure 
indication that the main force was approaching; and a rebel 
officer, upon the left, brought every man into his place in the 
ranks by exclaiming to his command: ‘Forward, double-quick, 
march ! Guide left! ’ The hideous yells once more disclosed 
their position in the dark woods; but the volleys of buck and 
ball, and the recollection of the previous repulse, quickly hushed 
their outcries, and they were again vanquished. The conflict 
upon the left still continued, and the defeated soldiers 
began to reinforce the troops that were striving by 
desperate efforts to pierce the line, until a company 
swept the road with its fire and checked the move¬ 
ment, and only one or two rebels at intervals leaped 
across the deadly chasm. A demand for ammunition 
was now heard—the most fearful cry of distress in a 
battle—and every man upon the right contributed a few 
cartridges, which were carried to the scene of action in the 
hats of the donors. The forty rounds which fill the maga¬ 
zines are sufficient for any combat, unless the troojTs are 
protected by earthworks or a natural barrier ; and the extra 
cartridges, which must be placed in the pockets and knap¬ 
sacks, are seldom used. 

“ It was after sunset ; but the flashes of the rifles in the 
darkness were the targets at which the guns were fired, until 
the enemy retired at nine P.M., and the din of musketry was 
succeeded by the groans of the wounded. The song of the 
whippoorwills increased the gloom that pervaded the forest; 
and the pickets carefully listened to them, because the hostile 


General Howard says he did not receive that despatch, and in 
his report he gave the following reasons for the disaster that over¬ 
took his corps : “ I. Though constantly threatened and apprised 
of the moving of the enemy, yet the woods were so dense that 
he was able to mass a large force, whose exact whereabouts 
neither patrols, reconnoissances, nor scouts ascertained. He 
succeeded in forming a column opposite to and outflanking my 
right. II. By the panic produced by the enemy’s reverse fire, 
regiments and artillery were thrown suddenly upon those in 
position. III. The absence of General Barlow’s brigade, which 
I had previously located in reserve and cn echelon with Colonel 
Von Gilsa’s, so as to cover his right flank. This was the only 
general reserve I had.” 

Every such battle has its interesting incidents, generally 
enough to fill a volume, and they are seldom repeated. Some 
of the most interesting incidents of Chancellorsville are told by 
Capt. Henry N. Blake, of the El eventh Massachusetts Regiment. 
Here are a few of them : 

“A man who was loading his musket threw away the cartridge, 
with a fearful oath about government contractors ; and I noticed 
that the paper was filled with fine grains of dry earth instead of 
gunpowder. In the thickest of the firing an officer seized an 
excited soldier—who discharged his piece with trembling hands 
near the ears, and endangered the lives, of his comrades—and 
kicked him into the centre of the road. Trade prospered 
throughout the day, and the United States sharp-shooters were 
constantly exchanging their dark green caps for the regulation 
hats which were worn by the regiment. The captain of one of 
the companies of skirmishers was posted near a brook at the 
base of a slight ascent upon which the enemy was massed, and 
there was a scattering fire of bullets which cautioned all to ‘ lie 
down.’ While he was rectifying the alignment he perceived 
with amazement one of his men, who sat astride a log and 
washed his hands and face, and then cleansed the towel with 

a piece of soap 
which he carried. 
One sharp-shooter 
shielded himself 
behind a blanket; 
and another con¬ 
cealed him- 


MAJOR PETER KEENAN 


m 











246 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


skirmishers might signal to each other by imitating the mourn¬ 
ful notes. The rebels gave a yell as soon as they were beyond 
the range of Union bullets, and repeated it in tones which grew 
more distinct when they had retreated a great distance and con¬ 
sidered themselves safe. The abatis upon the extreme left was 
set on fire in this prolonged struggle ; and a gallant sergeant— 
who fell at Gettysburg—sprang over the work, and averted the 
most serious results by pouring water from the canteens of his 
comrades until the flames were extinguished. The skirmishers 
began to exchange shots at daybreak upon May 3d, and a bullet 
penetrated the head of a lieutenant who was asleep in the adjoin¬ 
ing company, and he never moved. There was a ceaseless roll of 
musketry ; at half-past five A.M. the batteries emitted destruc¬ 
tive charges of canister, and most of the men in the ranks of the 
support crouched upon the ground while the balls passed over 
them. For two hours the hordes of Jackson, encouraged by 
their easy victory upon May 2d, screamed like fiends, assailed 
the troops that defended the plank road, and 
succeeded in turning their left, and compelling 
them to retire through the forest, and re-form 
their shattered lines. There was no running: 
the soldiers fell back slowly, company after com¬ 
pany, and wished for some directing mind to 
select a new position. Unfortunately the Na¬ 
tional cause had lost General Berry, the brave 
commander of the division ; the ranking brig¬ 
adier, General Mott, was wounded ; another 
brigadier was an arrant coward; and the largest 
part of nine regiments were marched three miles 
to the rear by one of the generals without any 
orders. The regiments of the brigade, under 
the supervision of their field and line officers, 
rallied in the open field near the Chancellor 
house, which was the focus upon which Lee con¬ 
centrated his batteries, until the shells ignited it ; 
and the flames consumed some of the wounded 
who were helpless, and three women that re¬ 
mained in the cellar for safety barely escaped 
from the ruins. The brigade was aligned upon 
the road to the United States ford at nine A.M., 
and the men recovered their knapsacks in the 
midst of a heavy cannonading which still con¬ 
tinued. No symptoms of fear were manifested, 
although the artillery was planted upon the left, 
in the rear and the front, from which point most 
of the shells were hurled ; and the force was 
threatened with capture. A rebel and a mem¬ 
ber of the brigade rested together near an oak, 
and mutually assisted each other to fight the 
fire in the forest, that began raging while the 
battle was in progress; and joyfully clasped 
their scorched and aching hands in friendship 
when it was quelled. Colors were captured, and 
hundreds of the foe threw down their arms and 
retreated with the Union forces ; and happy 
squads without any guard were walking upon 
the road, and inquiring the way to the rear. 

Three batteries lost most of their horses, and a 
large proportion of their men, by the concen¬ 
tration of Lee’s artillery, and the bullets of the 
sharp-shooters, who were specially instructed to 
pick off the animals before they shot the gun¬ 


ners. Several pieces, including one without wheels, which had 
been demolished, were drawn from the field by details from the 
infantry. Some of those who were slightly injured returned to 
their commands after their wounds had been dressed, and fought 
again. One cannon-ball killed a cavalryman and his horse ; and 
a shell tore the clothing from an aid, but inflicted no personal 
hurt, and he returned, after a brief absence, to search for his 
porte-monnaie, which he carried in the pocket that had been so 
suddenly wrested from him. 

“ The corps color was always waving in the front; and 
General Sickles, smoking a cigar, stood a few feet from the 
regiment, in the road up which the troops had marched from 
the Chancellor house; and aids and orderlies were riding to 
and fro, one of whom reported that his steed had been killed. 
‘ Captain, the Government will furnish you with another horse,’ 
he complacently replied. 

“ A rebel officer of high rank, who had been captured, stopped 



JACKSON'S ATTACK ON RIGHT WING AT CHANCELLORSVILLE. 













CAMPFIRE AND RATTLEFIELD. 






near the general, and sought to open a con¬ 
versation, with the following result: 

“ ‘ General, I have met you in New York.’ 

“ ‘ Move forward that battery.’ 

“ * General, I have seen you before.’ 

“ ‘ The brigade must advance to the woods.’ 

“ ‘ General, don’t you remember’— 

“ ‘ Go to the rear, sir; my troops are now 
in position.’ 

“ There were few, if any, stretcher bearers 
at the front, and wounded men that had lost 
a leg or an arm dragged themselves to the 
field-hospital; and the surgeons of some regi¬ 
ments which had not been engaged in the 
battle sat upon a log in idleness, and refused, 
with a great display of dignity, to assist the 
suffering who were brought to them, because 
they did not belong to their commands. This 
shameful conduct, which I often witnessed, 
exasperated the officers and soldiers ; and 
they compelled the surgeons to discharge 
their duty in a number of cases by threaten¬ 
ing to shoot them. The heat was very severe ; many cannoneers 
divested themselves of their uniforms while they were working ; 
and a number of the skirmishers, who were posted in the open 
field, and obliged to lie low without any shelter, were sometimes 
afflicted by sunstroke. ‘ I will win a star or a coffin in this 
battle,’ remarked a colonel as he was riding to the scene of con¬ 
flict in which a bullet checked his noble military aspirations. 
* To take a soldier without ambition is to pull off his spurs.’ 
‘ I have got my leave of absence now,’ gladly said an officer, 
whose application had always been refused at headquarters, 
when he left the regiment to go to the 
ance of a rabbit causes an excitement 
occasions, and one ran in front of the 
line as the action commenced; and 
the birds were flying wildly among the 
trees, as if they anticipated a storm ; 
and a soldier shouted, ‘ Stop him, stop 
him ! I could make a good meal if I 
had him.’ ‘ This is English neutral¬ 
ity,’ an intelligent metal moulder re¬ 
marked, in examining the fragment of 
a shell, and explaining the process of its 
manufacture to the company; while 
the rebel batteries every minute added 
some specimens to his collection. The 
officials in Richmond published at this 
time an order, directing that the cloth¬ 
ing should be taken from the bodies of 
their dead and issued to the living. 

They always stripped the dead and the 
dying upon every field ; and I noticed 
that one man who had been stunned, 
and afterward effected his escape, wore 
merely a shirt and hat when he entered 
the lines. An officer who was going 
the rounds in the night was surprised 
to find one of his most faithful men 
who returned no answer to his inqui¬ 
ries ; and supposing that he had been 
overcome by fatigue, and fallen asleep, 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. H. VAN ALLEN. 
(Aide-de-Camp to General Hooker.) 


grasped his hands to awaken him : but they 
were cold with death. The soldier, killed 
upon his post of duty, rested in the extreme 
front, with his musket by his side, and face 
toward the enemies of his country. General 
Whipple, the able commander of the third 
division of the corps, was mortally wounded 
by a sharp-shooter who was one-third of a 
mile from him ; and a priest administered 
the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church 
upon the spot where he fell, in the presence 
of his weeping staff and soldiers, by whom 
he was greatly beloved. A brigade made a 
reconnoissance in the forest at one P.M., 
and captured forty sharp-shooters who were 
perched upon the limbs of lofty oaks, and 
could not descend and escape before this 
force advanced. 

“ The rebels ascertained the location of the 
trains upon the north bank of the Rappa¬ 
hannock, opened a battery upon them, and a 
squad of three hundred prisoners uttered a 
yell of joy when they saw a cannon-ball enter a large tent 
which was crowded with the dying and disabled. The direc¬ 
tion of the firing was changed, and caused utter dismay when 
some of the number were killed by the missiles that were hurled 
by their comrades in the army of Lee.” 


OFFICERS SETTING OUT TO MAKE CALLS OF CEREMONY ON THEIR GENERALS. 











































1 Copy right : IQ94- Bv Bryan Taylor &Co. 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


*49 



CEMETERY GATE. 


CHAPTER XXII. 

GETTYSBURG. 

INVASION OF THE NORTH DETERMINED ON-CAVALRY SKIRMISH AT 

FLEETWOOD, WHICH MARKS A TURNING POINT IN THAT SER¬ 
VICE—HOOKER’S PLANS—HE ASKS TO BE RELIEVED-MEADE IN 

COMMAND—BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG—POSITION OF CONFEDER¬ 
ATE FORCES—NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED ON EACH SIDE-SURFACE 

OF THE COUNTRY ABOUT GETTYSBURG-BLOODY FIGHTING ON 

THE RIGHT-GENERAL HANCOCK SUPERSEDES GENERAL HOWARD 

-RAPID CONCENTRATION OF THE ARMIES-TERRIFIC FIGHTING 

IN THE PEACH ORCHARD-DRAMATIC CHARGE OF THE LOUISIANA 

TIGERS—THE CHARGE OF PICKETT’S BRIGADE—ROMANTIC AND 
PATHETIC INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE—RETREAT OF THE CON¬ 
FEDERATE ARMIES-VICTORY DUE TO DETERMINATION AND 

COURAGE OF THE COMMON SOLDIERS—EFFECT OF THE CONFED¬ 
ERATE DEFEAT IN EUROPE—GREAT NATIONAL CEMETERY ON 
THE BATTLEFIELD-LINCOLN’S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. 

AFTER the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, 
public opinion in the South began to demand that the army 
under Lee should invade the North, or at least make a bold 
movement toward Washington. Public opinion is not often very 
discriminating in an exciting crisis ; and on this occasion public 
opinion failed to discriminate between the comparative ease 
with which an army in a strong position may repel a faultily 
planned or badly managed attack, and the difficulties that must 
beset the same army when it leaves its base, launches forth into 
the enemy’s country, and is obliged to maintain a constantly 
lengthening line of communication. The Southern public could 
not see why, since the Army of Northern Virginia had won two 
victories on the Rappahannock, it might not march forward at 
once, lay New York and Philadelphia under contribution, and 
dictate peace and Southern independence in the Capitol at 


Washington. Whether the Confederate Government shared 
this feeling or not, it acted in accordance with it ; and whether 
Lee approved it or not, he was obliged to obey. Yet, in the 
largest consideration of the problem, this demand for an invasion 
of the North was correct, though the result proved disastrous. 
For experience shows that purely defensive warfare will not 
accomplish anything. Lee’s army had received a heavy rein¬ 
forcement by the arrival of Longstreet’s corps, its regiments had 
been filled up with conscripts, it had unbounded confidence in 
itself, and this was the time, if ever, to put the plan for indepen¬ 
dence to the crucial test of offensive warfare. Many subsidiary 
considerations strengthened the argument. About thirty thou¬ 
sand of Hooker’s men had been enlisted in the spring 
of 1861, for two years, and their term was now expiring. 
Vicksburg was besieged by Grant, before whom nothing 
had stood as yet; and its fall would open the Mississippi 
and cut the Confederacy in two, which might seal the 
fate of the new Government unless the shock were 
neutralized by a great victory in the East. Volunteer¬ 
ing had fallen off in the North, conscription was resorted 
to, the Democratic party there had become more hostile to 
the Government and loudly abusive of President Lincoln and 
his advisers, and there were signs of riotous resistance to a 
draft. Finally, the Confederate agents in Europe reported 
that anything like a great Confederate victory would secure 
immediate recognition, if not armed intervention, from Eng¬ 
land and France. 

Hooker, who had lost a golden opportunity by his aberration 
or his accident at Chancellorsville, had come to his senses again, 
and was alert, active, and clear-headed. As early as May 28, 
1863, he informed the President that something was stirring in 
the camp on the other side of the river, and that a northward 
movement might be expected. On the 3d of June, Lee began 
his movement, and by the 8th two of his three corps (those of 
Ewell and Longstreet) were at Culpeper, while A. P. Hill’s 
corps still held the lines on the Rappahannock. 

It was known that the entire Confederate cavalry, under 
Stuart, was at Culpeper; and Hooker sent all his cavalry, under 
Pleasonton, with two brigades of infantry, to attack it there. 
The assault was to be made in two converging columns, under 
Buford and Gregg; but this plan was disconcerted by the fact 
that the enemy’s cavalry, intent upon masking the movement of 
the great body of infantry and protecting its flank, had advanced 
to Brandy Station. Here it was struck first by Buford and 
afterward by Gregg, and there was bloody fighting, with the 
advantage at first in favor of the National troops; but the two 
columns failed to unite during the action, and finally withdrew. 
The loss was over five hundred men on each side, including 
among the killed Col. B. F. Davis, of the Eighth New York 
cavalry, and Colonel Hampton, commanding a Confederate 
brigade. Both sides claimed to have accomplished their object 
—Pleasonton to have ascertained the movements of Lee’s army, 
and Stuart to have driven back his opponent. Some of the 
heaviest fighting was for possession of a height known as Fleet- 
wood Hill, and the Confederates name the action the battle of 
Fleetwood. It is of special interest as marking the turning- 
point in cavalry service during the war. Up to that time the 
Confederate cavalry had been generally superior to the National. 
This action—a cavalry fight in the proper sense of the term, 
between the entire mounted forces of the two armies—was a 
drawn battle; and thenceforth the National cavalry exhibited 
superiority in an accelerating ratio, till finally nothing mounted 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


250 



on Southern horses could stand before the magnificent squadrons 
led by Sheridan, Custer, Kilpatrick, and Wilson. 

Hooker now knew that the movement he had anticipated 
was in progress, and he was very decided in his opinion as to 
what should be done. By the 13th of June, Lee had advanced 
Ewell’s corps beyond the Blue Ridge, and it was marching down 
the Shenandoah Valley, while Hill’s was still in the intrench- 
ments on the Rapidan, and Longstreet’s was midway between, 
at Culpeper. Hooker asked to be allowed to interpose his 
whole army between these widely separated parts of its antago¬ 
nist and defeat them in detail; but with a man like Halleck for 
military adviser at Washington, it was useless to propose any 
bold or brilliant stroke. Hooker was forbidden to do this, and 
ordered to keep his army between 
the enemy and the capital. He 

therefore left 


ments, to be interposed between the enemy’s advance and 
Philadelphia and Harrisburg. The other two corps of Lee’s 
army crossed the Potomac on the 24th and 25th, where Ewell 
had crossed ; and Hooker, moving on a line nearer Washington, 
crossed with his whole army at Edward’s Ferry, on the 25th and 
26th, marching thence to Frederick. He now proposed to send 
Slocum’s corps to the western side of the South Mountain 
range, have it unite with a force of eleven thousand men under 
French, that lay useless at Harper’s Ferry, and throw a powerful 
column upon Lee’s communications, capture his trains, and 
attack his army in the rear. But again he came into collision 
with the stubborn Halleck, who would not consent to the 
abandonment, even temporarily, of Harper’s Ferry, though the 

experience of the Antietam campaign, 
when he attempted to hold it in the same 
way and lost its 


MAJOR-GENERAL ALFRED PLEASONTON. 


MA J° r -G£N£ Ra 

John Buford. 

his position on the 
Rappahannock, and moved toward 
Washington, along the line of the 
Orange and Alexandria Railroad. 

Ewell moved rapidly down the Shen¬ 
andoah Valley, and attacked Winchester, which was held by 
General Milroy with about ten thousand men. Milroy made a 
gallant defence ; but after a stubborn fight his force was broken 
and defeated, and about four thousand of them became prison¬ 
ers. The survivors escaped to Harper’s Ferry. 

The corps of Hill and Longstreet now moved, Hill following 
Ewell into the Shenandoah Valley, and Longstreet skirting the 
Blue Ridge along its eastern base. Pleasonton’s cavalry, recon¬ 
noitring these movements, met Stuart’s again at Aldie, near a 
gap in the Bull Run Mountains, and had a sharp fight; and 
there were also cavalry actions at Middleburg and Upperville. 
Other Confederate cavalry had already crossed the Potomac, 
made a raid as far as Chambersburg, and returned with supplies 
to Ewell. On the 22d, Ewell’s corps crossed at Shepherdstown 
and Williamsport, and moved up the Cumberland Valley to 
Chambersburg. A panic ensued among the inhabitants of that 
region, who hastened to drive off their cattle and horses, to save 
them from seizure. The governors of New York and Pennsyl¬ 
vania were called upon for militia, and forwarded several regi¬ 


naM oR 


-GENER fl ‘ L 

garrison, should 
have taught him better. This new 
cause of trouble, added to previous dis¬ 
agreements, was more than Hooker could 
stand, and on the 27th he asked to be relieved from command 
of the army. His request was promptly complied with, and the 
next morning the command was given to General Meade, only 
five days before a great battle. 

George Gordon Meade, then in his forty-ninth year, was a 
graduate of West Point, had served through the Mexican war, 
had done engineer duty in the survey of the Great Lakes, had 
been with McClellan on the peninsula, and had commanded 
a corps in the Army of the Potomac at Antietam, at Fredericks¬ 
burg, and at Chancellorsville. The first thing he did on assum¬ 
ing command was what Hooker had been forbidden to do : he 
ordered the evacuation of Harper’s Ferry, and the movement of 
its garrison to Frederick as a reserve. 

At this time, June 28th, one portion of Lee’s army was at 
Chambersburg, or between that place and Gettysburg, another 
at York and Carlisle, and a part of his cavalry was within sight of 
the spires of Harrisburg. The main body of the cavalry had gone 
off on a raid, Stuart having an ambition to ride a third time 
around the Army of the Potomac. This absence of his cavalry 




CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


251 


left Lee in ignorance of the movements of his adversary, whom he 
appears to have expected to remain quietly on the south side of 
the Potomac. When suddenly he found his communications in 
danger, he called back Ewell from York and Carlisle, and ordered 
the concentration of all his forces at Gettysburg. Many converg¬ 
ing roads lead into that town, and its convenience for such con¬ 
centration was obvious. Meade was also advancing his army 
toward Gettysburg, though with a more certain step—as was 
necessary, since his object was to find Lee’s army and fight it, 
wherever it might go. His cavalry, under Pleasonton, was doing 
good service ; and that general advanced a division under Buford 
on the 29th to Gettysburg, with orders to delay the enemy till 
the army could come up. Meade had some expectation of bring¬ 
ing on the great battle at Pipe Creek, southeast of Gettysburg, 
where he marked out a good defensive line ; but the First Corps, 
under Gen. John F. Reynolds, advanced rapidly to Gettysburg, 
and on the 1st of July encountered west of the town a portion 
of the enemy coming in from Chambersburg. Lee had about 
seventy-three thousand five 
hundred men (infantry and 
artillery), and Meade about 
eighty-two thousand, while 
the cavalry numbered about 
eleven thousand on each 
side, and both armies had 
more cannon than they 
could use.* 

When Reynolds ad¬ 
vanced his own corps (the 
First) and determined to 
hold Gettysburg, he or¬ 
dered the Eleventh (How¬ 
ard’s) to come up to its 
support. The country 
about Gettysburg is broken 
into ridges, mainly parallel, 
and r u n n i n g north and 
south. On the first ridge 
west of the village stood a 
theological seminary, which 
gave it the name of Semi¬ 
nary Ridge. Between this 
and the next is a small 
stream called Willoughby 
Run, and here the first 
day’s battle was fought. 

Buford held the ridges till 
the infantry arrived, climb¬ 
ing in the belfry of the 
seminary and looking anx¬ 
iously for their coming. 

The Confederates were ad¬ 
vancing by two roads that 
met in a point at the edge 


* Various figures and estimates 
are given as representing the 
strength of the two armies, some of 
which take account of detachments 
absent on special duty, and some do 
not. The figures here given denote 
very nearly the forces actually avail¬ 
able for the battle. 


of the village, and Reynolds disposed his troops, as fast as they 
arrived, so as to dispute the passage on both roads. The key- 
point was a piece of high ground, partly covered with woods, 
between the roads, and the advance of both sides rushed for it. 
Here General Reynolds, going forward to survey the ground, 
was shot by a sharp-shooter and fell dead. He was one of the 
ablest corps commanders that the Army of the Potomac ever 
had. The command devolved upon Gen. Abner Doubleday, 
who was an experienced soldier, having served through the 
Mexican war, been second in command under Anderson at Fort 
Sumter, and seen almost constant service with the Army of 
the Potomac. The Confederate force contending for the woods 
was Archer’s brigade; the National was Meredith’s “ Iron Bri¬ 
gade.” Archer’s men had been told that they would meet noth¬ 
ing but Pennsylvania militia, which they expected to brush out 
of the way with little trouble ; but when they saw the Iron 
Brigade, some of them were heard saying: “’Taint no militia; 

there are the-black-hatted fellows again ; it’s the Army of 

the Potomac ! ” The result 
here was that Meredith’s 
men not only secured the 
woods, but captured Gen¬ 
eral Archer and a large part 
of his brigade, and then ad¬ 
vanced to the ridge west of 
the run. 

On the right of the line 
there had been bloody fight¬ 
ing, with unsatisfactory re¬ 
sults, owing to the careless 
posting of regiments and a 
want of concert in action. 
Two National regiments 
were driven from the field, 
and a gun was lost; while 
on the other hand a Con¬ 
federate force was driven 
into a railroad cut for shel¬ 
ter, and then subjected to 



an enfilading 


fire through 


the cut, so that a large por¬ 
tion were captured and the 
remainder dispersed. 

Whether any commander 
on either side intended to 
bring on a battle at this 
point, is doubtful. But 
both sides were rapidly and 
heavily reinforced, and both 
fought with determination. 
The struggle for the Cham¬ 
bersburg road was obstinate, 
especially after the Confed¬ 
erates had planted several 
guns to sweep it. “ We 
have come to stay,” said 
Roy Stone’s brigade, as 
they came into line under 
the fire of these guns to 
support a battery of their 
own ; and “ the battle after¬ 
ward became so severe that 
































Campfire and battlefield. 


the greater portion did stay,” 
says General Doubleday. A 
division of Ewell’s corps soon 
arrived from Carlisle, wheeled 
into position, and struck the 
right of the National line. 

Robinson’s division, resting 
on Seminary Ridge, was 
promptly brought forward to 
meet this new peril, and was 
so skilfully handled that it 
presently captured three 
North Carolina regiments. 

Gen. Oliver O. Howard, 
being the ranking officer, 
assumed command when he 
arrived on this part of the 
field ; and when his own corps 
(the Eleventh) came up, about 
one o’clock, he placed it in 
position on the right, pro¬ 
longing the line of battle far 
around to the north of the 
town. This great extension 
made it weak at many points; 
and as fresh divisions of Con¬ 
federate troops were con¬ 
stantly arriving, under Lee’s 
general order to concentrate 
on the town, they finally be¬ 
came powerful enough to 
break through the centre, roll¬ 
ing back the right flank of the 
First Corps and the left of the 
Eleventh, and throwing into 
confusion everything except the left of the First Corps, which 
retired in good order, protecting artillery and ambulances. Of 
the fugitives that swarmed through the town, about five thou¬ 
sand were made prisoners. But this had been effected only 
at heavy cost to the Confederates. At one point Iverson’s 
Georgia brigade had rushed up to a stone fence behind which 
Baxter’s brigade was sheltered, when Baxter’s men suddenly 
rose and delivered a volley that struck down five hundred of 
Iverson’s in an instant, while the remainder, who were sub¬ 
jected also to a cross-fire, immediately surrendered—all but one 
regiment, which escaped by raising a white flag. 

In the midst of the confusion, Gen. Winfield S. Hancock 
arrived, under orders from General Meade to supersede Howard in 
the command of that wing of the army. He had been instructed 
also to choose a position for the army to meet the great shock 
of battle, if he should find a better one than the line of Pike 
Creek. Hancock’s first duty was to rally the fugitives and 
restore order and confidence. Steinwehr’s division was in reserve 
on Cemetery Ridge, and Buford’s cavalry was on the plain 
between the town and the ridge; and with these standing fast 
he stopped the retreat and rapidly formed a line along that 
crest. 

The ridge begins in Round Top, a high, rocky hill; next north 
of this is Little Round Top, smaller, but still bold and rugged; 
and thence it is continued at a less elevation, with gentler slopes, 
northward to within half a mile of the town, where it curves around 
to the east and ends at Rock Creek. The whole length is about 


three miles. Seminary Ridge 
is a mile west of this, and 
nearly parallel with its cen¬ 
tral portion. Hancock with¬ 
out hesitation chose this line, 
placed all the available troops 
in position, and then hurried 
back to headquarters at 
Taneytown. Meade at once 
accepted his plan, and sent 
forward the remaining corps. 
The Third Corps, commanded 
by General Sickles, being al¬ 
ready on the march, arrived at 
sunset. The Second (Han¬ 
cock’s) marched thirteen miles 
and went into position. The 
Fifth (Sykes’s) was twenty- 
three miles away, but marched 
all night and arrived in the 
morning. The Sixth (Sedg¬ 
wick’s) was thirty-six miles 
away, but was put in motion 
at once. At the same time, 
Lee was urging the various 
divisions of his army to make 
the concentration as rapidly 
as possible, not wishing to at¬ 
tack the heights till his forces 
were all up. 

It is said by General Long- 
street that Lee had promised 
his corps commanders not to 
fight a battle during this ex¬ 
pedition, unless he could take 
a position and stand on the defensive ; but the excitement and 
confidence of his soldiers, who felt themselves invincible, com¬ 
pelled him. While he was waiting for his divisions to arrive, 
forming his lines, and perfecting a plan of attack, Sedgwick’s 
corps arrived on the other side, and the National troops were 
busy constructing rude breastworks. 

Between the two great ridges there is another ridge, situated 
somewhat like the diagonal portion of a capital N. The order 
of the corps, beginning at the right, was this: Slocum’s, How¬ 
ard’s, Hancock’s, Sickles’s, with Sykes’s in reserve on the left, 
and Sedgwick’s on the right. Sickles, thinking to occupy more 
advantageous ground, instead of remaining in line, advanced to 
the diagonal ridge, and on this hinged the whole battle of the 
second day. For there was nothing on which to rest his left 
flank, and he was obliged to “ refuse ” it—turn it sharply back 
toward Round Top. This presented a salient angle (always a 
weak point) to the enemy; and here, when the action opened at 
four o’clock in the afternoon, the blow fell. The angle was at 
a peach orchard, and the refused line stretched back through a 
wheat-field; Geneml Birney’s division occupying this ground, 
while the right of MCkles’s line was held by Humphreys. 

Longstreet’s men attacked the salient vigorously, and his ex¬ 
treme right, composed of Hood’s division, stretched out toward 
Little Round Top, where it narrowly missed winning a position 
that would have enabled it to enfilade the whole National line. 
Little Round Top had been occupied only by signal men, when 
General Warren saw the danger, detached Vincent’s brigade from 



MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. 






GENERAL HANCOCK AND STAFF NEAR LITTLE ROUND TOP. 



FIELD HOSPITAI_HEADQUARTERS. 

(From the Panorama of Gettysburg, at Chicago.) 













254 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 



MAJOR-GENERAL CARL SCHURZ. 



repeated charges and counter-charges, 
and numerous bloody incidents; for 
Sickles was constantly reinforced, and 
Lee, being under the impression that 
this was the flank of the main line, 
kept hammering at it till his men 
finally possessed the peach orchard, 
advanced their lines, assailed the left 
flank of Humphreys, and finally drove 
back the National line, only to .find 
that they had forced it into its true 
position, from which they could not 
dislodge it by any direct attack, while 
the guns and troops that now crowned 
the two Round Tops showed any flank 
movement to be impossible. About 
sunset Ewell’s corps assailed the Union 
right, and at heavy cost gained a por¬ 
tion of the works near Rock Creek. 

One of the most dramatic incidents 
of this day was a charge on Cemetery 
Hill by two Confederate brigades led 
by an organization known as the 
Louisiana Tigers. It was made just 
at dusk, and the charging column im¬ 
mediately became a target for the bat¬ 
teries of Wiedrick, Stevens, and Rick¬ 
etts, which fired grape and canister, 
each gun making four discharges a 
minute. But the Tigers had 
the reputation of never having 
failed in a charge, and in spite 
of the frightful gaps made by 
the artillery and by volleys of 
musketry, they kept on till 
they reached the guns, and 
made a hand-to-hand fight for 
them. Friend and foe were 
fast becoming mingled, when 
Carroll’s brigade came to the 
rescue of the guns, and the 
remnants of the Confederate 
column fled down the hill in 
the gathering darkness, hast¬ 
ened by a double-shotted fire 
from Ricketts’s battery. Of 
the seventeen hundred Tigers, 
twelve hundred had been 
struck down, and that famous 
organization was never heard 
of again. 

Many exciting incidents of 
this twilight battle are told. 
When the Confederates 
charged on Wiedrick’s battery, 
there was a difficulty in de¬ 
pressing the guns sufficiently, 
or they probably never would 
have reached it ; and when 
they did reach it the gunners 
stood by and fought them with 
pistols, handspikes, rammers. 


a division that was going out to rein¬ 
force Sickles, and ordered it to occupy 
the hill at once. One regiment of 
Weed’s brigade (the 140th New York) 
also went up, dragging and lifting the 
guns of Hazlett’s battery up the rocky 
slope ; and the whole brigade soon 
followed. They were just in time to 
meet the advance of Hood’s Texans, 
and engage in one of the bloodiest 
hand-to-hand conflicts of the war, and 
at length the Texans were hurled back 
and the position secured. But dead or 
wounded soldiers, in blue and in gray, 
lay everywhere among the rocks. Gen¬ 
eral Weed was mortally wounded; 
General Vincent was killed ; Col. Pat¬ 
rick H. O’Rorke, of the 140th, a recent 
graduate of West Point, of brilliant 
promise, was shot dead at the head of 
his men ; and Lieut. Charles E. Haz- 
lett was killed as he leaned over Gen¬ 
eral Weed to catch his last words. “ I 
would rather die here,” said Weed, 
“ than that the rebels should gain an 
inch of this ground! ” Hood’s men 
made one more attempt, by creeping 
up the ravine between the two Round 
Tops, but were repelled by a bayonet 
charge, executed by Chamber¬ 
lain’s Twentieth Maine Regi¬ 
ment ; and five hundred of 
them, with seventeen officers, 
were made prisoners. The 
peculiarity of Chamberlain’s 
charge, which was one of the 
most brilliant manoeuvres ever 
executed on a battlefield, con¬ 
sisted in pushing the regiment 
forward in such a manner that 
the centre moved more rapidly 
than the flanks, which gradually 
brought it into the shape of a 
wedge that penetrated the 
Confederate line and cut off 
the five hundred men from 
their comrades. 

Meanwhile terrific fighting 
was going on at the salient in 
the peach orchard. Several 
batteries were in play on both 
sides, and made destructive 
work; a single shell from one 
of the National guns killed or 
wounded thirty men in a com¬ 
pany of thirty-seven. Here 
General Zook was killed, Colo¬ 
nel Cross was killed, General 
Sickles lost a leg, and the 
Confederate General Barksdale 
was mortally wounded and 
died a prisoner. There were 


MAJOR-GENERAL ABNER DOUBLEDAY. 










CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


255 




mental colors, but was immediately shot, and the flag fell 
outside. Adjutant Young then jumped over the wall and 
rescued it, while at the same time the color-sergeant of 
the Eighth Louisiana was rushing up at the head of his 


regiment and waving his flag. Y 


ou ntr 


sprang upon him, 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
ADOLPH VON STEINWEHR. 


henry BAXTER- and stones ; for they 
brevet major-gener had received orders not to 

limber up under any circumstances, but 
to fight the battery to the last, and they obeyed their orders 

literally and nobly. Nearly all of them, however, were beaten 

down by the Confederate infantrymen, and the battery was 
captured entire; but the victorious assailants were now sub¬ 
jected to a flank fire from Stevens’s battery, which poured in 
double-shotted canister at point-blank range, before the arrival 
of Carroll’s brigade completed their destruction. At Ricketts’s 
battery a Confederate lieutenant sprang forward and seized 
the guidon, when its bearer, 

Private Riggen, shot him 
dead with his revolver. The 
next moment a bullet cut the 
staff of the guidon, and an¬ 
other killed Riggen, who fell 

across the body of the lieu¬ 
tenant. Another Confeder¬ 
ate lieutenant, rushing into 
the battery, laid his hand 
upon a gun and demanded 
its surrender; his answer was 
a blow from a handspike that 
dashed out his brains. At 
another gun a Confederate 
sergeant, with his rifle in his 
hand, confronted Sergeant 
Stafford with a demand for 
the surrender of the piece; 
whereupon Lieutenant Brock¬ 
way threw a stone that 
knocked him down, and Staf¬ 
ford, catching his rifle, fired 
it at him and wounded him 
seriously. Sergeant Geible, 
of the One Hundred and 
Seventh Ohio, sprang upon 
the low stone wall when the 
Confederates were charging, 
and defiantly waved the regi- 


seized the flag, and shot the sergeant; but he also re¬ 
ceived a bullet which passed through his arm and into 
his lung, and at the same time a Confederate officer 
aimed a heavy blow at his head, which was parried by a 
comrade. Clinging tenaciously to the captured flag, 
Young managed to get back into his own lines, and sank 
fainting from loss of blood ; but his life was saved, and 
he was promoted for his gallantry. 

While the actions of the first two days were compli¬ 
cated, that of the third was extremely simple. Lee had 
tried both flanks, and failed. He now determined to-.at- 
tempt piercing the centre of Meade’s line. Longstreet, 
wiser than his chief, protested, but in vain. On the other 
hand, Meade had held a council of war the night before, 
and in accordance with the vote of his corps commanders 
determined to stay where he was and fight it out. 

Whether General Meade contemplated a retreat, has been 
disputed. On the one hand, he testified before the Committee 
on the Conduct of the War 
that he never thou ght of 
such a thing ; on the other. 

General Double- 
da y, i n his 
“ Chancellors- 
ville and Get¬ 
tysburg,” 
presents 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
FRANCIS C. BARLOW. 


MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID B. BIRNEY. 

BRIGADIER GENERAL JOHN GIBBON 
MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD S. HANCOCK. 











256 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


testimony that seems to leave no reasonable doubt. There is 
nothing intrinsically improbable in the story. Meade’s service 
in that war had all been with the Army of the Potomac, and 
it was the custom of that army to retreat after a great battle. 
The only exception thus far had been Antietam; and two 
great battles, with the usual retreat, had been fought since 
Antietam. Meade had been in command of the entire army 
but a few days, and he cannot be said to have been, in the 
ordinary sense of the term, the master-spirit at Gettysburg. 
It was Reynolds who went out to meet the enemy, and stayed 
Ids advance, on the first day; it was Hancock who selected 
the advantageous position for the second day ; it was Warren 
who secured the neglected key-point. The fact of calling a 
council of war at all implies doubt in the mind of the com¬ 
mander. But, after all, the question is hardly important, so far 
at least as it concerns Meade’s place in history. He is likely 
to be less blamed for contemplating retreat at the end of two 
days’ fighting when he had the worst of it, than for not con¬ 
templating pursuit at the end of the third day when the enemy 
was defeated. There are some considerations, however, which 
must give Meade’s conduct of this battle a very high place for 
generalship. He seemed to know how to trust his subordinates, 
and to be uninfluenced by that weakness which attacks so many 
commanders with a fear lest something shall be done for which 
they themselves shall not receive the credit. He unhesitatingly 
accepted Hancock’s judgment as to the propriety of receiving 
battle on Cemetery Hill, and showed every disposition to do 
all that would tend to secure the great purpose, without the 
slightest reference to its bearing on anybody's reputation. Fur¬ 


thermore, he had, what brilliant soldiers often lack, a complete 
comprehension of the entire situation, as regarded the war, and 
appreciated the importance of the action in which he was about 
to engage. This is proved by the following circular, which he 
issued on the 30th of June, one day before the battle, to his 
subordinates: 

“ The commanding general requests that, previous to the 
engagement soon expected with the enemy, corps and all other 
commanding officers will address their troops, explaining to 
them briefly the immense issues involved in this struggle. The 
enemy are on our soil. The whole country now looks anxiously 
to this army to deliver it from the presence of the foe. Our 
failure to do so will leave us no such welcome as the swelling of 
millions of hearts with pride and joy at our success would give 
to every soldier in the army. Homes, firesides, and domestic 
altars are involved. The army has fought well heretofore. It 
is believed that it will fight more desperately and bravely than 
ever if it is addressed in fitting terms. Corps and other com¬ 
manders are authorized to order the instant death of any soldier 
who fails in his duty at this hour.” 

Lee’s first intended movement was to push the success gained 
at the close of the second day by Ewell on the National right ; 
but Meade anticipated him, attacking early in the morning and 
driving Ewell out of his works. In preparation for a grand 
charge, Lee placed more than one hundred guns in position on 
Seminary Ridge, converging their fire on the left centre of 
Meade’s line, where he intended to send his storming column. 
Eighty guns (all there was room for) were placed in position 
on Cemetery Ridge to reply, and at one o’clock the firing 



ARTILLERY COMING INTO ACTION. 
(From the Panorama of Gettysburg, at Chicago.) 








CA M PEIR E A ND DA TT LE FI ELD. 


o/ 






began. 


deafening roar, 
died 


This was 

one of the most terrific artillery duels 
ever witnessed. There was a continuous and 
which was heard forty miles away. The shot and shells plou s 
up the ground, shattered gravestones in the cemetery, and sent 
their fragments flying among the troops, exploded caissons, and 
dismounted guns. A house used for Meade’s headquarters, in 
the rear of the line, was completely riddled. Many artillerists 
and horses were killed ; but the casualties among the infantry 
were not numerous, for the men lay flat upon the ground, taking 
advantage of every shelter, and waited for the more serious 
work that all knew was to follow. At the end of two hours 
Gen. Henry J. Hunt, Meade’s chief of artillery, ordered the 
firing to cease, both to cool the guns and to save the ammuni¬ 
tion for use in repelling the infantry charge. Lee supposed that 
his object—which was to demoralize his enemy and cause him 
to exhaust his artillery—had been effected. Fourteen thousand 
of his best troops—including Pickett’s division, which had not 
arrived in time for the previous day’s fighting—now came out 
of the woods, formed in heavy columns, and moved forward 
steadily to the charge. Instantly the National guns re¬ 
opened fire, and the Confederate ranks were ploughed 
through and through ; but the gaps were closed up, and the 
columns did not halt. There was a mile of open ground for 
them to traverse, and every step was taken under heavy fire. 

As they drew nearer, the batteries used grape and canister, 
and an infantry force posted in advance of the main line rose 
to its feet and fired volleys of musketry into the right flank. 
Now the columns began visibly to break up and melt away ; 

the force changed its direction somewhat, 


DEVIL'S DEN. 

Position occupied by Confederate Sharp-shooters, the point from which they shot at Union Officers on Little Round Top. 

From photograph by W, H. Tipton, Gettysburg, 


wing of 


the eagerness of all to join in the contest, men rushed from 
every side to the point assailed, mixing up all commands, but 
making a front that no such remnant as Pickett’s could break. 
Gen. Lewis A. Armistead, who led the charge and leaped over 
the wall, was shot down as he laid his hand on a gun, and his 
surviving soldiers surrendered themselves. On the slope of the 
hill many of the assailants had thrown themselves upon the 
ground and held up their hands for quarter; and an immediate 
sally from the National lines brought in a large number of pris¬ 
oners and battle-flags. Of that 
been launched out so proudly, only a broken 
returned. Nearly every officer in it, except Pickett, had been 
either killed or wounded. Armistead, a prisoner and dying, 
said to an officer who was bending over him, “ Tell Hancock 


magnificent column which had 
fragment ever 


I have wronged him and have wronged my country, 
had been opposed to secession, but the pressure of his 
and relatives 


’ He 
friends 


and the left 

so that it parted from the right, making an interval and ex¬ 
posing a new flank, which the National troops promptly took 
advantage of. But Pickett’s diminishing ranks still pushed on, 
till they passed over the outer lines, fought hand to hand at the 
main line, and even leaped the breastworks and thought to cap¬ 
ture the batteries. The point where they penetrated was marked 
by a clump of small trees on the edge of the hill, at that portion 
of the line held by the brigade of Gen. Alexander S. Webb, who 
was wounded ; but his men stood firm against the shock, and, from 


BRlGADltR-GENERAL 
gabbiel *• PAUL 


BRIGADIER GENERAL ALFRED 


DUFFIE. 

















AN HEROIC INCIDENT—COLOR SERGEANT BENJAMIN CRIPPEN REFUSES TO SURRENDER THE FLAG. 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


2 59 


had at length forced him into the service. Hancock had been 
wounded and borne from the field, and among the other wounded 
on the National side were Generals Doubleday, Gibbon, Warren, 
Butterfield, Stannard, Barnes, and Brook ; General Farnsworth 
was killed, and Gen. Gabriel R. Paul lost both eyes. Among 
the killed on the Confederate side, besides those already men¬ 
tioned, were Generals Garnett, Pender, and Semmes ; and among 
the wounded, Generals Hampton, Jenkins, Kemper, Scales, J. M. 
Jones, and G. T. Anderson. 

While this movement was in progress, Kilpatrick with his 
cavalry rode around the mountain and attempted to pass the 
Confederate right and capture the trains, while Stuart with his 
cavalry made a simultaneous attempt on the National right. 
Each had a bloody fight, but neither was successful. This 
closed the battle. Hancock urged that a great return charge 
should be made immediately with Sedgwick’s corps, which had 
not participated, and Lee expected such a movement as a mat¬ 
ter of course. But it was not done. 

That night Lee made preparations for retreat, and the next 
day—which was the 4th of July—the retreat was begun. Gen¬ 
eral Imboden, who conducted the trains and the ambulances, 
describes it as one of the most pitiful and heart-rending scenes 
ever witnessed. A heavy storm had come up, the roads were in 
bad condition, few of the wounded had been properly cared for, 
and as they were jolted along in agony they were groaning, curs¬ 
ing, babbling of their homes, and calling upon their friends to 
kill them and put them out of misery. But there could be 
no halt, for the Potomac was rising, and an attack was hourly 
expected from the enemy in the rear. 

Meade, however, did not pursue for several days, and then to 
no purpose ; so that Lee’s crippled army escaped into Virginia, 
but it was disabled from ever doing anything more than prolong¬ 
ing the contest. Gettysburg was essentially the Waterloo of 
the war, and there is a striking parallel in the losses. The num¬ 
bers engaged were very nearly the same in the one battle as in 
the other. At Waterloo the victors lost twenty-three thousand 
one hundred and eighty-five men, and the vanquished, in round 
numbers, thirty thousand. At Gettysburg the National loss was 
twenty-three thousand one hundred and ninety—killed, wounded, 
and missing. The Confederate losses were never officially re¬ 
ported, but estimates place them at nearly thirty 
thousand. Lee left seven thousand of his wounded 
among the unburied dead, and twenty-seven thou¬ 
sand muskets were picked up on the field. 

The romantic and pathetic incidents of 
this great battle are innumerable. John 
Burns, a resident of Gettysburg, seventy 
years old, had served in the \\ ar of 1812, 
being one of Miller’s men at Lundy’s Lane, 
and in the Mexican war, and had tried to 
enlist at the breaking out of the Rebellion, 
but was rejected as too old. When the 
armies approached the town, he joined the 
Seventh Wisconsin Regiment and displayed 
wonderful skill as a sharp-shooter; but he 
was wounded in the afternoon, fell into the 
hands of the Confederates, told some plaus¬ 
ible story to account for his lack of a 
uniform, and was finally carried to his own 
house. Jennie Wade was baking bread for Union soldiers when 
the advance of the Confederate line surrounded her house with 
enemies ; but she kept on at her work in spite of orders to desist, 


until a stray bullet 
struck her dead. An 
unknown Confederate 
officer lay mortally 
wounded within the 
Union lines, and one of 
the commanders sent to 
ask his name and rank. 

“Tell him,” said the 
dying man, “ that I shall 
soon be where there is 
no rank ; ” and he was 
never identified. Lieut. 

Alonzo H. Cushing com¬ 
manded a battery on 
General Webb’s line, and 
in the cannonade preced¬ 
ing the great charge on 
the third day all his guns 
but one were disabled, 
and he was mortally 
wounded. When the 
charging column ap¬ 
proached, he exclaimed, 

“ Webb, I will give them 
one more shot! ” fan his 
gun forward to the stone wall, fired it, said “ Good-by! ” and fell 
dead. Barksdale, of Mississippi, had been an extreme secession¬ 
ist, and had done much to bring on the war. At that part of the 
line where he fell, the Union commander was Gen. David B. 
Birney, son of a slaveholder that had emancipated his slaves, 
had been mobbed for his abolitionism, and had twice been the 
presidential candidate of the Liberty party. A general of the 
National army, who was present, remarks that Barksdale died 
“ like a brave man, with dignity and resignation.” On that 
field perished also the cause that he represented ; and as Ameri¬ 
cans we may all be proud to say that, so far as manly courage 



GENERAL MEADE’S HEADQUARTERS. 



MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL BUTTERFIELD. 
(Chief of Staft to General Meade.) 


















260 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 












could go, it 
died with 
dignity if not 
with resignation. 

Gen. Rufus R. Dawes, who 
was colonel of the Sixth Wisconsin Regiment, gives some par¬ 
ticulars of the fight at the railroad cut on the first day: “The 
only commands I gave, as we advanced, were, ‘Align on the 

colors! Close 
up on that 
color ! ’ The 
regiment was 
being broken 
up so that this 
order alone 
could hold 
the body to¬ 
gether. Mean- 
w h i 1e the 
colors were 
down upon 
the ground 
several times, 
but were 
raised at once 
by the heroes 
of the color- 
guard. Not 
one of the 
guard es¬ 
caped, every 
man being 
killed or 
wounded. 
Four hundred 
and twenty 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL FRANCIS T. NICHOLLS, C. S. A. men Started 


PART OF THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG. 

(From a War Department photograph.) 

as a regiment from the turnpike 
fence, of whom two hundred and 
forty reached the railroad cut. Years afterward I found 
the distance passed over to be one hundred and seventy-five 
paces. Every officer proved himself brave, true, and heroic 
in encouraging the men to breast this deadly storm ; but the 
real impetus was the eager, determined valor of our men who 
carried muskets in the ranks. The rebel color could be seen 
waving defiantly just above the edge of the railroad cut. 
A heroic ambition to capture it took possession of several of 
our men. Corporal Eggleston, a mere boy, sprang forward to 
seize it, and was shot dead the moment his hand touched the 
color. Private Anderson, furious at the killing of his brave 
young comrade, recked little for the rebel color ; but he swung 

J O 7 o 

aloft his musket, and with a terrific blow split the skull of the 
rebel who had shot young Eggleston. Lieutenant Remington 
was severely wounded in the shoulder while reaching for the 
colors. Into this deadly m 61 ee rushed Corporal Francis A. 


Waller, who seized and held the rebel battle-flag. It was the flag 
of the Second Mississippi Regiment. . . . Corporal James 

Kelly turned from the ranks and stepped beside me as we both 
moved hurriedly forward on the charge. He pulled open his 
woollen shirt, and a mark where the deadly minid-ball had 
entered his breast was visible. He said: ‘Colonel, won’t you 
please write to my folks that I died a soldier?’ ” 

The story of the critical struggle for the possession of Little 
Round Top, or at least of an important portion of it, has been 
graphically related by Adjutant Porter Farley, of the One Hun¬ 
dred and Fortieth New York Regiment, which went up at the 
same time with Hazlett’s battery. Captain Farley writes : 

“Just at that moment our former brigadier, Gen. G. K. 
Warren, chief engineer of the army, with an orderly and one or 
two officers, rode down toward the head of our regiment. He 
came from the direction of the hill-top. His speed and manner 













CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


26 [ 



indicated unusual excitement. Before he reached us he called 
out to O’Rorke to lead his regiment that way up the hill. 
O’Rorke answered him that General Weed had gone ahead and 
expected this regiment to follow him. ‘ Never mind that,’ 
answered Warren, ‘ I’ll take the responsibility.’ Warren’s words 
and manner carried conviction of the importance of the thing he 
asked. Accepting his assurance of full justification, O’Rorke 
turned the head of the regiment to the left, and, following one of 
the officers who had been with Warren, led it diagonally up the 
eastern slope of Little Round Top. Warren rode off, 
evidently bent upon securing other troops. The 
staff officer who rode with us, by his impatient 
gestures, urged us to our greatest speed. 

Some of the guns of Hazlett’s battery broke 

through our files 


toward the right as the successive rearward companies came 
upon the scene of action. There, while some were partly shel¬ 
tered by the rocks and others stood in the open, a fierce fight 
went on with an enemy among the trees and underbrush. 
Flushed with the excitement of battle, and bravely led, they 
pushed up close to our line. The steadfastness and valor dis¬ 
played on both sides made the result for some few minutes 
doubtful; but a struggle so desperate and bloody could not be 
a long one. The enemy fell back ; a short lull was succeeded 
by another onslaught, which was again repelled. 

“ When that struggle was over, the exultation of victory 
was soon chilled by the dejection which oppressed us as 
we counted and realized the 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL S. K. ZOOK, 


C °C0(V3L p h 

before we ' °'Rorke. 

reached the hill-top amid 
the frantic efforts of the horses, lashed by 
the drivers, to pull their heavy pieces up that 
steep acclivity. A few seconds later the 
head of our regiment reached the summit 
of the ridge, war’s wild panorama spread 
before us, and we found ourselves upon the 
verge of battle. It was a moment which 
called for leadership. There was no time 
for tactical formation. Delay was ruin. 

Hesitation was destruction. Well was it for the cause he served 
that the man who led our regiment that day was one prompt to 
decide and brave to execute. The bullets flew in among the 
men the moment the leading company mounted the ridge ; and 
as not a musket was loaded, the natural impulse was to halt and 
load them. But O’Rorke permitted no such delay. Springing 
from his horse, he threw the reins to the sergeant-major; his 
sword flashed from its scabbard into the sunlight, and calling, 
‘This way, boys,’ he led the charge over the rocks, down the 
hillside, till he came abreast the men of Vincent’s brigade, who 
were posted in the ravine to our left. Joining them, an irreg¬ 
ular line was formed, such as the confusion of the rocks lying 
thereabout permitted; and this line grew and was extended 


COLONE-C 


V AN 


horn £ 


ELLIS. 


had been won. Of 
our regiment eighty-five enlisted men 
and six officers had been wounded. Besides these, 
twenty-six of the comrades who had marched with 
us that afternoon had fallen dead before the fire of 
the enemy. Grouped by companies, a row of inani¬ 
mate forms lay side by side beneath the trees upon 
)' the eastern slope. No funeral ceremony, and only 
shallow graves, could be accorded them. In the 
darkness of the night, silently and with bitter de¬ 
jection, each company buried its dead. O’Rorke was among 
the dead. Shot through the neck, he had fallen without a 
groan, and we may hope without a pang. The supreme effort 
of his life was consummated by a death heroic in its surround¬ 
ings and undisturbed by pain.” 

It has been well said that Gettysburg was the common soldier’s 
battle ; that its great results were due, not so much to any gen¬ 
eralship either in strategy or in tactics, as to the intelligent 
courage and magnificent staying powers of the Northern soldier. 
If any one man was more than another the hero of the fight, it 
was General Hancock, who for his services on that field received 
the thanks of Congress. Senator Washburn, who saw him the 
next year at the Wilderness, remarked; “He was the finest- 









262 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



looking man above ground; he was the very impersonation of war.” Hancock not only chose the ground for the battle and set 
things in order for the conflict of the second day, but seemed to be everywhere present, animating the men with the spirit of 
his own valor and enthusiasm. He was especially conspicuous during the terrific cannonade that preceded the great charge of 
the third day, riding slowly up and down the lines. It is said that when he began this ride he was accompanied by thirty men, 
and when he finished it there was but one man with him—the horseman who carried his corps flag. All the others had either 
been struck down by the missiles of the enemy, or been called to imperative duty on different parts of the line. As he rode 
slowly along, he stopped frequently to speak to the men who were lying upon the ground to avoid the shells and balls, and 
clutching their rifles ready to spring up and meet the charge which they knew would follow as soon as the artillery fire ceased. 
While this famous charge was in progress, Hancock rode down to speak to General Stannard, whose Vermonters were to move 
forward and strike the charging column in flank, and at this moment he was most grievously wounded. A rifle ball struck the 

pommel of his saddle, tearing out and twisting a nail from it, and both bullet and 
nail entered his thigh. Two of General Stannard’s aids caught him as he fell from 
his horse, and put him into an ambulance. Here he wrote a note to General Meade 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP R. DE TROBRIAND. 


MAJOR-GENERAL DANIEL SICKLES- MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL P. HEINTZELMAN. 


urgently advising that, as soon as the Confederate charge was over, a return 
charge be made with the comparatively fresh troops of the Sixth Corps. 
Some think that if this had been done the Armv of Northern Virginia would 
have found the end of its career then and there, instead of at Appomattox 
a year and a half later. But General Longstreet says he expected such a 
charge and was prepared for it, and that if it had been made Sedgwick’s 
men would have fared as badly as Pickett’s. 

It is a little difficult to understand why so much has been made in litera¬ 
ture of this charge of Pickett’s, unless, perhaps, it is owing to the picturesque 
circumstances. It was at the close of the greatest battle of the war ; it 
was heralded by the mightiest cannonade of the war; it was witnessed by 
two great armies; it was made in the middle of the afternoon of a summer 
day, on a gentle slope, with the sun at the backs of the assailants, the best 
possible arrangement for a grand display ; it exhibited magnificent courage 
and confidence on the part of the soldiers that made it, and quite as great 
courage and confidence on the part of those who met and thwarted it. 
It is, perhaps, for these reasons that it has been made unduly famous ; 
for, after all, it was a blunder and a failure. There were other charges 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


263 



in the war that tested quite as much the devotion and endur- the position I had decided to occupy. ‘ Butterfield is busy,’ said 

ance of soldiers, and they were not all failures. The charge he, and he suggested that I use my own judgment. I again 

of Hooker's and Thomas’s men up the heights of Lookout replied that I should prefer to have some one of his staff offi- 

Mountain and Mission Ridge was even more picturesque, and cers sent with me, and asked that General Hunt, chief of the 

was a grand success. The National position at Gettysburg artillery, be sent. General Meade assented, and Hunt and I 


is always represented as being 
along a ridge, and this, in a gen¬ 
eral way, is true ; but near the 
centre the ridge is so low that 
it almost dies away into the 
plain, and Pickett’s men, being 
directed toward this point, had 
only the very gentlest of slopes 
to ascend. Gen. Alexander S. 

Webb, whose command was at 
this point, said in conversation: 

“ We had no intrenchments 
there, not a sod was turned.” 

“ But why did you not in¬ 
trench?” “Because we 
never supposed that any¬ 
body would be fool enough 
to charge up there.” The 
peril to the charging column 
was more from the cross-fire 
of; the batteries on the higher 
ground to the right and left, 
than from the direct fire in 
front. 

General Sickles has been 
criticised somewhat severely 
for the erroneous position 
taken by his corps on the 
second day of the battle, 
which resulted in the great 
slaughter at the peach or¬ 
chard and the wheat-field. 

On a subsequent visit to 
Gettysburg he gave this ex¬ 
planation of his action : 

“ It was quite early when 
I rode to General Meade’s headquarters for 
orders. The general told me that he did 
not think we would be attacked, as he 
believed the enemy was in no condition 
to renew the fight. I freely expressed 
to him my belief that the enemy would 
not only force a battle at Gettysburg, 
but would do so soon, hrom General 
Meade’s conversation, and from his 
manner, I concluded he did not intend 
to fight the' battle at Gettysburg if he 
could avoid it. General Butterfield, his 
chief of staff, told me that orders were 
being then prepared for a change of posi¬ 
tion to Pipe Clay Creek. After waiting 
some time for a decision as to what was to be 
done, I said to General Meade that I should 
put my command in position with a view to 
meet any emergency along my front, and at the 
same time asked him to send General Butter- 
field with me to look over the field and inspect 


WILL GIVE THEM ONE 
MORE SHOT! 


MAJOR-GENERAL 
GEORGE E PICKETT, C, S. A. 


rode away. Carefully we surveyed the ground in my 
front. I expressed the opinion that the high ground 
running from the Emmetsburg road to Round Top 
was the most advantageous position. Hunt agreed 
with me. 

“ ‘ Then I understand that I am to take this posi¬ 
tion, and you, as General Meade’s representative, so 
order.’ ‘ I do not care,’ said he, ‘ to take the respon¬ 
sibility of ordering you to take that position, but as 
soon as I can ride to General Meade’s headquarters 
you will receive his orders to do so.’ 

“ He rode away, but before 
he reached headquarters, or I 
received orders, my danger be¬ 
came imminent, and I was forced 
to go into line of battle. Just 
after I had taken 
position on the high 
ground selected, with 
Humphrey on the 
right, within and' be¬ 
yond the peach or¬ 
chard, and Birney 
on the left toward 
Round Top, I re¬ 
ceived an order from 
General Meade to 
report at his head¬ 
quarters. There was 
vigorous skirmishing 
on my front, and I 
returned word to the 
general that I was 
about to be attacked 
and could not leave 
the field. It was not 
long before I received 
a peremptory order 
to report at once to 
headquarters, as Gen¬ 
eral Meade was going 
to hold an important conference of 
corps commanders. I sent for Birney* 
put him in command, and rode rapidly 
to Meade’s headquarters. As I rode 
along I could hear the increasing fire 
along the line, and felt very solicitous 
for my command. As I came up to 
headquarters at a rapid gait, Meade 
came out hurriedly and said : ‘ Don’t dis¬ 
mount, don’t dismount ; I fear your whole 
ine is engaged ; return to your command, 
and in a few moments I will join you on the 
field.’ I rode back with all possible speed, reach¬ 
ing my corps before the enemy had made his first 
furious assault. General Meade soon joined me, 
as he had promised, and together we inspected 




















BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, THIRD DAY. 



W- -• .N ♦ V; • 1 

j 

1 / 



* ' —J ’ 

■T Nlfe"-- to 

1 

' ~ -Y- J 

Br - ffl V 



* v - * 

V ' 


GROUP OF CONFEDERATE PR I SON ER S BEI NG M A RC H ED TO TH E REAR UNDER GUARD. 
(From the Panorama of Gettysburg, at Chicago ) 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


265 



the position I had taken. ‘ Isn’t your line 
too much extended?’ said he. ‘It is,’ I 
replied; ‘ but I haven’t the Army of the 
Potomac, and have a wide space to cover. 
Reserves should at once be sent up. My 
dependence will have to be upon my artil¬ 
lery until support comes, and I need more 
guns.’ ‘Send to Hunt for what you want,’ 
said he, and he glanced over the slender line 
of infantry that stretched toward Round 
Top. Just before he left I said to him: 

‘ Does my position suit you ? If it does 
not, I will change it.’ ‘No, no ! ’ he replied 
quickly; ‘ I’ll send up the Fifth Corps, and 
Hancock will give any other supports you 
may require.’ 

“ He rode away, and soon after the battle 
began. The terrific struggle along the whole 
line, and especially in the peach orchard and 
the wheat-field on the right and left of my 
line, respectively, need not be gone over. 

It is matter of history. I sent to Hunt, 
when Meade had gone, for forty pieces of artiller 
which, added to the sixty I had, gave me the 
guns to keep up the fighting while I waited 
for reinforce¬ 
ments. War¬ 
ren, who was 
then an en¬ 
gineer officer, 
was on Round 
Top sending 
urgent ap¬ 
peals to me to 
send troops to 
hold that im¬ 
portant posi- 
t i on. One 
brigade sent 
to me I im¬ 
mediately de¬ 
spatched him. 

As the fight¬ 
ing went on 
and increased 
in intensity, I 
looked for the 
Fifth Corps 
again and 

again, and sent an aid several times to hurry 
them up. Sykes was slow, and, finding 
the needs of the hour growing greater and 
greater every moment, I sent to Hancock 
for help. Hancock was always prompt 
and generous, and with eager haste pushed 
forward his best troops to the assistance of 
the struggling Third Corps. But the mo¬ 
ments I waited for reinforcements that day 
were as long to me as an eternity, and the 
brave boys who wore the diamond during 
all this time were obliged to stand the 
shock of as furious an assault as was ever 








LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 
JAMES LONGSTREET, C. S. A. 


y, 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
E. P. ALEXANDER, C. S. A 


dealt against troops on any battlefield of 
modern times. The struggle in that now 
peaceful peach-orchard was then fierce as 
death. The wheat-field yonder was like the 
winepress with the dead and dying. Men 
fought there, hand to hand, I think, as never 
they grappled before. Onward and over 

against each 
other they 
bent again and 
again. Now 
the Confeder¬ 
ates would 
drive madly 
into the con¬ 
flict. Now our 
boys would 
p u s h them 
back again at 
the point of 
the bayonet. 
Graham’s and 
the Excelsior 
Brigades, that 
I organized 
and command¬ 
ed during the 
first of the 
war, were in 
that section of 
the field, and 


MAJOR-GENERAL FlTZHUGH LEE, C. S. A. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
RICHARD L T. BEALL, C. S. A, 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL R, S. EWELL, C. S. A. 


hundreds of them lay down to sleep under the 
shade of the peach trees that hot July day.” 
One who participated in the bloody struggle 
of the wheat-field on the second day writes: 

“ General Birney rode up and ordered a for¬ 
ward movement, and directed that the largest regi¬ 
ment of the brigade be sent double-quick to prolong 
the line on the left, so as to fill in the intervening gap to 
the foot of Round Top, for the occupation of which both 
forces were now engaged in a deadly 
struggle. General de Trobriand desig¬ 
nated the Fortieth New York for this 
duty, and ordered me to conduct it to 
its assigned position, and, if necessary, 
to remain there with it. We proceeded. 
The air was filled with smoke and the 
interchanging fires of artillery and mus¬ 
ketry. The shouts of both armies were 
almost deafening, but I succeeded in 
placing the regiment where it was or¬ 
dered, and decided to remain with it. 

“ The enemy had us at a disadvantage. 
They were on higher ground, and were 
pouring a terrific fire into our front. I 
trust in God I may never again be called 
to look upon such scenes as I there be¬ 
held. Col. Thomas W. Egan, the com¬ 
mander of the regiment, one of the brav¬ 
est men I ever knew, was charging with 
his command, when a ball from the enemy 
pierced the heart of his mare, who sank 


























266 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


under him. Major Warner of the same regiment was borne past 
me for dead, but was only terribly wounded. He afterward re¬ 
covered. His horse came dashing by a few moments afterward, 
and my own having been disabled from wounds and rendered 
unfit for use, I caught and mounted him. The poor brute that 
I was riding had two minie balls buried in him—one in the 
shoulders, the other in the hip—and was so frantic with pain 
that he had wellnigh broken my neck in his violent fall. My 
sword was pitched a dozen yards from me, and was picked up 
by one of the men and returned to me that night. 

“ Col. A. V. H. Ellis, of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth 
New York, one of the most chivalrous spirits that ever breathed, 
had received his mortal wound. He was riding at the head of 
his regiment, waving his sword in the air, and shouting to his 
men—his orange blossoms, as he called them, the regiment hav¬ 
ing been raised in Orange County, New York—when a bullet 
struck him in the forehead. He was borne to the rear, his face 
covered with blood, and the froth spirting from his mouth. He 
died in a few moments. Major Cromwell, also of that regiment, 
was killed almost at the same instant by a shot in the breast. 
He died without a groan or struggle. The adjutant of the regi¬ 
ment was killed by a shot through the heart as it was moving off 
the field. He had fought bravely for hours, and it seemed hard 
that one so young and hopeful should be thus stricken down by 
a chance shot after having faced the thickest of the fight un¬ 
harmed. I learned afterward that the noble young soldier was 
engaged to be married to a beautiful young lady in his native 
State. 

“ It happened by the merest accident that I was within a few 


feet of General Sickles when he received the wound by which he 
lost his leg. When our command fell back after being relieved by 
General Sykes, I hastened to find General De Trobriand, and. 
seeing a knot of officers near the brick house into which General 
Sickles was so soon to be taken, I rode up to see whether he 
(De Trobriand) was among them. The knot of officers proved 
to be General Sickles and his staff. I saluted him and was just 
asking for General De Trobriand, when a terrific explosion seemed 
to shake the very earth. This was instantly followed by another 
equally stunning, and the horses all began to jump. I instantly 
noticed that General Sickles’s pants and drawers at the knee 
were torn clear off to the leg, which was swinging loose. The 
jumping of the horse was fortunate for him, as he turned just in 
time for him to alight on the upper side of the slope of the hill. 
As he attempted to dismount he seemed to lose strength, and 
half fell to the ground. He was very pale, and evidently in 
most fearful pain, as he exclaimed excitedly, ‘ Quick, quick ! get 
something and tie it up before I bleed to death.’ These were 
his exact words, and I shall never forget the scene as long as I 
live, for we all loved General Sickles, who commanded our corps. 
He was carried from the field to the house I have mentioned, 
coolly smoking a cigar, quietly remarking to a Catholic priest, a 
chaplain to one of the regiments in his command, 1 Man pro¬ 
poses and God disposes.’ His leg was amputated within less 
than half an hour after his receiving the wound.” 

Major Joseph G. Rosengarten says of General Reynolds: “ In 
all the intrigues of the army, and the interference of the politi¬ 
cians in its management, he silently set aside the tempting offers 
to take part, and served his successive commanders with un- 



THE STONE WALL. —GENERAL 0. 0. HOWARD'S POSITION NEAR CEMETERY HILL. 
(From the Panorama or Gettysburg, at Chicago.) 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


267 



mishes or engagements between the two cavalry forces, all of 
which were decided successes for us, and terminated in driving 
Stuart’s cavalry through the gap at Paris. Kilpatrick’s brigade, 
moving in the advance of the second division, fell upon the 
enemy at Aldie, and there ensued an engagement of the most 
obstinate character, in which several brilliant mounted charges 
were made, terminating in the retreat of the enemy. On June 
19th, the division advanced to Middleburg, where a part of 
Stuart’s force was posted, and was attacked by Col. Irvin 
Gregg’s brigade. Here, as at Aldie, the fight was very obsti¬ 
nate. The enemy had carefully selected the most defensible 
position, from which he had to be driven step by step, and this 
work had to be done by dismounted skirmishers, owing to the 
unfavorable character of the country for mounted service. On 

_ the 19th, Gregg’s division moved 

on the turnpike from Middleburg 
in the direction of Upperville, and 
soon encountered the enemy’s cav¬ 
alry in great force. The attack was 
promptly made, the enemy offering 
the most stubborn resistance. The 
long lines of stone fences, which are 
so common in that region, were so 
many lines of defence to a force in 
retreat; these could be held until 
our advancing skirmishers were 
almost upon them, 


RESIDENCE OF JOHN BURNS, THE OLD HERO OF GETTYSBURG. 


stones and a rude mark on the bark, now almost overgrown, still 
tell the fatal spot. At the moment that his body was taken to 
the rear, for his death was instantaneous, two of his most gallant 
staff officers, Captains Riddle and Wadsworth, in pursuance of 
his directions, effected a slight movement, which made prison¬ 
ers of Archer’s brigade, so that the rebel prisoners went to the 
rear almost at the same time, and their respectful conduct was 
in itself the highest tribute they could pay to him who had thus 
fallen.” 

Gen. I). McM. Gregg, who commanded one of the two cavalry 
divisions of the Army of the Potomac, while Gen. John Buford 
commanded the other, in a rapid review of the part taken by 
the cavalry in the campaign, writes: “The two divisions were 
put in motion toward the Potomac, but did not take exactly the 
same route, and the Army of the Potomac followed their lead. 
The advance of Stuart’s Confederate cavalry command had 
reached Aldie, and here, on June 17th, began a series of skir¬ 


but then there 
would be no es¬ 
cape for those 
behind ; it was 
either to sur¬ 
render or at¬ 
tempt escape 
across the 
open fields M,ss jenn/e 
to fall be- ^ 

fore the deadly fire of TVs burg. 

the carbines of the pursuers. Later 

in the day General Buford’s division came in on the right, 
and took the enemy in flank. Then our entire force, under 
General Pleasonton, supported by a column of infantry, moved 
forward and dealt the finishing blow. Through Upperville the 
pursuit was continued at a run, the enemy flying in the greatest 


wadf 

Gett ?sbu R c WOMAN Kil Ar 


swerving loyalty and zeal and faith. In the full flush of life 
and health, vigorously leading on the troops in hand, and ener¬ 
getically summoning up the rest of his command, watching and 
even leading the attack of a comparatively small body, a glorious 
picture of the best type of military leader, superbly mounted, 
and horse and man sharing in the excitement of the shock of 
battle, Reynolds was, of course, a shining mark to the enemy’s 
sharp-shooters. He had taken his troops into a heavy growth 
of timber on the slope of a hill-side, and, under their regimental 
and brigade commanders, the men did their work well and 
promptly. Returning to rejoin the expected divisions, he was 
struck by a minie-ball fired by a sharp-shooter hidden in the 
branches of a tree almost overhead, and was killed at once. His 
horse bore him to the little clump of trees, where a cairn of 


























268 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


confusion ; nor were they permitted to re-form until night put 
a stop to further pursuit at the mouth of the gap. Our losses 
in the fighting of these three days amounted to five hundred in 
killed, wounded, and missing ; of the latter there were but few. 
The enemy’s loss was much greater, particularly in prisoners. 
Our captures also included light guns, flags, and small arms. 
These successful engagements of our cavalry left our infantry 
free to march, without the loss of an hour, to the field of 
Gettysburg. At Frederick, Md., the addition of the cavalry, 
formerly commanded by General Stahl, made it necessary to 
organize a third division, the command of which was given to 
General Kilpatrick. Buford, with his division in advance of our 
army, on July 1st, first encountered the enemy in the vicinity of 
Gettysburg. How well his brigades of regulars and volunteers 
resisted the advance of that invading host, yielding so slowly as 
to give ample time for our infantry to go to his support, is well 
known. Kilpatrick’s division marched from Frederick well to 
the right, at Hanover engaged the enemy’s cavalry in a sharp 
skirmish, and reached Gettysburg on the 1st. On the left of 
our line, on the 3d, one of his brigades, led by General Farns¬ 
worth, gallantly charged the enemy’s infantry and protected 
that flank from any attack, with the assistance of General 
Merritt’s regular brigade. Gregg’s division crossed the Potomac 
at Edward’s Ferry and reached Gettysburg on the morning of 
the 2d, taking position on the right of our line. On the 3d, 
during that terrific fire of artillery, it was discovered that 
Stuart’s cavalry was moving to our right, with the evident inten¬ 
tion of passing to the rear to make a simultaneous attack there. 
When opposite our right, Stuart was met by General Gregg 
with two of his brigades and Custer’s brigade of the Third Divi¬ 
sion, and on a fair field there was another trial between two 
cavalry forces, in which most of the fighting was done in the 
saddle, and with the trooper’s favorite weapon, the sabre. 
Stuart advanced not a pace beyond where he was met ; but 
after a severe struggle, which was only terminated by the dark¬ 
ness of night, he withdrew, and on the morrow, with the de¬ 
feated army of Lee, was in retreat 
to the Potomac. 

The obstinate blindness of Eng¬ 
lish partisanship in our great strug¬ 
gle was curiously illustrated by an 
incident on the field of Gettysburg. 

One Fremantle, a lieutenant- 


colonel in the British army, had come over to visit the seat of 
war, and published his observations upon it in Blackwood's 
Magazine. He was near General Longstreet when Pickett’s 
charge was made. Standing there with his back to the sun, 
and witnessing the operation on the great slope before him, 
he, although a soldier by profession, was so thoroughly pos¬ 
sessed with the wish and the expectation that the Confederate 
cause might succeed, that he mistook Pickett’s awful defeat 
for a glorious success, and rushing up to General Longstreet, 
congratulated him upon it, and told him how glad he was to be 
there and see it. “ Are you, indeed ? ” said Longsteet, surprised. 
“ I am not.” 

About a month after the battle, General Lee wrote a letter 
to Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy, in which he 
said : 

“ We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to 
teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, 
and to prevent our falling into greater disasters. Our people 
have only to be true and united, to bear manfully the misfor¬ 
tunes incident to war, and all will come right in the end. I 
know how prone we are to censure, and how ready to blame 
others for the non-fulfilment of our expectations. This is unbe¬ 
coming in a generous people, and I grieve to see its expression. 
The general remedy for the want of success in a military com¬ 
mander is his removal. This is natural, and in many instances 
proper ; for, no matter what may be the ability of the officer, 
if he loses the confidence of his troops, disaster must, sooner or 
later, ensue. I have been prompted by these reflections more 
than once since my return from Pennsylvania to propose to 
your Excellency the propriety of selecting another commander 
for this army. I have seen and heard of expressions of discon¬ 
tent in the public journals at the result of the expedition. I do 
not know how far this feeling extends in the army. My brother 
officers have been too kind to report it, and so far the troops 
have been too generous to exhibit it. It is fair, however, to sup¬ 
pose that it does exist, and success is so necessary to us that noth¬ 
ing should be risked to secure it. I, therefore, in 
all sincerity, request your Excellency to take meas¬ 
ures to supply my place.” Mr. Davis declined 
to relieve General Lee from his command of the 
Army of Northern Virginia, and, consequently, he 
retained it until he surrendered himself and that 
army as prisoners of war in the spring of 1865. 

v__ 



MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE AND OFFICERS. 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


269 


The effect that the news of Gettysburg produced in Europe is 
said to have been the absolute termination of all hope for a 
recognition of the Confederacy as an independent power. A 
writer in the London Morning Advertiser says: “Mr. Disraeli, 
although never committing himself, as Mr. Gladstone and Lord 
John Russell did, to the principles for which the Southern Con¬ 
federacy was fighting, always regarded recognition as a possible 
card to play, and was quite prepared, at the proper moment, to 
play it. The moment seemed to have come when General Lee 
invaded the Federal States. At that time it was notorious that 
the bulk of the Tory party and more than half of the Ministe¬ 
rialists were prepared for such a step. I had frequent conversa¬ 
tions with Mr. Disraeli on the subject, and I perfectly recollect 
his saying to me that the time had now come for moving in the 
matter. ‘ But,’ he said, ‘ it is of great importance that, if the 
move is to be made, it should not assume a party character, and 
it is of equal importance that the initiative should come from 
our (the Conservative) side. If the thing is to be done, I must 
do it myself; and then, from all I hear and know, the resolution 
will be carried, Lord Palmerston being quite disposed to accept 
the declaration by Parliament in favor of a policy which he 
personally approves. But I cannot speak without more knowl¬ 
edge of the subject than I now possess, and I should be glad if 
you could give me a brief, furnishing the necessary statistics of 
the population, the institutions, the commercial and political 
prospects of the Southern States, in order that when the moment 
comes I may be fully armed.’ I procured the necessary informa¬ 
tion and placed it in his hands. Every day seemed to bring the 
moment for its use nearer, and the general feeling in the House 
of Commons was perfectly' ripe for the motion in favor of recog¬ 
nition, when the news of the battle of Gettysburg came like 
a thunder-clap upon the country. General Meade defeated Lee, 
and saved the Union, and from that day not another word was 
heard in Parliament about recognition. A few days afterward 
I saw Mr. Disraeli, and his exact words were, ‘ We nearly put 
our foot in it.’ ” 

A great national cemetery was laid out on the battlefield, and 
the remains of three thousand five hundred and sixty soldiers 
of the National army who had fallen in that campaign were 
placed in it, arranged in the order of their States. This was 
dedicated on the 19th of November in the year of the battle, 
1863; and this occasion furnished a striking instance of the dif¬ 
ference between natural genius and artificial reputation. The 
orator of the day was Edward Everett, who, by long cultivation 
and unlimited advertising, had attained the nominal place of first 
orator in the country; but he was by no means entitled to speak 
for the men who had there laid down their lives in the cause of 
universal liberty; for, through all his political life, until the 
breaking out of the war, he had been a strong pro-slavery man. 
President Lincoln was invited to be present, as a matter of course, 
and was informed that he would be expected to say a little some¬ 
thing. Mr. Everett delivered a long address, prepared in his 
usual elaborate and artificial styde, which was forgotten by every 
hearer within twenty-four hours. Mr. Lincoln, on his way from 
Washington, jotted down an idea or two on the back of an old 
envelope, by way of memorandum, and when he was called upon, 
rose and delivered a speech of fewer than three hundred words, 
which very soon took its place among the world’s immortal ora¬ 
tions. Some time after the delivery of the address, Mr. Lincoln, 
at the request of friends, carefully wrote it and affixed his signa¬ 
ture. This copy is here reproduced in such a way as to give an 
exact fac-simile of his writing. 




o/1>Uz ^ 

o ft* py'A 

EpMt AAnL ait D 

jUzNy <2^ Adz* 

c?Ce> jC-Aez ’. 

/3u^r ^ <v 

a^yu oOLe^ l afA ca^-- 

ter aNszrxs-o eru^ j-umry Jz om 

rv (fr&u osirNMe AyiXe Attt&j 

/^-€/rrLO'r*'&<^/' urAse yA e/t -^a t PN-tr CC 

‘FAoP cDMo Ado. do 

Efd Re/ PA> 'Aesvu 

Xd-tj ttsurdz/ cyFCzyE yEpLtj 3 

rj/CxT' /dxjy sAa-v-Cj Epd-Z d~c 

dt> d /h'^ ro' Fi .Fr dd Adsj 
Izfijej <^ji2Z^-~~pZty/o — /-M<xt 
d&>~0>a-<U> ata-e^U 

h, pdrz tddFdy: 

[RFC otts^yo (L^, /vdvy — Lidt Ldz (KFZZtr^y, 

FjsCrciJ' yd&JM, exs 

■— asy*-exs /dPte cr^idtj 

in-j; IrfLj ^\JLer^\Pu , ^VT itsA> jo^sur^CLuy / yde-OZ' (Kcte 

pd AKu 


''iOxd^v /^, I8C 3. 


(sfeB^curA/. 



2/0 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



COMMUNICATING WITH THE FLOTILLA. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 

OPERATIONS ON THE MISSISSIPPI—GRANT PLACED IN COMMAND- 

PLANS THE CAMPAIGN-LOSS AT HOLLY SPRINGS-SHERMAN 

AND PORTER DESCEND THE RIVER-SHERMANS ATTEMPT 

ON THE YAZOO-AT HAINES’S BLUFF-CAPTURE OF 

ARKANSAS POST-CUTTING A CANAL-YAZOO PASS 

ATTEMPTED—STEELE’S BAYOU-GRANT CROSSES THE 

Mississippi—Grierson’s raid—action at Raymond 

— CAPTURE OF JACKSON—BATTLE OF CHAMPION’S HILL 
—PEMBERTON IN VICKSBURG—SIEGE OF THE CITY 
BEGUN — SURRENDER — OPERATIONS OF GUNBOAT 

ON THE RIVER-A DUMMY GUNBOAT-INTERESTING INCIDENTS 

DURING THE SIEGE. 

In the autumn of 1862, after the battles of Iuka and Corinth, 
the National commanders in the West naturally began to think 
of further movements southward into the State of Mississippi, 
and of opening the great river and securing unobstructed navi¬ 
gation from Cairo to the Gulf. The project was slow in execu¬ 
tion, principally from division of authority, and doubt as to 
what general would ultimately have the command. John A. 
McClernand, who had been a Democratic member of Congress 
from Illinois, and was what was known as a “political general,” 
spent some time in Washington, urging the plan upon the Presi¬ 
dent (who was an old acquaintance and personal friend), of course 
in the expectation that he would be intrusted with its execution. 
But he found little favor with General Halleck. At this time 
General Grant hardly knew what were the limits of his command, 
or whether, indeed, he really had any command at all. 

Vicksburg is on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi, where 
it makes a sharp bend enclosing a long, narrow peninsula. The 
railroad from Shreveport, La., reaches the river at this point, 
and connects by ferry with the railroad running east from Vicks¬ 
burg through Jackson, the State capital. The distance between 
the two cities is forty-five miles. About a hundred miles below 
Vicksburg is Port Hudson, similarly situated as to river and 


railways. Between these two points the great Red 
River, coming from the borders of Texas, Arkansas, 
and Louisiana, flows into the Mississippi. As the 
Confederates drew a large part of their supplies 
from Texas and the country watered by the Red 
River, it was of the first importance to them to 
retain control of the Mississippi between Vicksburg 
and Port Hudson, especially after they had lost 
New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Memphis. 

After taking New Orleans, in April, 1862, Farra- 
gut had gone up the river with some of his ships, 
in May, and demanded the surrender of Vicksburg; 
but, though the place was then but slightly forti¬ 
fied, the demand was refused, and without a land 
force he could not take the city, as it was 
too high to be damaged by his 
guns. He ran by the 
batteries in June, and 
communicated with the 
river fleet of Capt. Charles 
H. Davis. But all the 
while new batteries were 
being planted on the bluffs, 
and after a time it became 
exceedingly hazardous for 
any sort of craft to run the 




e r iv 


ar d 


CH 




***** 
° fB -e au 


A. 5 


gantlet under ° n) 

their plunging fire. In 
August, a Confederate 
force, under Gen. John C. 

Breckinridge, attempted 
the capture of Baton 
Rouge, expecting to be 
assisted in the assault 
by an immense iron-clad 
ram, the Arkansas, which 
was coming down the commodore w. d. porter. 

river. The city was oc¬ 
cupied by a force under Gen. Thomas Williams, who made a 
stubborn and bloody fight, driving off the enemy. General 
Williams was killed, as were also the Confederate General 
Clarke and numerous officers of lower rank on either side, and 
more than six hundred men in all were killed or wounded. 
The ram failed to take part in the fight, because her machin¬ 
ery broke down. She was attacked next day by two or three 
vessels, commanded by Captain (now Admiral) David D. Porter, 
and when she had been disabled her crew abandoned her and 
set her on fire, and she was blown into a thousand fragments. 
After this defeat, General Breckinridge turned his attention 












































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


271 


to the fortification of Port Hudson, which was made almost as 
strong as Vicksburg. 

On the 12th of November, 1862, General Grant received a 
despatch from General Halleck placing him in command of all 
troops sent to his department, and telling him to fight the enemy 
where he pleased. F'our days later Grant and Sherman had a 
conference at Columbus, and a plan was arranged and afterward 
modified, by which Grant (who then had about thirty thousand 
men under his personal command) was to move southward and 
confront an equal force, commanded by Gen. John C. Pemberton, 
on the Tallahatchie ; while Sherman, with thirty thousand, was 
to move from Memphis down the eastern bank of the Mississippi, 
and, assisted by Porter and his gunboats, attempt the capture 
of Vicksburg from the rear. If Pemberton moved toward that 
city, Grant was to follow and engage him as soon as possible. 

Sherman and Porter, with their usual energy, went to work 
with all speed to carry out their part of the programme. Grant 
moved more slowly, because he did not wish to force his enemy 
back upon Vicksburg, but to hold him as far north as possible. 
He established his depot of 
supplies at Holly Springs, 
and waited for Sherman’s 
movement. But the whole 
scheme was ruined by the 
activity of two Confederate 
cavalry detachments under 
Generals Van Dorn and For¬ 
rest. On the 20th of Decem¬ 
ber Van Dorn made a dash 
at Holly Springs, which was 
held by fifteen hundred men 
under a Colonel Murphy, 
and captured the place and 
its garrison. Grant had more 
than two million dollars’ 
worth of supplies there, and 
as Van Dorn could not re¬ 
move them he burned them 
all, together with the store¬ 
houses and railroad build¬ 
ings. Forrest, making a 
wide detour, tore up a por¬ 
tion of the railroad between 
Jackson, Tcnn., and Colum¬ 
bus, Ky., so that Grant’s 
army was cut off from all 
communication with the 
North for more than a week. 

It had not yet occurred to 
anybody that a large army 
could leave its communica¬ 
tions and subsist on supplies 
gathered in the enemy’s 
country; so Grant gave up 
this part of his plan and 
moved back toward Mem¬ 
phis. 

But Sherman and Porter, 
not hearing of the disaster 
at Holly Springs, had pro¬ 
ceeded with their prepara¬ 
tions, embarked the troops, 


and gone down the river in a long procession, the gunboats 
being placed at intervals in the line of transports. Sherman 
says: “ We manoeuvred by divisions and brigades when in 
motion, and it was a magnificent sight. What few of the 
inhabitants remained at the plantations on the river bank were 
unfriendly, except the slaves. Some few guerilla parties in¬ 
fested the banks, but did not dare to molest so strong a force as 
I then commanded.” The guerilla bands alluded to had been a 
serious annoyance to the boats patrolling the river. Besides 
the sharp-shooters with their rifles, small parties would sud¬ 
denly appear at one point or another with a field gun, fire at a 
passing boat, and disappear before any force could be landed to 
pursue them. Farragut had been obliged to destroy the town 
of Donaldsonville, in order to punish and break up this practice 
on the lower reaches of the river. 

The expedition arrived at Milliken’s Bend on Christmas, 
where a division was left, and whence a brigade was sent to 
break the railroad from Shreveport. The next day the boats, 
with the three remaining divisions, ascended the Yazoo thirteen 

miles to a point opposite 
the bluffs north of Vicks¬ 
burg, where the troops were 
landed. They were here on 
the low bottom-land, which 
was crossed by numerous 
bayous, some parts of it 
heavily wooded, the clear¬ 
ings being abandoned cotton 
plantations. The bluffs 
were crowned with artillery, 
and along their base was a 
deserted bed of the Yazoo. 
Most of the bridges were 
destroyed, and the whole 
district was subject to in¬ 
undation. It was ugly 
ground for the operations 
of an army; but Sherman, 
confident that Grant was 
holding Pemberton, felt sure 
there could not be a heavy 
force on the heights, and 
resolved to capture them 
without delay. The 27th 
and 28th were spent in re¬ 
connoitring, selecting points 
for attack, and placing the 
troops. On the 29th, while 
the gunboats made a diver¬ 
sion at Haines’s Bluff, and a 
part of Steele’s division 
made a feint on the right, 
near Vicksburg, the main 
force crossed the interven¬ 
ing bayous at two points 
and attacked the centre of 
the position. The battle 
was begun by a heavy artil¬ 
lery fire, followed by mus¬ 
ketry, and then the rush of 
the men. They had to face 
guns, at the foot of the bluff. 


































272 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


that swept the narrow approaches, and at the same time endure 
a cross-fire from the heights. Blair’s brigade reached the base 
of the hills, but was not properly supported by Morgan’s, and 
had to fall back again, leaving five hundred of its men behind. 
The Sixth Missouri Regiment, at another point, had also gone 
forward unsupported, reached the bluff, and could not return. 
The men quickly scooped niches in the bank with their hands 
and sheltered themselves in them, while many of the enemy 
came to the edge of the hill, held out their muskets vertically 
at arm’s-length, and fired down at them. These men were not 
able to get back to their lines till nightfall. This assault cost 


On the 4th of January, 1863, General McClernand assumed 
command of the two corps that were commanded by Generals 
Sherman and George W. Morgan. A fortnight before, a Confed¬ 
erate boat had come out of Arkansas River and captured a mail 
boat, and it was known that there was a Confederate garrison of 
five thousand men at Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post, on the 
Arkansas. It occurred to Sherman that there could be no 
safety for boats on the Mississippi near the mouth of the Arkan¬ 
sas till this post was captured or broken up ; and accordingly he 
asked McClernand to let him attack it with his corps, assisted by 
some of the gunboats. McClernand concluded to go himself 



GUNBOATS PASSING VICKSBURG IN THE NIGHT. 


Sherman eighteen hundred and forty-eight men, and inflicted 
upon the Confederates a loss of but two hundred. He made 
arrangements to send a heavy force on the transports to Haines’s 
Bluff in the night of December 30, to be debarked at dawn, and 
storm the works there, while the. rest of the troops were to 
advance as soon as the defences had been thus taken in reverse. 
But a heavy fog prevented the boats from moving, and the next 
day a rain set in. Sherman observed the water-marks on the 
trees ten feet above his head, and a great deal more then ten 
feet above his head in the other direction he saw whole brigades 
of reinforcements marching into the enemy’s intrenchments. 
He knew then that something must have gone wrong with 
Grant’s co-operating force, and so he wisely re-embarked his men 
and munitions, and steamed down to the mouth of the Yazoo. 


with the entire army, and Porter also accompanied in person. 
They landed on the 10th, below the fort, and drove in the pick¬ 
ets. That night the Confederates toiled all night to throw up a 
line of works reaching from the fort northward to an impassa¬ 
ble swamp. On the 1 ith the whole National force moved forward 
simultaneously to the attack, the gunboats steaming up close to 
the fort and sweeping its bastions with their fire, while Morgan’s 
corps moved against its eastern face, and Sherman’s against the 
new line of works. The ground to be passed over was level, 
with little shelter save a few trees and logs ; but the men 
advanced steadily, lying down behind every little projection, and 
so annoying the artillerymen with their sharp-shooting that the 
guns could not be well served. When the gunboats arrived 
abreast of the fort and enfiladed it, the gunners ran down into 


































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


273 


the ditch, a man with a 
white flag appeared on the 
parapet, and presently 
white flags and rags were 
fluttering all along the 
line. Firing was stopped 
at once, and the fort was 
surrendered by its com¬ 
mander, General Churchill. 

About one hundred and 
fifty of the garrison had 
been killed, and the re¬ 
mainder, numbering forty- 
eight hundred, were made 
prisoners. The National 
loss was about one thou¬ 
sand. The fort was dis¬ 
mantled and destroyed, 
and the stores taken on 
board the fleet. McCler- 
nand conceived a vague project for ascending 
the river farther, but on peremptory orders 
from Grant the expedition returned to the 
Mississippi, steaming down the Arkansas 
in a heavy snow-storm. 

In accordance with instructions from 
Washington, Grant now took personal 
command of the operations on the Mis¬ 
sissippi, dividing his entire force into 
four corps, to be commanded by Gen¬ 
erals McClernand, Sherman, Stephen A. 

Hurlbut, and James B. McPherson. Hurl- 
but’s corps was left to hold the lines east 
of Memphis, while the other troops, with 
reinforcements from the North, were united in 
the river expedition. 

McClernand and Sherman went down the penin¬ 
sula enclosed in the bend of the river opposite 
Vicksburg, and with immense labor dug a canal 
across it. Much was hoped from this, but it 
proved a failure, for the river would not flow 
through it. Furthermore, there were bluffs commanding the 
river below Vicksburg, and the Confederates had already begun 
to fortify them ; so that if the canal had succeeded, navigation 
of the stream would have been as much obstructed as before. 
Still the work was continued till the 7th of March, when the 
river suddenly rose and overflowed the peninsula, and Sher¬ 
man’s men barely escaped drowning by regiments. 

Grant was surveying the country in every direction, for some 
feasible approach to the flanks of his enemy. One scheme was 
to move through Lake Providence and the bayous west of the 
Mississippi, from a point far above Vicksburg to one far below. 
This involved the cutting of another canal, from the Mississippi 
to one of the bayous, and McPherson’s corps spent a large part 
of the month of March in digging and dredging ; but this also 
was a failure. On the eastern side of the Mississippi there had 
once been an opening, known as Yazoo Pass, by which boats 
from Memphis made their way into Coldwater River, thence into 
the Tallahatchie, and thence into the Yazoo above Yazoo City ; 
but the pass had been closed by a levee or embankment. Grant 
blew up the levee, and tried this approach. But the Confederates 
had information of every movement, and took prompt measures 


to thwart it. The banks 
of the streams where his 
boats had to pass were 
heavily wooded, and great 
trees were felled across 
the channel. Worse than 
this, after the boats had 
passed in and removed 
many of the obstructions, 
it was found that the 
enemy were felling trees 
across the channel behind 
them, so that they mi ght 
not get out again. Earth¬ 
works also were thrown 
up at the point where the 
Yallabusha and Talla- 
hatchie unite to form the 
Yazoo, and heavily 
manned. Here the ad¬ 
vance division of the expedition had a slight 
engagement, with no result. Reinforce¬ 
ments arrived under Gen. Isaac F. Quinby, 
who assumed command, and began opera¬ 
tions for crossing the Yallabusha and 
rendering the Confederate fortification 
useless, when he was recalled by Grant, 
who had found that the necessary light- 
draught boats for carrying his whole force 
through to that point could not be had. . 
One more attempt in this direction was 
made before the effort to flank Vicksburg 
on the north was given up. It was pro¬ 
posed to ascend the Yazoo a short distance 
from its mouth, turn into Steele’s bayou, 
ascend this, and by certain passes that had been 
discovered get into Big Sunflower River, and then 
descend that stream into the Yazoo above Haines’s 
Bluff. Porter and Sherman took the lead in this 
expedition, and encountered all the difficulties of 
the Yazoo Pass project, magnified several times— 
the narrow channels, the felled trees, the want of solid ground 
on which troops could be manoeuvred, the horrible swamps and 
canebrakes, through some of which they picked their way with 
lighted candles, and the annoyance from unseen sharp-shooters 
that swarmed through the whole region. Porter at one time was 
on the point of abandoning his boats ; but finally all were extri¬ 
cated, though some of them had to back out through the narrow 
pass for a distance of thirty miles. 

In March, Farragut with his flagship and one gunboat had run 
by the batteries at Port Hudson, but the remainder of his fleet 
had failed to pass. Several boats had run by the batteries at 
Vicksburg; and Grant now turned his attention to a project for 
moving an army by transports through bayous west of the Mis¬ 
sissippi to a point below the city, where Porter, after running by 
the batteries with his iron-clads, was to meet him and ferry the 
troops across to the eastern bank. The use of the bayous was 
finally given up, and the army marched by the roads. The 
fleet ran by the batteries on the night of April 16. As soon 
as it was discovered approaching, the Confederates set fire to 
immense piles of wood that they had prepared on the bank, the 
whole scene became as light as day, and for an hour and a half 



REAR-ADMIRAL HENRY WALKE. 


(Commander of the " Tyler ” and 
“ Carondelet.”) 







































274 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



the fleet was under a heavy fire, which it returned as it steadily 
steamed by; but beyond the destruction of one transport there 
was no serious loss. 

Bridges had to be built over bayous, and a suitable place dis¬ 
covered for crossing the Mississippi. New Carthage was tried, 
but found impracticable, as it was nearly surrounded by water. 
Grand Gulf was strongly fortified, and on the 29th of April seven 
of Porter’s gunboats attacked it. They fired five hundred shots 
an hour for five hours, and damaged the works somewhat, but 
only killed or wounded eighteen men, while the fleet lost twenty- 
six men, and one boat was seriously disabled. Grant therefore 
gave up the project of crossing here, moved his transports down 
stream under cover of darkness, and at daylight on the 30th 
began the crossing at Bruinsburg. McClernand’s corps was in 
the advance, and marched on Port Gibson that night. At dawn 
the enemy was found in a strong 
position three miles west of that 
place. There was sharp fighting all 
day, the Confederate force number¬ 
ing about eight thousand, and con¬ 
testing every foot of the ground; 
but the line was finally disrupted, 
and at night-fall they made an or¬ 
derly retreat, burning bridges be¬ 
hind them. The National loss had 
been eight hundred and forty-nine 
men, killed, wounded, or missing; 
the Confederate, about one thou¬ 
sand. Grant’s movements at this 
time were greatly assisted by one 
of the most effective cavalry raids 
of the war. This was conducted 
by Col. Benjamin H. Grierson, who 
With seventeen hundred men set 
out from La Grange, Term., on the 


ing several small 
ones, floundering 
through swamps, 
swimming rivers, 
spreading con¬ 
sternation by the 
celerity and un¬ 
certainty of his 
movements, and 
finally riding into 
Baton Rouge at 
the end of sixteen 
days with half his 
men asleep in 
their saddles. 






■ 


-s 


LIEUTENANT-COLONEL 
CHARLES RIVERS-ELLET. 

He had lost but twenty- 
seven. 

The fortifications at 
Grand Gulf were abandoned. 
Porter took possession of 
them, and Grant established 
his base there. A bridge 
had to be rebuilt at Port 
Gibson, and then Crocker’s 
division pushed on in pur¬ 
suit of the retreating Con¬ 
federates, saved a burning 
bridge at Bayou Pierre, 
came up with them at Wil¬ 
low Springs, and after a 


slight 


engagement drove 


them 
at Hankinson’s 


across the Big Black 


saved the bridge. 


LAKE PROVIDENCE. 


LIEUTENANT E. M. KING. 


17th of April, 
and rode south¬ 
ward through 
the whole State 
of Mississippi, 
tearing up rail¬ 
roads, burning 
bridges, destroy¬ 
ing supplies, 
eluding every 
strong force that 
was sent out to 
stop him, defeat- 


Ferry, and 
There was 
a slight delay, for Sherman’s 
corps and the supplies to 
arrive, and then Grant pressed on resolutely with his whole 
army. He had with him about forty-one thousand men, subse¬ 
quently increased to forty-five thousand ; and Pemberton at this 
time had about fifty thousand. 

Grant moved northeasterly, toward Jackson, and on the 12th 
of May found a hostile force near Raymond. It numbered but 
three thousand, and was soon swept away, though not until it 
had lost five hundred men and inflicted a loss of four hundred 
and thirty-two upon the National troops. It was the purpose of 
the Union commander to move swiftly, and beat the enemy as 
much as possible in detail before the scattered forces could con¬ 
centrate against him. Believing there was a considerable force 
at Jackson, which he would not like to leave in his rear, he 


































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


275 



marched on that place, and the next conflict occurred there, 
May 14th. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston (whom we took leave of 
when he was wounded at Seven Pines, nearly a year before) had 
just been ordered by the Confederate Government to take com¬ 
mand of all the forces in Mississippi, and arrived at Jackson in 
the evening of the 13th, finding there about twelve thousand 
men subject to his orders. Pemberton was at Edwards Station, 
thirty miles westward, and Grant was between them. Johnston 
telegraphed to Richmond that he was too late, but took what 
measures he could for defence. It rained heavily that night 
and the next morning, when the corps of Sherman and McPher¬ 
son marched against the city, they travelled roads that were a 
foot under water. McPherson came up on the west, and Sher¬ 
man on the southwest and south. 

The enemy was met two miles out, 
and driven in with heavy skirmish¬ 
ing. While manoeuvring was going 
on before the intrenchments, the 
Union commanders seeking for a 
suitable point to assault, it was dis¬ 
covered that the enemy was evacu¬ 
ating the place, and Grant and his 
men went in at once and hoisted 
the National colors. They had lost 
two hundred and ninety men in the 


•4 


.... 

. 


skirmishing; the 


enemy, eight hun¬ 


LIEUTEN ANT-GENERAL 
C. PEMBERTON, C. S. A. 


dred and forty-five, mostly captured. 

Seventeen guns were taken, but the 
Confederates burned most of their 
stores. 

Leaving Sherman at Jackson to 
destroy the railroad, and the facto¬ 
ries that were turning out goods for 
the Confederacy, which he did very 
thoroughly, Grant ordered all his J- 
other forces to concentrate at Bol¬ 
ton, twenty miles west. Marching thence westward, keeping 
the corps well together, and ordering Sherman to send for¬ 
ward an ammunition-train—for he knew that a battle must 
soon be fought—Grant found Pemberton with twenty-three thou¬ 
sand men waiting to receive him at Champion’s Hill, on high 
ground well selected for defence, which covered the three roads 
leading westward. The battle, May 15th, lasted four hours, 
and was the bloodiest of the campaign. The brunt of it, 
on the National side, was borne by the divisions of Hovey, 
Logan, and Crocker; and Hovey lost more than one-third of his 
men. Logan’s division pushed forward on the right, passed 
Pemberton’s left flank, and held the only road by which the 
enemy could retreat. But this was not known to the Union 
commander at the time, and when Hovey, hard pressed, called 
for help, Logan was drawn back to his assistance, and the road 
uncovered. A little later Pemberton was in full retreat toward 
the crossing of the Big Black River, leaving his dead and 
wounded and thirty guns on the field. Grant’s loss in the 
action—killed, wounded, and missing—was twenty-four hundred 
and forty-one. Pemberton’s was over three thousand killed and 
wounded (including General Tilghman killed), besides nearly as 
many more captured in battle or on the retreat. 

The enemy was next found at the Big Black River, where he 
had placed his main line on the high land west of the stream, 
and stationed his advance (or, properly speaking, his rear guard) 
along the edge of a bayou that ran through the low ground on 


letting them 
boughs 


mM° r 




ART £R 


STE' 


.venson 


the east. This advanced position was attacked vigorously on 
the 17th, and when Lawler’s brigade flanked it on the right, that 
general leading a charge in his shirt-sleeves, the whole line gave 
way, and Pemberton resumed his retreat, burning the bridge 
behind him and leaving his men in the lowland to their fate. 
Some swam the river, some were drowned, and seventeen hundred 
and fifty were made prisoners. Eighteen guns were captured 
here. The National loss was two hundred and seventy-nine. 
Sherman now ____-"A came up with his corps, and 

Grant ordered the building 
of three bridges. One was 
a floating or raft bridge. 
One was made by felling 
trees on both sides of the 
stream and 
fall so that their 
would interlace over the 
channel, the trunks not 
being cut entirely 
through, and so hang¬ 
ing to the stumps. 
Planks laid crosswise 
on these trees made a 
good roadway. The 
third bridge was 
made by using cot¬ 
ton bales for pon¬ 
toons. Sherman’s 
troops made a 
fourth bridge far- 
the stream ; and that 
he and Grant sat on a 
log and watched the long pro¬ 
cession of blue-coated men 
with gleaming muskets march¬ 
ing across the swaying struc¬ 
ture by the light of pitch-pine 
torches. All the bridges were 
finished by morning, and that 
day, the 18th, the entire army 
was west of the river. 

Pemberton marched 
straight into Vicksburg, which 
had a long line of defences on 
the land side as well as on the 
water front, and shut himself 
up there. Grant, following 
closely, invested the place on 
the 19th. Sherman, holding 
the right of the line, was at 
Haines’s Bluff, occupying the 
very ground beneath which 
his men had suffered defeat 
some months before. Here, on the Yazoo, Grant established a 
new base for supplies. McPherson’s corps was next to Sher¬ 
man’s on the left, and McClernand’s next, reaching to the river 
below the city. Sharp skirmishing went on while the armies 
were getting into position, and an assault in the afternoon of 
the 19th gained the National troops some advantage in the 
advancement of the line to better ground. Grant’s army had 
been living for three weeks on five days’ rations, with what they 
could pick up in the country they passed through, which was 


ther 

night 


up 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
LLOYD TILGHMAN, C. S. A. 
















2/6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 






not a little; and his 
first care was to con¬ 
struct roads in the 
rear of his line, so 
that supplies could 
be brought up from 
the Yazoo rapidly 
and regularly. He 
had now about thirty 
thousand men, the 
line of defences be¬ 
fore him was eight 
miles long, and he 
expected an attack 
from Johnston in the 
rear. At ten o’clock 
on the 22d, therefore, 
he ordered a grand 


hoping 


MAJOR-GENERAL RICHARD J. OGLESBY. 


to 
by 
though 


assault, 

carry the works 
storm. But 
the men at several 

points reached the breastworks and planted their battle-flags on 
them, it was found impossible to take them. McClernand falsely 
reported that he had carried two forts at his end of the line, and 
asked for reinforcements, which were sent to him, and a re¬ 
newal of the assault was made to help him. This caused addi¬ 
tional loss of life, to no purpose, and shortly afterward that 
general was relieved of his command, which was given to Gen. 
E. O. C. Ord. 

After this assault, which had cost him nearly twenty 
hundred men, Grant settled down to a siege of Vicksbu 
by regular approaches. The work went on day by day 
with the usual incidents of a siege. There was mining 
and counter-mining, and two large mines were exploded 
under angles of the Confederate works, but without 
any practical result. The great guns were booming 
night and day, throwing thousands of shells into 
the city, and more than one citizen picked up and 
threw into a heap hundreds of pounds of the iron 
fragments that fell into his yard. Caves were dug 
in the banks where the streets had been cut 

hills, and in these the people 
the shells. A newspaper was 
issued regularly even to the last day of the siege, 
but it was printed on the back of wallpaper. Pro¬ 
visions of course became scarce, and mule-meat was 
eaten. Somebody printed a humorous bill of fare, 
which consisted entirely of mule-meat in the various 
forms of soup, roast, stew, etc. All the while the be¬ 
siegers were digging away, bringing their trenches closer 
to the defences, till the soldiers of the hostile lines bandied 
jests across the narrow intervening space. At the end ( 
forty-seven days the works arrived at the point where a grand 
assault must be the next thing, and at the same time famine 
threatened, and the National holiday was at hand. After some 
negotiation General Pemberton unconditionally surrendered the 
city and his army of thirty-one thousand six hundred men, on 
the 4th of July, 1863, one day after Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg. 

Port Hudson, which Banks with twelve thousand men and 
Farragut with his fleet had besieged for weeks, was surrendered 
with its garrison of six thousand men, five days after the fall of 


through the clayey 
found refuge from 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
NEAL DOW. 

ter, I have deter¬ 
mined to send 
you a barge of 
coal from here. 


COLONEL CHARLES W. LE GENDRE. 


Vicksburg. The entire Confederate loss in Mississippi, from the 
time Grant entered the State at Bruinsburg to the surrender, 
was about fifty thousand ; Grant’s was about nine thousand. 
But the great triumph was in the opening of the Mississippi 
River, which cut the Confederacy completely in two. 

By Grant’s orders there was no cheering, no firing of salutes, 
no expression of exultation at the surrender; because the 
triumph was over our own countrymen, and the object of it all 
was to establish a permanent Union. 

In his correspondence with Pemberton, while demanding an 
unconditional surrender, Grant had written : “ Men who have 
shown so much endurance and courage as those now in Vicks¬ 
burg will always challenge the respect of an adversary, and I can 
assure you will be treated with all the respect due to prisoners 
of war. I do not favor the proposition of appointing commis¬ 
sioners to arrange the terms of capitulation, because I have no 
terms other than those indicated above.” As soon as the sur¬ 
render was effected, the famished Confederate army was liber¬ 
ally supplied with food, Grant’s men taking it out of their own 
haversacks. All the prisoners at Vicksburg and Port Hudson 
were immediately paroled and furnished with transportation and 
supplies, under the supposition that they would go to their 
homes and remain there till properly' exchanged. 

The cooperation of Porter’s fleet of river gunboats above the 
city, and some of Farragut’s vessels below it. had been a great 
assistance during the siege, in cutting off the city from communi¬ 
cation across the river. General Grant’s thoughtfulness and 

mastery of details in great military move¬ 
ments are suggested by one of his 
letters to Farragut at this time. 
K n o w i n g that Farragut’s 
ships would need a constant 
supply' of coal, he sent 
him a large cargo, and 
wrote : “ Hearing noth¬ 
ing from Admiral Por- 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


2 77 




BRIGADIER-GENERAL GABRIEL J. RAINS, C. S, A. 


mgr. " ■ 

RstV ■ 




wmt 


brigadier 


.GENERAL ADAM BADEAU. 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM E. STRONG. 

The barge will be cast 
adrift from the upper end of the canal at ten o’clock to-night. 
I roops on the opposite side of the point will be on the look¬ 
out, and, should the barge run into the eddy, will start it adrift 
again.” 

One of the most ludicrous incidents of the siege was the career 
of the dummy monitor, sometimes called the “ Black Terror.” 
The Indianola, of Porter’s fleet, had been attacked by the Con¬ 
federates and captured in a sinking condition. They were hard 
at work trying to raise her, when they saw something coming 
down the river that struck them with terror. Admiral Porter 
had fitted up an old flat-boat so that, at a little distance, it looked 
like a monitor. It had mud furnaces and a smokestack made of 
pork barrels. Fire was built in the furnaces, and she was set 
adrift on the river without a single person on board. The men 
at the Vicksburg batteries were startled at the appearance of a 
monitor in those waters, and opened a furious cannonade, but 
did not succeed in stopping the stranger, which passed on with 
the current. In the excitement, orders were given to destroy 
the Indianola , and she was blown up just before the trick was 
discovered. 

A few days after the capture of Vicksburg, President Lincoln 
wrote this characteristically frank and generous letter to General 
Grant: 


had been conspicuous for their valor and attention to duty 
during the campaign. It is said that he also took par¬ 
ticular care that no exorbitant prices should be demanded 
of these soldiers on the steamboats by which they as¬ 
cended the river in going to their homes. His own 
modesty and loyalty are exhibited in a letter that he 
wrote, a month later, when the loyal citizens of Mem¬ 
phis proposed to give him a public dinner. He said: 
“ In accepting this testimonial, which I do at great 
sacrifice of personal feelings, I simply desire to pay a 
tribute to the first public exhibition in Memphis of 
loyalty to the Government which I represent in the 
Department of the Tennessee. I should dislike to 
refuse, for considerations of personal convenience, to 
acknowledge anywhere or in any form the existence 
of sentiments which I have so long and so ardently 
desired to see manifested in this department. The 
stability of this Government and the unity of this 
nation depends solely on the cordial support and the 
earnest loyalty of the people.” 

Of the innumerable incidents of the marches and the siege, in 
this campaign, some of the most interesting were told by Gen. 
Manning F. Force in a paper read before the Ohio Commandery 
of the Loyal Legion, all of them being drawn from his own 
experience. In that campaign he was colonel of the Twentieth 
Ohio infantry. 

“About the 20th of April I was sent, with the Twentieth Ohio 
and the Thirtieth Illinois, seven miles out from Milliken’s Bend, 
to build a road across a swamp. When the sun set, the leaves 
of the forest seemed to exude smoke, and the air became a 
saturated solution of gnats. When my mess sat down to supper 
under a tree, the gnats got into our mouths, noses, eyes, and 
ears. They swarmed upon our necks, seeming to encircle them 
with bands 
of hot iron. 

Tortured and 
blinded, we 
could neither 


My dear General : I do not remember that you and I ever met person¬ 
ally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inesti¬ 
mable service you have done the country. I wish to say further : when you 
first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you 
finally did—march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the 
transports, and thus go below ; and I never had any faith, except a general 
hope that you knew better than 1, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the 
like could succeed. When you got below and took Fort Gibson, Grand Gull 
and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join General Banks ; 
and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a 
mistake. I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you were 
right and I was wrong. 

Yours very truly, 


A. Lincoln. 


After the surrender Grant reorganized his army, issued instruc¬ 
tions for the care and government of the blacks who had 
escaped from slavery and come within his lines, and gave orders 
for furloughs to be granted freely to those of his soldiers who 


eat nor see. 
We got a 
quantity of 
cotton, and 
made a circle 
around the 
group, and 
set it on fire. 
The pungent 
smoke made 
water stream 
from oureyes, 
but drove the 
gnats away. 
W e then 
supped in 
anguish, but 
in peace. I 
sent back to 
camp and got 
some mos¬ 
quito netting 
from a sutler. 
Covering my 



















THE ADVANCE ON VICKSBURG.—THE FIFTEENTH CORPS CROSSING THE BIG BLACK RIVER BY NIGHT, MAY 16. 1863. 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


2/9 


head with many folds, I slept, waking at intervals to burn a wad 
of cotton. Many of the men sat by the fire all night, fighting 
the gnats, and slept next day. In the woods we found stray 
cattle, sheep, and hogs. A large pond was full of fish. We 
lived royally. 

“ On the 25th of April, Logan’s division marched. The 
Twentieth Ohio had just drawn new clothing, but had to leave 
it behind. Stacking spades and picks in the swamp, they took 
their place in the column as it appeared, taking with them only 
the scanty supplies they had there. Six days of plodding 
brought them over nearly seventy miles, to the shore of the 
river opposite Bruinsburg. We marched six miles one day, and 
those six miles by evening were strewn with wrecks of wagons 
and their loads and half-buried guns. At a halt of some hours 
the men stood in deep mud, for want of any means of sitting. 
Yet when we halted at night, every man answered to his name, 
and went laughing to bed on the sloppy ground. 

“ On the 12th of May the Seventeenth Corps marched on the 
road toward Raymond. The Thirtieth Illinois was deployed 
with a skirmish line in front, on the left of the road; the Twen¬ 
tieth Ohio, in like manner on the right. About noon we halted 
—the Twentieth Ohio in an open field, bounded by a fence to 
the front, beyond which was forest and rising ground. An 
unseen battery on some height beyond the timber began shell¬ 
ing the fields. The Twentieth advanced over the fence into the 
woods. The First Brigade came up and formed on our right. 
All at once the woods rang with the shrill rebel yell and a deaf¬ 
ening din of musketry. The Twentieth rushed forward to a 
creek, and used the farther bank as breastworks. The timber 
beyond the creek and the fence was free from undergrowth. 
The Twentieth Illinois, the regiment next to the right of the 
Twentieth Ohio, knelt down in place and returned the fire. 
The enemy advanced into the creek in its front. I went to the 
lieutenant-colonel, who was kneeling at the left flank, and 
asked him why he did not advance into the creek. He said, 

‘ We have no orders.’ In a few minutes the colonel of the 
regiment was killed. It was too late to advance, it was murder 
to remain, and the lieutenant-colonel withdrew the regiment 
in order back behind the fence. I cannot tell how long the 
battle lasted. I remember noticing the forest leaves, cut by 
rifle-balls, falling in thick eddies, still as snowflakes. At one 
time the enemy in our front advanced to the border of the 
creek, and rifles of opposing lines crossed while firing. Men 
who were shot were burned by the powder of the rifles that 
sped the balls. 

“ In eighteen days Grant marched two hundred miles, won 
five battles, four of them in six days, inflicted a loss of five 
thousand men, daptured eighty-eight pieces of artillery, com¬ 
pelled the abandonment of all outworks, and cooped Pember¬ 
ton’s army within the lines of Vicksburg, while he had opened 
for himself easy and safe communication with the North. 
During these eighteen days the men had been without shelter, 
and had subsisted on five days’ rations and scanty supplies 
picked up on the way. The morning we crossed the Big Black 
I offered five dollars for a small piece of corn bread, and could 
not get it. The soldier said bread was worth more to him 
than money. 

“ The Twentieth was placed in a road-cut, which was enfiladed 
by one of the enemy’s infantry intrenchments. But when we 
sat with our backs pressed against the side of the cut toward 
Vicksburg, the balls whistled by just outside of our knees. At 
sunset the company cooks were possessed to come to us with 


hot coffee. They succeeded in running the gantlet, and the 
garrison could hear the jingling of tin cups and shouts of laugh¬ 
ter as the cramped men ate their supper. After dark we were 
recalled and placed on the slope of a sharp ridge, with orders 
to remain in place, ready to move at any moment, and with 
strict injunctions not to allow any man’s head to appear above 
the ridge. There we lay two or three days in line. Coffee 
was brought to us by the cooks at meal-time. Not a man 
those two or three days left the line without a special order. 
The first night Lieutenant Weatherby, commanding the right 
company, reported that the slope was so steep where he was 
that the men as soon as they fell asleep began to roll down hill. 
I had to give him leave to shift his position. 

“One day when there was a general bombardment I was told 
a soldier wished to see me. Under the canopy of exploding 
shell I found a youth, a boy, lying on his back on the ground. 
He was pale and speechless ; there was a crimson hole in his 
breast. As I knelt by his side he looked wistfully at me. I said, 
‘We must all die some time, and the man is happy who meets 
death in the discharge of duty. You have done your whole duty 
well.’ It was all he wanted. His eyes brightened, a smile 
flickered on his lips, and I was kneeling beside a corpse. 

“ One day, when the Twentieth Ohio was in advance, we came, 
at a turn in the road, upon two old colored people, man and 
woman, plump and sleek, riding mules, and coming toward us. 
As they caught sight of the long column of blue-coats, the woman, 
crossing her hands upon her bosom, rolled up her eyes and cried 
in ecstasy, ‘ Bress de Lord ! Bress Almighty God ! Our friends 
is come, our friends is come! ’ On the return, we crossed a plan¬ 
tation where the field-hands were ploughing. The soldiers like 
mules, and the negroes gladly unharnessed them, and helped the 
soldiers to mount. I said to one, ‘The soldiers are taking your 
mules.’ The quick response was, ‘ An’ dey is welcome to ’em, 
sar ; dey is welcome to ’em.’ Men and women looked wistfully 
at the marching column, and began to talk about joining us. 
They seemed to wait the determination of a gray-headed darky 
who was considering. Presently there was a shout, ‘ Uncle 
Pete’s a-gwine, an’ I’m a-gwine, too! ’ As they flocked after us, 
one tall, stern woman strode along, carrying a wooden tray and a 
crockery pitcher as all her effects, looking straight to the front. 
Some one asked, ‘ Auntie, where are you going? ’ She answered, 
without looking, ‘ I don’t car’ whicher way I go, so as I git away 
from dis place.’ 

“When the working parties carried the saps to the base of the 
works, the besieged used to light the fuses of six-pound shells 
and toss them over the'parapet. They would roll down among 
the working parties and explode, sometimes doing serious dam¬ 
age. A young soldier of the Twentieth Ohio, named Friend, 
devised wooden mortars. A very small charge of powder in one 
of these would just lift a shell over the enemy’s parapet and 
drop it within. After the surrender there was much inquiry 
from the garrison how they were contrived.” 

Concerning this tossing of the shells, one who had been a 
private in Grant’s army said to the writer : “ I was in the trenches 
one evening when a shell came over without noise, as if thrown 
by hand. Fortunately it did not explode, or it would have 
injured a good many of us. This greatly surprised me, and when 
in a few minutes another came, I was on the watch and noted the 
point from which it seemed to start. By strange luck this also 
failed to explode. I then laid my rifle across the breastwork, 
cocked it, and put my eye to the sight, with the muzzle facing 
the point from which the shell had come. Presently I saw a man 


2 SO 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



rise in the enemy’s trench with a third shell in his hand—but he 
never threw it.” 

When the siege began, General Pemberton issued an order 
that all non-combatants leave the city ; but many of them refused 
to go—some because they had no other home, or means to sus¬ 
tain themselves elsewhere—and a few women and children were 
among those who remained. One lady, wife of an officer in 
Pemberton’s army, published the next year an account of her 
life in the city during the siege, which is especially interesting 
for its picturesque and suggestive details, many of which are not 
to be found elsewhere. A few passages are here reproduced : 

“ The cave [of a friend] was an excavation in the earth the 
size of a large room, high enough for the tallest person to stand 
perfectly erect, provided with comfortable seats, and altogether 
quite a large and habitable abode (compared with some of the 


the city), 
were it not for 
the dampness 
and the constant 
contact with the 
soft earthy walls. 

“Two negroes 
were co m i n g 
with a small 
trunk between 
them, and a car¬ 
pet-bag or two, 
evidently trying 
to show others of the profession how careless of danger they were, 
and how foolish ‘ niggars ’ were to run ‘ dat sort o’ way.’ A shell 
came through the air and fell a few yards beyond the braves, 
when, lo ! the trunk was sent tumbling, and landed bottom up¬ 
ward ; the carpet-bag followed—one grand somerset ; and amid 
the cloud of dust that arose, I discovered one porter doubled up 
by the side of the trunk, and the other crouching close by a pile 
of plank. A shout from the negroes on the cars, and much 
laughter, brought them on their feet, brushing their knees and 
giggling, yet looking quite foolish, feeling their former prestige 
gone. The excitement was intense in the city. Groups of 
people stood on every available position where a view could be 
obtained of the distant hills, where the jets of white smoke con¬ 
stantly passed out from among the trees. 

“The caves were plainly becoming a necessity, as some persons 
had been killed on the street by fragments of shells. The room 
that I had so lately slept in had been struck by a fragment of a 
shell during the first night, and a large hole made in the ceiling. 
Terror-stricken, we remained crouched in the cave, while shell after 


shell followed each other in quick succession. I endeavored by 
constant prayer to prepare myself for the sudden death I was 
almost certain awaited me. My heart stood still as we would 
hear the reports from the guns, and the rushing and fearful sound 
of the shell as it came toward us. As it neared, the noise became 
more deafening; the air was full of the rushing sound ; pains 
darted through my temples ; my ears were full of the confusing 
noise; and, as it exploded, the report flashed through my head 
like an electric shock, leaving me in a quiet state of terror the 
most painful that I can imagine, cowering in a corner, holding my 
child to my heart—the only feeling of my life being the choking 
throbs of my heart, that rendered me almost breathless. I saw 
one fall in the road without the mouth of the cave, like a flame 
of fire, making the earth tremble, and, with a low, singing sound, 
the fragments sped on in their work of death. 

“ So constantly dropped the shells 
around the city that the inhabitants 
all made preparations to live under 

ground during the siege. M-sent 

over and had a cave made in a hill 
near by. We seized the opportu¬ 
nity one evening, when the gunners 
were probably at their supper, for 
we had a few moments of quiet, to 
go over and take possession. 

“ Some families had light bread 
made in large quantities, and sub¬ 
sisted on it with milk (provided their 
cows were not killed from one milking 
time to another), without any more 
cooking, until called on to replenish. Though most of us lived on 
corn bread and bacon, served three times a day, the only luxury 
of the meal consisting in its warmth, I had some flour, and 
frequently had some hard, tough biscuit made from it, there 
being no soda or yeast to be procured. At this time we could 
also procure beef. A gentleman friend was kind enough to offer 
me his camp-bed ; another had his tent-fly stretched over the 
mouth of our residence to shield us from the sun. And so I 
went regularly to work keeping house under ground. Our new 
habitation was an excavation made in the earth, and branching 
six feet from the entrance, forming a cave in the shape of a T. 
In one of the wings my bed fitted ; the other I used as a kind of 
dressing-room. In this the earth had been cut down a foot or 
two below the floor of the main cave; I could stand erect here ; 
and when tired of sitting in other portions of my residence I 
bowed myself into it, and stood impassively resting at full 
height—one of the variations in the still shell-expectant life. 

“We were safe at least from fragments of shell, and they were 
flying in all directions. We had our roof arched and braced, the 
supports of the bracing taking up much room in our confined 
quarters. The earth was about five feet thick above, and seemed 
hard and compact. 

“ ‘ Miss M-,’ said one of the more timid servants, ‘ do they 

want to kill us all dead ? Will they keep doing this until we 
all die?’ I said most heartily, ‘I hope not.’ The servants 
we had with us seemed to possess more courage than is usually 
attributed to negroes. They seldom hesitated to cross the 
street for water at any time. The ‘ boy ’ slept at the entrance 
of the cave, with a pistol I had given him, telling me I need not 
be ‘ afeared—dat any one dat come dar would have to go over 
his body first.’ He never refused to carry out any little article 
to M-on the battlefield. I laughed heartily at a dilemma 


SIEGE OF VICKSBURG—SHOWING SOME OF THE FEDERAL 
INTRENCHMENTS. 

















Campfire and battlefield. 


281 



he was placed in 
one day. The 
mule that he had 
mounted to ride 
out to the battle¬ 
field took him to a 
dangerous locality, 
where the shells 
were flying thickly, 
and then, suddenly 
stopping, through 
fright, obstinately 
refused to stir. It 
was in vain that 
George kicked and 
beat him—go he 
would not; so, 
clinching his hand, 
he hit him severely 
in the head several 
times, jumped 
down, ran h o m e, 
and left him. The 
mule stood a few 
minutes rigidly; then, looking round, and seeing George at some 
distance from him, turned and followed quite demurely. 

“ One morning, after breakfast, the shells began falling so 
thickly around us, that they seemed aimed at the particular 
spot on which our cave was located. Two or three fell im¬ 
mediately in the rear of it, exploding a few minutes before 
reaching the ground, and the fragments went singing over the 
top of our habitation. I at length became so much alarmed— 
as the cave trembled excessively—for our safety, that I deter¬ 
mined, rather than be buried alive, to stand out from under the 
earth ; so taking my child in my arms, and calling the servants, 
we ran to a refuge near the roots of a large fig-tree, that 
branched out over the bank, and served as a protection from 
the fragments of shells. As we stood trembling there—for the 
shells were falling all around us—some of my gentleman friends 


came up to reassure 
me, telling me that 
the tree would 
protect us, and 
that the range 
would probably be 
changed in a short 
time. While they 
spoke, a shell, that 
seemed to be of 
enormous size, fell, 
screaming and hiss¬ 
ing, immediately 
before the mouth 
of our cave, sending 
up a huge column 
of smoke and earth, 
and jarring the 
ground most sensi¬ 
bly where we stood. 
What seemed very 
strange, the earth 
closed in around 
the shell, and left 
only the newly upturned soil to show where it had fallen. 

“ The cave we inhabited was about five squares from the levee. 
A great many had been made in a hill immediately beyond us . 
and near this hill we could see most of the shells fall. Caves 
were the fashion—the rage—over besieged Vicksburg. Negroes 
who understood their business hired themselves out to dig 
them, at from thirty to fifty dollars, according to the size. 
Many persons, considering different localities unsafe, would sell 
them to others who had been less fortunate or less provident; 
and so great was the demand for cave workmen, that a new 
branch of industry sprang up and became popular—particularly 
as the personal safety of the workman was secured, and money 
withal. 

“ A large trunk was picked up after the sinking of the Cin¬ 
cinnati , belonging to a surgeon on board. It contained valu- 


MAKING GABIONS. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL SETH M. BARTON, C. S. A. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL N. G. EVANS, C, S. A. 


MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM PRESTON, C, S, A. 






























282 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


able surgical instruments that could not be procured in the 
Confederacy. 

“ I was sitting near the entrance, about five o’clock, thinking of 
the pleasant change—0I1, bless me !—that to-morrow would bring, 
when the bombardment commenced more furiously than usual, 
the shells falling thickly around us, causing vast columns of earth 
to fly upward, mingled with smoke. I was startled by the shouts 
of the servants and a most fearful jar and rocking of the earth, fol¬ 
lowed by a deafening explosion such as I had never heard before. 
The cave filled instantly with powder, smoke, and dust. I stood 
with a tingling, prickling sensation in my head, hands, and feet, 
and with a confused brain. Yet alive!—was the first glad 
thought that came to me; child, servants, all here, and saved !— 
from some great danger, I felt. I stepped out, to find a group of 
persons before my cave, looking anxiously for me; and lying all 
around, freshly torn, rose-bushes, arbor-vitae trees, large clods of 
earth, splinters, pieces of plank, wood, etc. A mortar shell had 
struck the corner of the cave, fortunately so near the brow of 
the hill that it had gone obliquely into the earth, exploding as it 
went, breaking large masses from the side of the hill, tearing 
away the fence, the shrubbery and flowers, sweeping all like an 
avalanche down near the entrance of my good refuge. 

“ A young girl, becoming weary in the confinement of the cave, 
hastily ran to the house in the interval that elapsed between the 
slowly falling shells. On returning, an explosion sounded near 
her—-one wild scream, and she ran into her mother’s presence, 
sinking like a wounded dove, the life-blood flowing over the light 
summer dress in crimson ripples from a death-wound in her side, 
caused by the shell fragment. A fragment had also struck and 
broken the arm of a little boy playing near the mouth of his 
mother’s cave. This was one day’s account. 

“ I was distressed to hear of a young Federal lieutenant who 
had been severely wounded and left on the field by his comrades. 
He had lived in this condition from Saturday until Monday, 
lying in the burning sun without water or food ; and the men on 
both sides could witness the agony of the life thus prolonged, 
without the power to assist him in any way. I was glad, indeed, 
when I heard the poor man had expired on Monday morning. 
Another soldier left on the field, badly wounded in the leg, had 
begged most piteously for water; and lying near the Confederate 
intrenchments, his cries were all directed to the Confederate 
soldiers. The firing was heaviest where he lay, and it would 
have been at the risk of a life to have gone to him; yet a Con¬ 
federate soldier asked and obtained leave to carry water to him, 
and stood and fanned him in the midst of the firing, while he 
eagerly drank from the heroic soldier’s canteen. 

“ One morning George made an important discovery—a newly 
made stump of sassafras, very near the cave, with large roots 


extending in every direction, affording us an inexhaustible vein 
of tea for future use. We had been drinking water with our 
meals previous to this disclosure ; coffee and tea had long since 
been among the things that were, in the army. We, however, 
were more fortunate than many of the officers, having access to 
an excellent cistern near us ; while many of our friends used 
muddy water or river water. 

“ On another occasion, a gentleman sent me four large slices of 
ham, having been fortunate enough to procure a small piece him¬ 
self. Already the men in the rifle-pits were on half rations—flour 
or meal enough to furnish bread equivalent in quantity to two 
biscuits in two days. They amused themselves, while lying in 
the pits, by cutting out little trinkets from the wood of the 
parapet and the minie-balls that fell around them. Major Fry, 
from Texas, excelled in skill and ready invention, I think; he 
sent me one day an armchair that he had cut from a minie-ball— 
the most minute affair of the kind I ever saw, yet perfectly 
symmetrical. At another time, he sent me a diminutive plough 
made from the parapet wood, with traces of lead, and a lead 
point made from a minie-ball. 

“ The courier brought many letters to the inhabitants from 
friends without. His manner of entering the city was singular. 
Taking a skiff in the Yazoo, he proceeded to its confluence with 
the Mississippi, where he tied the little boat, entered the woods, 
and awaited the night. At dark he took off his clothing, placed 
his despatches securely within them, bound the package firmly 
to a plank, and, going into the river, he sustained his head above 
the water by holding to the plank, and in this manner floated in 
the darkness through the fleet, and on two miles down the river 
to Vicksburg, where his arrival was hailed as an event of great 
importance in the still life of the city. 

“The hill opposite our cave might be called ‘death’s point,’ 
from the number of animals that had been killed in eating the 
grass on the sides and summit. Horses or mules that are 
tempted to mount the hill by the promise of grass that grows 
profusely there invariably come limping down wounded, to die 
at the base, or are brought down dead from the summit. 

“A certain number of mules are killed each day by the com¬ 
missaries, and are issued to the men, all of whom prefer the 
fresh meat, though it be of mule, to the bacon and salt rations 
that they have eaten for so long a time without change. 

“ I was sewing, orte day, near one side of the cave, where the 
bank slopes and lights up the room like a window. Near this 
opening I was sitting, when I suddenly remembered some little 
article I wished in another part of the room. Crossing to procure 
it, I was returning, when a minie-ball came whizzing through 
the opening, passed my chair, and fell beyond it. Had I been 
still sitting, I should have stopped it.” 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD , 


283 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE DRAFT RIOTS. 


BANISHED—SPEECH OF EX-PRESIDENT PIERCE—SPEECH OF HORATIO SEYMOUR— 
MISINTERPRETED—THE DRAFT IN NEW YORK—THE RIOTS—THE AUTUMN ELECTIONS. 


-VALLANDIGHAM 

UTES PERSISTENTLY 

second attempt at invasion 
y Lee had ended at Gettys- 
urg even more disastrously 
the first, and he returned 
3 Virginia at the head of 
hardly more than one- 
half of the army with 
which he had set out; 
on the next day Vicks¬ 
burg fell, the Mississippi 
was opened, and Pember¬ 
ton’s entire army stacked 
their muskets and be¬ 
came prisoners. Then 
the war should have 
ended ; for the question 
on which the appeal to 
arms had been made 
was practically decided. 
Four great slave States 
—Maryland, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Mis¬ 
souri—had never really 
joined the Confeder¬ 
acy, though some of them were represented in its Congress, 
and the territory that it actually held was steadily diminish¬ 
ing. The great blockade was daily growing more effective, the 
largest city in the South had been held by National troops 
for fifteen months, and the Federal authority was maintained 
somewhere in every State, with the sole exception of Ala¬ 
bama. The delusion that Southern soldiers would make a better 
army, man for man, than Northern, had long since been dis¬ 
pelled. The nation had suffered from incompetent command¬ 
ers ; but time and experience had weeded them out, and the 
really able ones were now coming to the front. The taboo had 
been removed from the black man, and he was rapidly putting 
on the blue uniform to fight for the enfranchisement of his race. 
Lincoln with his proclamation, and Meade and Grant with their 
victories, had destroyed the last chance of foreign intervention. 
In the military situation there was nothing to justify any further 
hope for the Confederacy, or any more destruction of life in the 
vain endeavor to disrupt the Union. If there was any justifica¬ 
tion for a continuance of the struggle on the part of the insur¬ 
gents, it was to be found only in a single circumstance—the 
attitude of the Democratic party in the Northern States; but 
it must be confessed that this was such as to give considerable 
color to their expectation of ultimate success. 

The habitual feeling of antagonism to the opposite party, from 
which few men in a land of popular politics are ever wholly free, 
was reinforced by a sincere belief on the part of many that the 
Government, in determining to crush the rebellion, had under¬ 
taken a larger task than it could ever accomplish. This belief 
was born of an ignorance that it was impossible to argue with, 


because it supposed itself to be enlightened and fortified by 
great historical facts. Both conscious and unconscious dema¬ 
gogues picked out little shreds of history and formulated phrases 
and catch-words, which village newspapers and village states¬ 
men confidently repeated as unanswerable arguments from the 
experience of nations. Thus Pitt’s exclamation during the war 
of American independence, “You cannot conquer America!” 
was triumphantly quoted thousands of times, as an argument for 
the impossibility of conquering the South. Assertions were 
freely made that the despotism of the Administration (in trying 
to save the National armies from useless slaughter, by arresting 
spies and traitors at the North) exceeded anything ever done by 
Caesar or the Russian Czar. The word “ Bastile ’’was given out, 
without much explanation, and was echoed all along the line. 
The war Governors of the free States, and especially the pro¬ 
visional military Governors in Tennessee and Louisiana, were 
called Lincoln’s satraps; and “ satraps,” with divers pronuncia¬ 
tions, became a popular word. The fathers of the Republic 
were all mentioned with sorrowful reverence, and it was declared 
that the Constitution they had framed was destroyed—not by 
the Secessionists, but by Mr. Lincoln and his advisers. Some¬ 
body invented a story that Secretary Seward had said he had 
only to reach forth his hand and ring a bell, and any man in the 
country whom he might designate would at once be seized and 
thrown into prison; whereupon “the tinkle of Seward’s little 
bell ” became a frequent head-line in the Democratic journals. 
The army before Vicksburg was pointed at in derision, as besieg¬ 
ing a place that could never be taken. 

It did not occur to any of these orators and journalists to 
explain the difference between an ocean three thousand miles 
wide, and the Rappahannock River; or the difference between 
an absolute monarch born to the purple, and a president elected 
by a free vote of the people ; or even the difference between a 
state of peace and a state of war. None of them told their hear¬ 
ers that, only eight years before, the city of Sebastopol had 
withstood the combined armies of England and France for 
almost a year, while the city of Vicksburg, when Grant besieged 
it, fell on the forty-seventh day. Nor did any of them ever 
appear to consider what the probable result would be if the 
entire Democratic party in Northern States should give the 
Administration as hearty support as it received from its own. 

It is easy to see the fallacy of all those arguments now, 
and the unwisdom of the policy from which they sprang; but 
they were a power in the land at that time, and wrought un¬ 
measured mischief. The most conspicuous opponent of the 
Government in the West was Clement L. Vallandigham, of 
Ohio, whose position will be understood most readily from a 
few of his public utterances. He wrote, in May, 1861: “The 
audacious usurpation of President Lincoln, for which he deserves 
impeachment, in daring, against the very letter of the Constitu¬ 
tion, and without the shadow of law, to raise and support armies, 
and to provide and maintain a navy, for three years, by mere 
executive proclamation, I will not vote to sustain or ratify— 








































284 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


never.” Speaking in his place in the House of Representa¬ 
tives in January, 1863, he said: “I have denounced, from the 
beginning, the usurpations and infractions, one and all, of 
law and Constitution, by the President and those under him ; 
their repeated and persistent arbitrary arrests, the suspension 
of habeas corpus, the violation of freedom of the mails, of the 
private house, of the press and of speech, and all the other multi¬ 
plied wrongs and outrages upon public liberty and private right 
which have made this country one of the worst despotisms 
on the earth for the past twenty months. To the record and to 
time I appeal for my justification.” In proposing conciliation 
and compromise as a substitute for the war, he said, borrowing 
the language of the Indiana Democratic platform, “ In consider¬ 
ing terms of settlement, we will look only to the welfare, peace, 
and safety of the white race, without reference to the effect that 
settlement may have upon the condition of the African.” For 
these and similar utterances, especially in regard to a military 
order that forbade the carrying of firearms and other means of 
disturbing the peace, and for the effect they were having upon 
his followers, Mr. Vallandigham was arrested in May, 1863, by 
the military authorities in Ohio, tried by court-martial, and sen¬ 
tenced to imprisonment during the war. The President com¬ 
muted the sentence to banishment beyond the lines, and the 
prisoner was taken south through Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
sent into Confederate territory under a flag of truce. This of 
course placed him in the light of a martyr, and a few months 
later it made him the Democratic candidate for Governor of 
Ohio. 

In the East, ex-President Pierce, of New Hampshire, loomed 
up as a leader of the opposition. On January 6, i860, he had 
written to Jefferson Davis (who had been Secretary of War in 
his cabinet) a letter in which he said : “ Without discussing the 
question of right—of abstract power to secede—I have never 
believed that actual disruption of the Union can occur without 
blood ; and if through the madness of Northern abolitionists 
that dire calamity must come, the fighting will not be along 
Mason and Dixon’s line merely. It will be within our own 
borders, and in our own streets, between the two classes of 
citizens to whom I have referred. Those who defy law and scout 
constitutional obligations will, if we ever reach the arbitrament 
of arms, find occupation enough at home.” In an elaborate 
Fourth-of-July oration at Concord in 1863, he said: “No 
American citizen was then [before the war] subject to be driven 
into exile for opinion’s sake, or arbitrarily arrested and incarcer¬ 
ated in military bastiles—even as he may now be—not for acts 
or words of imputed treason, but if he do but mourn in silent 
sorrow over the desolation of his country. Do we not all know 
that the cause of our calamities is the vicious intermeddling of 
too many of the citizens of the Northern States with the consti¬ 
tutional rights of the Southern States, cooperating with the dis¬ 
contents of the people of those States? We have seen, in the 
experience of the last two years, how futile are all our efforts to 
maintain the Union by force of arms; but, even had war been 
carried on by us successfully, the ruinous result would exhibit its 
utter impracticability for the attainment of the desired end. 
With or without arms, with or without leaders, we will at least, in 
the effort to defend our rights as a free people, build up a great 
mausoleum of hearts, to which men who yearn for liberty will in 
after years, with bowed heads and reverently, resort, as Christian 
pilgrims to the sacred shrines of the Holy Land.” This was 
long referred to, by those who heard it, as “ the inausoleum-of- 
hearts speech.” 


In the great State of New York the Democratic leader was 
Horatio Seymour, who had been elected Governor in the period 
of depression that followed the military defeats of 1862. While 
Pierce was speaking in Concord, Seymour was delivering in New 
York a carefully written address, in which—like Pierce and 
Vallandigham—he complained, not of the secessionists for 
making war at the South, but of the Administration for curtail¬ 
ing the liberty of the Government’s enemies at the North. He 
said : “ When I accepted the invitation to speak at this meeting, 
we were promised the downfall of Vicksburg [the telegraph 
brought news of it while he was speaking], the opening of the 
Mississippi, the probable capture of the Confederate capital, and 
the exhaustion of the rebellion. When the clouds of war over¬ 
hung our country, we implored those in authority to compromise 
that difficulty; for we had been told by that great orator and 
statesman, Burke, that there never yet was a revolution that 
might not have been prevented by a compromise opportunely 
and graciously made. Until we have a united North, we can 
have no successful war ; until we have a united, harmonious 
North, we can have no beneficent peace. Remember this, that 
the bloody and treasonable and revolutionary doctrine of public 
necessity can be proclaimed by a mob as well as by a govern¬ 
ment.” 

The practical effect of all these protests, in the name of 
liberty, against arrests of spies and traitors, and suspension of the 
habeas corpus, was to assist the slave-holders in their attempt to 
make liberty forever impossible for the black race, in pursuance 
of which they were willing to destroy the liberties of the white 
race and sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives, most of which 
were valuable to their country and to mankind, being lives of 
men who earned a living by the sweat of their own faces. All 
the abridgment of the liberties of Northern citizens, in time of 
war, by President Lincoln’s suspension of the writ, and by arbi¬ 
trary arrests, was not a tithe of what those same citizens had suf¬ 
fered in time of peace from the existence of slavery under the 
Constitution. Yet neither President Pierce, nor Chief Justice 
Taney, nor Horatio Seymour, nor Mr. Vallandigham, had ever 
uttered one word of protest against the denial of free speech in 
criticism of that institution, or against the systematic rifling of 
mails at the South, or against the refusal to permit American 
citizens to sojourn in the slave States unless they believed in the 
divine right of slavery. 

It was no wonder that such utterances as those quoted above, 
by the leaders of a party, at such a time, should be translated 
by its baser followers into reasons for riot, arson, and butchery. 
Another exciting cause was found in the persistent misinter¬ 
pretation of what was meant to be a beneficent provision of 
the conscription law. Drafts had been ordered in several of the 
States to fill up quotas that were not forthcoming under the 
volunteer system. The law provided that a man whose name 
was drawn, if he did not wish to go into the service himself, 
might either procure a substitute or pay three hundred dollars 
to the Government and be released. In the North, where there 
were no slaves to do the necessary work at home, it was abso¬ 
lutely essential to have some system of substitution ; and the 
three-hundred-dollar clause was introduced, not because the 
Government wanted money more than it wanted men, but to 
favor the poor by keeping down the price of substitutes, for it 
was evident that that price could never rise above the sum 
necessary for a release. Yet this very clause was attacked by 
the journals that assumed to champion the cause of the poor, as 
being a discrimination in favor of the rich ! Mr. Vallandigham 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


235 



dollar 


said in a speech at Dayton: “The three-hundred-dollar pro¬ 
vision is a most unjust discrimination against the poor. The 
Administration says to every man between twenty and forty- 
five, ‘ Three hundred dollars or your life.’ ” When the clause 
had been repealed, in consequence of the ignorant clamor raised 
by this persistent misrepresentation, the price of substitutes 
rapidly went beyond a thousand 
A new levy of three hundred 
men was called for in April, 1863, 
the alternative of a draft if the 
quotas were not filled by volun¬ 
teering. The quota of the 
city of New York was not 
filled, and a draft was begun 
there on Saturday, the 1 ith 
of July. There had been 
premonitions of trouble 
when it was attempted 
to take the names and 
addresses of those 
subject to call, and 
in the tenement- 
h o u s e districts 
some of the mar¬ 
shals had narrow¬ 
ly escaped with 
their lives. On 
the morning when the 
draft was to begin, several 
of the most widely read 
Democratic journals con¬ 
tained editorials that ap¬ 
peared to be written for 
the very purpose of incit¬ 
ing a riot. They asserted 
that any draft at all was 
unconstitutional and des¬ 
potic, and that in this case 
the quota demanded from 
the city was excessive, 
and denounced the war 
as a “ mere abolition cru¬ 
sade.” It is doubtful if 
there was any well-formed 
conspiracy, including any 
large number of persons, 
to get up a riot; but the 
excited state of the pub¬ 
lic mind, especially among 
the laboring population, 
inflammatory handbills 
displayed in the grog¬ 
shops, the presence of the 
dangerous classes, whose 

bestopportunity for plunder was in time of riot, and the absence 
of the militia that had been called away to meet the invasion of 
Pennsylvania, all favored an outbreak. It was unfortunate that 
the draft was begun on Saturday, and the Sunday papers pub¬ 
lished long lists of names that were drawn—an instance of the 
occasional mischievous results of journalistic enterprise. Those 
interested had all Sunday to talk it over in their accustomed 
meeting-places, and discuss wild schemes of relief or retaliation ; 


CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. 


and the insurrection that followed was more truly a popular 
uprising than the rebellion that it assisted and encouraged. 

When the draft was resumed on Monday, the serious work 
began. One provost-marshal’s office was at the corner of Third 
Avenue and Forty-sixth Street. It was guarded by sixty police¬ 
men, and the wheel was set in motion at ten o’clock. The 
building was surrounded by a dense, angry crowd, who were 
freely cursing the draft, the police, the National Government, 
and “ the nigger.” The drawing had been in progress but a few 
minutes when there was a shout of “ Stop the cars ! ” and at 
once the cars were stopped, the horses released, the conductors 
and passengers driven out, and a tumult created. Then 
a great human wave was set in motion, which bore 
down everything before it and rolled into the mar¬ 
shal’s office, driving out at the back windows the 
officials and the policemen, whose clubs, though plied 
rapidly and knocking down a rioter at every blow, could 

not dispose of them 
as fast as they came 
on. The mob de¬ 
stroyed everything in 
the office, and then 
set the building on 
fire. The firemen 
came promptly, but 
were not permitted to 
throw any water upon 
the flames. At this 
moment Superinten¬ 
dent John A. Ken¬ 
nedy, of the police, 
approaching incau¬ 
tiously and unarmed, 
was recognized and 
set upon by the crowd, 
who gave him half a 
hundred blows with 
clubs and stones, and 
finally threw him face 
downward into a mud- 
puddle, with the in¬ 
tention of drowning 
him. When rescued, 
he was bruised beyond recognition, and was lifted into a wagon 
and carried to the police headquarters. The command of the 
force now devolved upon Commissioner Thomas C. Acton and 
Inspector Daniel Carpenter, whose management during three 
fearful days was worthy of the highest praise. 

Another marshal’s office, where the draft was in progress, was 
at Broadway and Twenty-ninth Street, and here the mob burned 
the whole block of stores on Broadway between Twenty-eighth 
and Twenty-ninth Streets. At Third Avenue and Forty-fourth 
Street there was a battle between a small force of police and a 
mob, in which the police were defeated, many of them being 
badly wounded by stones and pistol-shots. Some of them who 
were knocked down were almost instantly robbed of their cloth¬ 
ing. Officer Bennett fell into the hands of the crowd, and was 
beaten so savagely that no appearance of life was left in him, 
when he was carried away to the dead-house at St. Luke’s Hos¬ 
pital. Here came his wife, who discovered that his heart was 
still beating; means of restoration were used promptly, and after 
three days of unconsciousness and a long illness he recovered. 


HORATIO SEYMOUR. 














286 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


Another officer was stabbed twice by a woman in the crowd; 
and another, disabled by a blow from an iron bar, was saved by a 
German woman, who hid him between two mattresses when the 
pursuing mob was searching her house for him. In the after¬ 
noon a small police force held possession of a gun factory in 
Second Avenue for four hours, and was then compelled to retire 
before the persistent attacks of the rioters, who hurled stones 
through the windows and beat in the doors. 

Toward evening a riotous procession passed down Broadway, 
with drums, banners, muskets, pistols, pitchforks, clubs, and 


seeing three negroes on a roof, they set fire to the house. The 
victims hung at the edge of the roof a long time, but were 
obliged to drop before the police could procure ladders. This 
phase of the outbreak found its worst expression in the sacking 
and burning of the Colored Orphan Asylum, at Fifth Avenue 
and Forty-fourth Street. The two hundred helpless children were 
with great difficulty taken away by the rear doors while the mob 
were battering at the front. The excitement of the rioters was 
not so great as to prevent them from coolly robbing the building 
of everything valuable that could be removed before they set it 



'WNTESsssf: 


R®)S 

SEHT OTfWNSRS; 
ayMicBiimiss 


andIOO Larce Size Prize 
PACKAGES FOR $ 15 
AGENTS WANTED. 

S.C. RICKAROS&COi 
102 NASSAU ST. N.Y. | 


- TOTAL TO NEW RECRUITS $ 677 
VETERAN SOLDIERS^ 100 
TOTAL TO VETERAN SOLDIERS % 7.11 


County Bounty Cash Down 

STATE BOUNTY 

U.S. BOUNTY FOR NEW RECRUITS 


G.J 363 _B 

BESTTONIC 

IN THE 

WORLD 

CENTRAL DEPOT 
AMERICAN EXPRESS 
BUILOINC 
NEW VORK — 


^HANDSOME WATCH For only S 7 
BRITTISH OFFICERS WATCHESoriy J1S, 

CHAS.P.MORTON Sc CO 

^= - 40 ANN ST.N.Y ~~T3^ I 


PIONEER BADGE MANUFACTURERS 
ALL KIN OS Of ARMY BA OCES IN SOUDCOLD4 
[ BYTHE S INGLE ONE 100 OR ICOO S.SENT BY MAIL 

1 z D ROWN E & M00ELILgB 

| • 208 SR0iCWAj ST. ^-=- 


- ■ 

-FHcv-y 


jHAND MONET 

j Paid any Party v/hoTmntjs a 

i RECRUIT, 


□A 


|j 11 1 



RECRUITING OFFICE IN NEW YORK CITY HALL PARK. 

(From an engraving published in " Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly,” during thd war.) 


boards inscribed “No Draft!” Inspector Carpenter, at the 
head of two hundred policemen, marched up to meet it. His 
orders were, “ Take no prisoners, but strike quick and hard.” 
The mob was met at the corner of Amity (or West Third) Street. 
The police charged at once in a compact body, Carpenter knock¬ 
ing down the foremost rioter with a blow that cracked his skull, 
and in a few minutes the mob scattered and fled, leaving Broad¬ 
way strewn with their wounded and dying. From this time, the 
police were victorious in every encounter. 

During the next two days there was almost constant rioting, 
mobs appearing at various points, both up-town and down-town. 
The rioters set upon every negro that appeared—whether man, 
woman, or child—and succeeded in murdering eleven of them. 
One they deliberately hanged to a tree in Thirty-second Street, 
his only offence being the color of his skin. At another place, 


on fire. Bed-clothing, furniture, and other articles were passed 
out and borne off (in many cases by the wives and sisters of the 
rioters) to add to the comfort of their own homes. Several 
tenement houses that were occupied by negroes were attacked 
by the mob with a determination to destroy, and were with 
difficulty protected by the police. 

The office of the Tribune was especially obnoxious to the 
rioters, because that paper was foremost in support of the 
Administration and the war. Crowds approached it, singing 

“ We’ll hang old Greeley on a sour-apple-tree,” 

and at one time its counting-room was entered by the mob and 
a fire was kindled, but the police drove them out and ex¬ 
tinguished the flames. The printers were then supplied with a 
quantity of muskets and bomb-shells, and long board troughs 

































































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


287 


were run out at the windows, so that in case of an attack a shell 
could be lighted and rolled out, dropping from the end of the 
trough into the crowd, where its explosion would produce incal¬ 
culable havoc. Happily the ominous troughs proved a sufficient 
warning. 

A small military force was brought to the aid of the police, 
and whenever an outbreak was reported, a strong body was sent 
at once to the spot. The locust clubs, when wielded in earnest, 
proved a terrible weapon, descending upon the heads of rioters 
with blows that generally cracked the skull. A surgeon who 
attended twenty-one men reported that they were all wounded 
in the head, and all past recovery. One of the most fearful 
scenes was in Second Avenue, where the police and the soldiers 
were assailed with stones and pistol-shots from the windows and 
the roofs. Dividing into squads, they entered the houses, 
which, amid the cries and curses of the women, they searched 
from bottom to top. They seized their cowering assailants in 
the halls, in the dark bedrooms, wherever they were hiding, 
felled them, bayoneted them, hurled them over the balusters 
and through the windows, pursued them to the roof, shot them 
as they dodged behind chimneys, refusing all mercy, and threw 
the quivering corpses into the street as a warning to the mob. 
It was like a realization of the imaginary taking of Torquilstone. 

One of the saddest incidents of the riot was the murder of Col. 
Henry J. O’Brien, of the Eleventh New York Volunteers, whose 
men had dispersed one mob with a deadly volley. An hour or 
two later the Colonel returned to the spot alone, when he was 
set upon and beaten and mangled and tortured horribly for 
several hours, being at last killed by some frenzied women. 
Page after page might be filled with such incidents. At one 
time Broadway was strewn with dead men from Bond Street to 
Union Square. A very young man, dressed in the working- 
clothes of a mechanic, was observed to be active and daring in 
leading a crowd of rioters. A blow from a club at length 
brought him down, and as he fell he was impaled on the picket 
of an iron fence, which caught him under the chin and killed 
him. On examination, it was found that under the greasy over¬ 
alls he wore a costly and fashionable suit, and there were other 
indications of wealth and refinement, but the body was never 
identified. 

Three days of this vigorous work by the police and the sol¬ 
diers brought the disturbance to an end. About fifty policemen 
had been injured, three of whom died ; and the whole number 


of lives destroyed by the rioters was eighteen. The exact num¬ 
ber of rioters killed is unknown, but it was more than twelve 
hundred. The mobs burned about fifty buildings, destroying 
altogether between two million and three million dollars’ worth 
of property. Governor Seymour incurred odium by a speech 
to the rioters, in which he addressed them as his friends, and 
promised to have the draft stopped, and by his communications 
to the President, in which he complained of the draft, and asked 
to have it suspended till the question of its constitutionality 
could be tested in the courts. His opponents interpreted this 
as a subterfuge to favor the rebellion by preventing the rein¬ 
forcement of the National armies. The President answered, in 
substance, that he had no objection to a testing of the question, 
but he would not imperil the country by suspending operations 
till a case could be dragged through the courts. 

Fourteen of the Northern States had enacted laws enabling 
the soldiers to vote without going home. In some of the States 
it was provided that commissioners should go to the camps and 
take the votes ; in others the soldier was authorized to seal up 
his ballot and send it home to his next friend, who was to pre¬ 
sent it at the polls and make oath that it was the identical one 
sent to him. The enactment of such laws had been strenuously 
opposed by the Democrats, on several grounds, the most plausi¬ 
ble of which was, that men under military discipline were not 
practically free to vote as they pleased. The most curious 
argument was to this effect: a soldier that sends home his 
ballot may be killed in battle before that ballot reaches its des¬ 
tination and is counted. Do you want dead men to decide your 
elections ? 

These were the darkest days of the war; but the riots reacted 
upon the party that was supposed to favor them, the people 
gradually learned the full significance of Gettysburg and Vicks¬ 
burg, and at the autumn election the State of New York, which 
a year before had elected Governor Seymour, gave a handsome 
majority in favor of the Administration. In Ohio, where the 
Democrats had nominated Vallandigham for Governor, and 
made a noisy and apparently vigorous canvass, the Republicans 
nominated John Brough. When the votes were counted, it was 
found that Mr. Brough had a majority of one hundred thousand, 
the largest that had ever been given for any candidate in any State 
where there was a contest. Politically speaking, this buried Mr. 
Vallandigham out of sight forever, and delivered a heavy blow 
at the obstructive policy of his party. 



OFFICERS OF THE FORTY-FOURTH NEW YORK INFANTRY. 










THE ATTACK ON CHARLESTON. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON. 

BLOCKADE OF THE HARBOR DUPONT’S ATTACK—DEFEAT—CAPTURE OF THE “ATLANTA”—GILLMORE’S SIEGE ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER— 

ITS CAPTURE-THE SWAMP ANGEL-BOMBARDMENT OF CHARLESTON-ACCURATE FIRING FROM MORTAR GUNS-TURNING NIGHT INTO 

DAY—STEADY CANNONADING FOR FORTY HOURS. 

As Charleston was the cradle of secession, there was a special desire on the part of the Northern people that it should undergo 
the heaviest penalties of war. They wanted poetic vengeance to fall upon the very men that had taught disunion, fired upon 
Sumter, and kindled the flames of civil strife. And there were not a few at the South who shared this sentiment, believing that 
they had been dragged into ruin by the politicians of South Carolina. Many would have been glad if the whole State could 
have been pried off from the rest of the Union and slidden into the depths of the sea. But there was a better than sentimental 
reason for directing vigorous operations against Charleston. Its port was exceedingly useful to the Confederates for shipping 
their cotton to Europe and receiving in return the army clothing, rifles, and ammunition that were produced for them by English 
looms and arsenals. Early in the war the Government attempted to close this port with obstructions. Several old whale-ships 
were loaded with stone, towed into the channel, and sunk, at which there was a great outcry, and the books were searched to see 
whether this barbarous proceeding, as it was called, was permissible under the laws of war and of nations. In 1854 the harbor of 
Sebastopol had been obstructed in the same way; but that was done by the Russians, whose harbor it was, to prevent the enemy 
from coming in. The strong currents at Charleston soon swept away the old hulks or buried them in the sand, and a dozen war 
vessels had to be sent there to maintain the blockade. This was an exceedingly difficult task. The main channel ran for a long 
distance near the shore of Morris Island, and was protected by batteries. The westward-bound blockade runners commonly went 
first to the British port of Nassau, in the West Indies, and thence with a pilot sailed for Charleston. After the main channel 
had been closed in consequence of the occupation of Morris Island by National troops, steamers of very light draft, built 
in England for this special service, slipped in by the shallower passes. A great many were captured, for the blockaders 













CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


289 



developed re¬ 
in a r k a b 1 c 
skill in de¬ 
tecting their 
movemen ts, 
but the prac¬ 
tice was never 

MAJOR-GENERAL QUINCY A. GILLMORE. wholly brok¬ 

en up till the 

city was occupied by the National forces in February, 1865. 

In January, 1863, two Confederate iron-clads steamed out of 
the harbor, on a hazy morning, and attacked the blockading 
fleet. Two vessels, by shots through their steam-drums, were 
disabled, and struck their colors ; but the remainder of the fleet 
came to their assistance, and the iron-clads were driven back into 
the harbor, leaving their prizes behind. General Beauregard and 
Captain Ingraham (commanding the military and naval forces of 
the Confederacy at Charleston) formally proclaimed this affair a 
victory that had “ sunk, dispersed, and driven off or out of sight 
the entire blockading fleet,” and, consequently, raised the block¬ 
ade of the port. These assertions, repeated in foreign news¬ 
papers, threatened for a time to create serious complications 
with European powers, by raising the question whether the 
blockade (supposed to be thus broken) must not be re-pro¬ 
claimed, and notice given to masters of merchant vessels, before 
it could be reestablished. But the falsity of the claim was soon 
shown, and no foreign vessels accepted the invitation to demand 
free passage into the port of Charleston. 

This affair increased the desire to capture the port, put an 
absolute end to the blockade-running there, and use it as a 
harbor of refuge for National vessels. Accordingly, a powerful 
fleet was fitted out for the purpose, and placed under the com¬ 
mand of Rear-Admiral S. F. Du Pont, who had reduced the forts 
of Port Royal in November, 1861. It consiste'd of seven moni¬ 
tors, an iron-clad frigate, an iron-clad ram, and several wooden 
gunboats. On the 7th of April, 1863, favored by smooth 
water, Du Pont steamed in to attack the forts, but most 
extraordinary precautions had been taken to defend the city. 
The special desire of the Northern people to capture it was off¬ 


REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN A. DAHLGREN AND OFFICERS. 

set by an equally romantic determination on the part of the 
Secessionists not to part with the cradle in which their pet 
theory had been rocked for thirty years. Besides the batteries 
that had been erected for the reduction of Fort Sumter, they had 
established others, and they occupied that fort itself. All these 
works had been strengthened, and new guns mounted, including 
some specially powerful ones of English manufacture. All the 
channels were obstructed with piles and chains, with innumer¬ 
able torpedoes, some of which were to be fired by electric wires 
from the forts, while others were arranged to explode whenever 
a vessel should run against them. The main channel, between 
Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter, was crossed by a heavy cable 
supported on empty barrels, with which was connected a net¬ 
work of smaller chains. In the south channel there was a 
tempting opening in the row of piles; but beneath this were 
some tons of powder waiting for the electric spark. 

The monitor Weehawken led the way, pushing a raft before 
her to explode the torpedoes. Not a man was to be seen on 
any of the decks, and the forts were ominously silent. But 
when the Weehawken had reached the network of chains, and 
had become somewhat entangled therein with her raft, the 
batteries opened all around, and she and the other monitors that 
came to her assistance were the target for a terrible concentric 
fire of bursting shells and solid bolts. The return fire was 
directed principally upon Sumter, and was kept up steadily for 
half an hour, but seemed to have little effect ; and after trying 
both the main and the south channel, the fleet retired. The 
monitor Keokuk , which had made the nearest approach to the 
enemy, was struck nearly a hundred times. Shots passed 
through both of her turrets, and there were nineteen holes in 
her hull. That evening she sank in an inlet. Most of the 
other vessels were injured, and some of the monitors were 
unable to revolve their turrets because of the bending of the 
plates. 

Du Pout’s defeat was offset two months later, when the Con¬ 
federate iron-clad Atlanta started out on her first cruise. 
She was originally an English blockade-runner, and as she was 
unable to get out of the port of Savannah after the fall of Fort 
Pulaski, the Confederates conceived the idea of iron-plating her 




















2'90 CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


after the fashion of the Merrimac and send¬ 
ing her out to sink the monitors and raise 
the blockade of Charleston. It was said that 
the ladies of Charleston contributed their 
jewelry to pay the expenses, and after four¬ 
teen months of hard labor she was ready for 
action. But Du Pont had heard the story, 
and sent two monitors to watch her. On 
the 17th of June, early in the morning, she 
dropped down the channel, followed by two 
steamers loaded with citizens, including many 
ladies, who anticipated a great deal of pleas¬ 
ure in seeing their powerful iron-clad sink 
the monitors. These came up to meet her, 
the Weehawken, Captain Rodgers, taking the 
lead. Rodgers fired just five shots from his 
enormous eleven-inch and fifteen-inch guns. 

One struck the shutter of a port-hole and 
broke it, another knocked off the Atlanta's 
pilot-house, another struck the edge of the 
deck and opened the seams between the 
plates, and another penetrated the iron ar¬ 
mor, splintered the heavy wooden backing, 
and disabled forty men. Thereupon the Atlanta hung out a 
white flag and surrendered, while the pleasure-seekers hastened 
back to Savannah. It is said that the vessel might have been 
handled better if she had not run aground. She was carrying 
an immense torpedo at the end of a boom thirty feet long, which 
projected from her bow under water. She was found to be pro¬ 
visioned for a long cruise, and was taken to Philadelphia and 
exhibited there as a curiosity. 

The city of Charleston, between its two rivers, with its well- 
fortified harbor, bordered by miles of swampy land, was exceed¬ 
ingly difficult for an enemy to reach. General Quincy A. Gill- 
more, being sent with a large force to take it, chose the approach 


its guns from any possible attack on the land 
side. Behind the sea-face was a well-con¬ 
structed bomb-proof, into which no shot ever 
penetrated. The land-face was constructed 
with reentering angles, so that the approaches 
could all be swept by cross fire, and the work 
was surrounded by a ditch filled with water, 
in which was a line of boarding-pikes fastened 
together with interlaced wire, and there were 
also pickets at the front of the fort with inter¬ 
woven wire a slight distance above the ground, 
to impede the steps of any assaulting force. 
It was one of the most elaborate works con¬ 
structed during the war. Its engineer, Cap¬ 
tain Cleves, was killed by one of the first 
shells fired at it. 

On the morning of July 10th, Gillmore 
suddenly cut down the trees in his front and 
opened fire upon the most southerly works 
on Morris Island, while at the same time the 
fleet commanded by Admiral Dahlgren, who 
had succeeded Du Pont, bombarded Fort 
Wagner. Under cover of this fire troops 
were landed, and the earthworks were quickly taken. 

The day being terribly hot, the advance on Fort Wagner was 
postponed till the next morning, and then it was a failure. A 
week later a determined assault was made with a force of six 
thousand men, the advance being led by the first regiment of 
colored troops (the P'ifty-fourth Massachusetts) that had been 
raised under the authorization that accompanied the Emancipa¬ 
tion Proclamation. A bombardment of the fort by the land 
batteries and the fleet was kept up from noon till dusk, and 
during its last hour there was a heavy thunder-storm. As soon 
as this was over, the assaulting columns were set in motion. 
They marched out under a concentrated fire from all the Con¬ 
federate batteries, then met sheets of musketry fire 
that blazed out from Wagner, then 
crossed the ditch 
waist-deep in water, 
while hand-grenades 
were thrown from the 
parapet to explode 
among the m, and 
even climbed up to 
the rampart. But 
here the surviving rem¬ 
nant met a stout resist¬ 
ance and were hurled 
back. General Strong, 
Colonel Chatfield, Colo¬ 
nel Putnam, and Robert 
G. Shaw, the young com¬ 
mander of the black regi¬ 
ment, were all killed, and 
a total loss was sustained 
of fifteen hundred men, 
while the Confederates lost 
but about one hundred. 

In burying the dead, the 
Confederates threw the body 
of Colonel Shaw into the bot¬ 
tom of a trench, and heaped 


by way of Folly and Morris Islands, 
the monitors could 
assist him. Hidden 
by a fringe of trees, 
he first erected power¬ 
ful batteries on Folly 
Island. On the north¬ 
ernmost point of 
Morris Island (Cum- 
ming’s Point) was the 
Confederate Battery 
Gregg, the one that had 
done most damage 
Sumter at the 
of the war. South of 
this was Fort Wagner, 
and still farther south 
were other works. 

Fort Wagner was a very 
strong earthwork, measur¬ 
ing on the inside six hun¬ 
dred and thirty feet from 
east to west, and two hun¬ 
dred and seventy-five feet 
from north to south. It had 
a bomb-proof magazine, and 
a heavy traverse protecting 


/here 



BREVET 

sTE \«AR t L ' 

(Chief of Staff W 


BRiSADlER-GENERAL 

vv ooqford 

General fSUImore.) 


brevet BRir*n 

brigadi E r. GBi 

AL -FRED Ur 

H ' terrt 

^ Ma j° r -Gen era 



REAR-ADMIRAL D. M. FAIRFAX. 




CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


291 



BATTERY REYNOLDS.— FIVE TEN-INCH 
MORTARS BEARING ON FORT 
WAGNER. 


of which was swept by a 
deadly fire, crossing the 
ditch and mounting the 
parapet, Colonel Shaw ex¬ 
hibited a physical courage 
that it was impossible to 
surpass; while in organiz¬ 
ing and leading men of the 
despised race that was now 
struggling toward liberty, 
he showed a moral courage 
such as the rebels neither 
shared nor comprehended. 

Among those who par¬ 
ticipated in this sorrowful 
enterprise was the Rev. 

Henry Clay Trumbull, chaplain of the Tenth Connecticut Regi¬ 
ment, who was so assiduous in his attentions to the wounded, 
and remained so long on the field among them, that he was 
captured by the Confederates, who held him a prisoner for 
several months. Among those in attendance at the hospital 
at the first parallel was Clara Barton, who afterward became 
famous for her humane services. 

Gen. Alvin C. Voris, who was seriously wounded in the 
assault on Fort Wagner, has given a vivid description of 


HEADQUARTERS OF FIELD OFFICERS ON THE SECOND PARALLEL. 


the while under shot and exploding shell from some quarter. 
When off duty we tried to rest ourselves under the shelter of 
the low sand-waves silently thrown up by the wind. Our poor 
tired bodies became so exhausted under the great pressure upon 
us that we would stretch out on the burning sands, even when 
under the greatest danger, and snatch a few hours of fitful, 
anxious sleep, frequently to be awakened by the explosion 
of some great shell. The land and sea breezes kept the air 
full of floating sand, which permeated everything—clothing, 


upon it the bodies of black soldiers, whose valor, no less than 
their color, had produced an uncontrollable frenzy in the Con¬ 
federate mind. When it was inquired for, under flag of truce, 
word was sent back: “We have buried him with his niggers.” 
d hose who thus tried to cast contempt upon the boyish colonel 
were apparently not aware that he was braver than any of his 
foes. In advancing along that narrow strip of land, every foot 


his experiences there, from which we quote a few interesting 
passages: 

“All through the night of July 17th I lay with my men, the 
Sixty-seventh Ohio, within half canister range of the fort. It 
was very dark, cloudy, and enlivened by an occasional splash 
of rain and lightning, by which we could see sentinels on beat 
on the fort. Just before break of day we crawled quietly away, 

and took a good 
square breath of 
relief as we passed 
behind our first line 
of intrenchments. 
There we under¬ 
took to rest under 
a most scorching 
sun and on burning 
white sand, which 
reflected back both 
light and heat rays 
with torturing 
rigor. We were 
compelled to work 
night and day, 
twelve hours on 
and twelve off, all 

















2g2 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


eyes, ears, nostrils—and at the height of the wind would fly 
with such force as to make the face and hands sting with 
pain. 

“Just at dark ten regiments of infantry were formed along 
the beach, one and a half miles below the fort, and the charge 
was at once undertaken. Quietly the column marched until its 
head had passed the line of our field batteries. No sooner had 
this taken place than one thousand six hundred men in Wagner 
and Gregg sprang to arms and opened on the advancing columns 
with shot, shell, and musketry, which called to their immediate 
assistance the armed energies of Sumter, Moultrie, and Beaure¬ 
gard, and all the batteries on Sullivan’s and James’s Islands. 
When we got within canister range of the fort there were added 
to this awful cataclysm double-shotted charges of canister from 
eight heavy guns directly raking our approach, each discharge 
equal to a double pailful of cast-iron bullets, three-fourths of an 
inch in diameter. Every moment some unfortunate comrade 
fell, to rise no more, but we closed up our shattered ranks and 
pressed on with such impetuosity that we scaled the walls and 
planted our banners on the fort. The Sixty-seventh, with heroic 
cheers, flung her flag to the midnight breezes on the rampart of 
Wagner, but only to bring it away riddled to tatters. Seven 
out of eight of the color-guard were shot down, and Color- 
Sergeant McDonald, with a broken leg, brought it away. 
Lieutenant Cochran went alone to headquarters, two thousand 
five hundred yards to the rear, for reinforcements, assuring 
General Gillmore that we could hold the fort, and then went 
back to Wagner and brought off eighteen out of forty men with 
whom he started in the column in that fatal charge. Two other 
lieutenants, with a dozen men, held one of the enemy’s large 
guns for nearly two hours, over which they had hand-to-hand 
contests with the soldiers in charge of the piece. 

“ I was shot within a hundred and fifty yards of the fort, and 
so disabled that I could not go forward. . . . Two boys of 

the Sixty-second Ohio found me and carried me to our first 
parallel, where had been arranged an extempore hospital. Here 
a surgeon sent his savage finger-nail into my lacerated side and 
pronounced the bullet beyond his reach, and said I would not 
need his further attention. Like a baby I fainted, and, on 
reviving, laid my poor aching head on a sand-bag to recruit a 
little strength. That blessed chaplain, Henry Clay Trumbull, 
found me and poured oil of gladness into my soul and brandy 
into my mouth, whereat I praised him as a dear good man and 
cursed that monster of a surgeon, which led the chaplain to 
think the delirium of death was turning my brain, and he 
reported me among the dead of Wagner.” 

General Gillmore now resorted to regular approaches for the 
reduction of Lort Wagner. The first parallel was soon opened, 
and siege guns mounted, and the work was pushed as rapidly 
as the unfavorable nature of the ground would admit. By the 
23d of July a second parallel was established, from which fire 
was opened upon Lort Sumter, two miles distant, and upon the 
intervening earthworks. As the task proceeded the difficulty 
increased, for the strip of land grew narrower as Lort Wag¬ 
ner was approached, and the men in the trenches were sub¬ 
jected to cross-fire from a battery on James’s Island, as well as 
from sharp-shooters and from the fort itself. A dozen breaching 
batteries of enormous rifled guns were .established, most of the 
work being done at night, and on the 17th of August all of them 
opened fire. The shot and shell were directed mainly against 
Lort Sumter, and in the course of a week its barbette guns were 
dismounted, its walls were knocked into a shapeless mass of 


ruins, and its value as anything but a rude shelter for infantry 
was gone. 

The parallels were still pushed forward toward Wagner, partly 
through ground so low that high tides washed over it, and finally 
where mines of torpedoes had been planted. When they had 
arrived so near that it was impossible for the men to work under 
ordinary circumstances, the fort was subjected to a bombard¬ 
ment with shells fired from mortars and dropping into it almost 
vertically, while the great rifled guns were trained upon its bomb¬ 
proof at short range, and the iron-clad frigate New Ironsides 
came close in shore and added her quota in the shape of eleven- 
inch shells fired from eight broadside guns. Powerful calcium 
lights had been prepared, so that there was no night there, and 
the bombardment went on incessantly. At the end of two days, 
three columns of infantry were ready to storm the work, when it 
was discovered that the Confederates had suddenly abandoned 
it. Battery Gregg, on Cumming’s Point, was also evacuated. 

It is easy to tell all this in a few words ; but no brief account 
of that operation can give the reader any adequate idea of the 
enormous labor it involved, the danger, the anxiety, and the 
dogged perseverance of the besiegers. It required the efforts of 
three hundred men to move a single gun up the beach. General 
Gillmore was one of the most accomplished of military engineers, 
and we present here a few of the more interesting passages from 
his admirable official report: 

At the second parallel the “Surf Battery” had barely escaped 
entire destruction, about one-third of it having been carried away 
by the sea. Its armament had been temporarily removed to 
await the issue of the storm. The progress of the sap was hotly 
opposed by the enemy, with the fire of both artillery and sharp¬ 
shooters. At one point in particular, about two hundred yards 
in front of Wagner, there was a ridge, affording the enemy good 
cover, from which we received an unceasing fire of small-arms, 
while the guns and sharp-shooters in Wagner opened vigorously 
at every lull in the fire directed upon it from our batteries and 
gunboats. The firing from the distant James’s Island batteries 
was steady and accurate. One attempt, on the 21st, to ob¬ 
tain possession of the ridge with infantry having failed, it was 
determined to advance by establishing another parallel. On the 
night of August 21st the fourth parallel was opened about one 
hundred yards from the ridge, partly with the flying sap and 
partly with the full sap. At the place selected for it the island 
is about one hundred and sixty yards in width above high water. 
It was now determined to try and dislodge the enemy from the 
ridge with light mortars and navy howitzers in the fourth paral¬ 
lel, and with other mortars in rear firing over those in front. The 
attempt was made on the afternoon of August 26th, but did not 
succeed. Our mortar practice was not very accurate. Brigadier- 
General Terry was ordered, on the 26th of August, to carry the 
ridge at the point of the bayonet, and hold it. This was accom¬ 
plished, and the fifth parallel established there on the evening of 
the same day, which brought us to within two hundred and forty 
yards of Lort Wagner. The intervening space comprised the 
narrowest and shallowest part of Morris Island. It was simply 
a flat ridge of sand, scarcely twenty-five yards in width, and not 
exceeding two feet in depth, over which the sea in rough weather 
swept entirely across to the marsh on our left. Approaches by 
the flying sap were at once commenced on this shallow beach, 
from the right of the fifth parallel, and certain means of defence 
in the parallel itself were ordered. It was soon ascertained that 
we had now reached the point where the really formidable, pas¬ 
sive, defensive arrangements of the enemy commenced. An 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


293 




elaborate and ingenious system of torpedo mines, to be exploded 
by the tread of persons walking over them, was encountered, and 
we were informed by the prisoners taken on the ridge that the 
entire area of firm ground between us and the fort, as well as the 
glacis of the latter on its south and cast fronts, was thickly filled 
with these torpedoes. This knowledge brought us a sense of 
security from sorties, for the mines were a defence to us as well 
as to the enemy. By daybreak on the 27th of August our sap¬ 
pers had reached, by a rude and unfinished trench, to within one 
hundred yards of Fort Wagner. The dark and gloomy days of 
the siege were now upon us. Our daily losses, although not 
heavy, were on the increase, while our progress became dis- 
couragingly slow, and even fearfully uncertain. The converging 
fire from Wagner alone almost enveloped the head of our sap, 
delivered, as it was, from a line subtending an angle of nearly 
ninety degrees, while the flank fire from the James’s Island bat¬ 
teries increased in power and accuracy every hour. To push 
forward the sap in the narrow strip of shallow shifting sand by 
day was impossible, while the brightness of the prevailing har¬ 
vest moon rendered the operation almost as hazardous by night. 
Matters, indeed, seemed at a standstill, and a feeling of despond¬ 
ency began to pervade the rank and file of the command. There 
seemed to be no adequate return in accomplished results for the 
daily losses which we suffered, and no means of relief, cheering and 
encouraging to the soldier, appeared near at hand. In this emer¬ 
gency, although the final result was demonstrably certain, it was 
determined, in order to sustain the flagging spirits of the men, to 
commence vigorously and simultaneously two distinct methods 


silent with an overpowering 
curved fire from siege and 
coehorn mortars, so that our 
engineers would have only 
the more distant batteries of 
the enemy to annoy them ; 
and, second, to breach the 
bomb-proof shelter with 
rifled guns, and thus deprive 
the enemy of their only 
secure cover in the work, 
and, consequently, drive 
them from it. Accordingly, 
all the light mortars were 
moved to the front and 
placed in battery; the capac¬ 
ity of the fifth parallel and 
the advanced trenches for 
sharp-shooters was greatly 
enlarged and improved ; the major-general 

rifled guns in the left breach- william b. Taliaferro, c. s. a. 

ing batteries were trained 

upon the fort and prepared for prolonged action ; and power¬ 
ful calcium lights to aid the night-work of our cannoneers 
and sharp-shooters, and blind those of the enemy, were got in 
readiness. The cooperation of the powerful battery of the New 
Ironsides, Captain Rowan, during the daytime, was also secured. 

These final operations against Fort Wagner were actively 
inaugurated at break of day on the morning of Sep¬ 
tember 5th. For forty-two consecutive hours the 
spectacle presented was of surpassing sublimity and 
grandeur. Seventeen siege and coehorn mortars un¬ 
ceasingly dropped their shells into the work, over the 
heads of our sappers and the guards of the advanced 
trenches ; thirteen of our heavy Parrott rifles—one 
hundred, two hundred, and three hundred pounders— 
pounded away at short though regular intervals, at 
the southwest corner of the bomb-proof; while during 
the daytime the Nezv Ironsides, with remarkable regu¬ 
larity and precision, kept an almost incessant stream 
of eleven-inch shells from her eight-gun broadside, 
ricocheting over the water against the sloping parapet 
of Wagner, whence, deflected upward with a low re¬ 
maining velocity, they dropped nearly vertically, ex¬ 
ploding within or over the work, and rigorously 
searching every part of it except the subterranean shelters. 
The calcium lights turned night into day, and while throwing 
around our own men an impenetrable obscurity, they brilliantly 
illuminated every object in front, and brought the minutest 

details of the fort into sharp relief. 
In a few hours the fort became 
practically silent. 

The next night, after the cap¬ 
ture of Fort Wagner, a few hun¬ 
dred sailors from the fleet went 
to Fort Sumter in row-boats and 
attempted its capture. But they 
found it exceedingly difficult to 
climb up the ruined wall; most of 
their boats were knocked to pieces 
by the Confederate batteries ; they 
met an unexpected fi re of musketry 


of attack, 
viz., first, to 
k e e p Wag- 
ner perfectly 


A BOMB PROOF 











294 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


and hand-grenades, and two hundred of them were disabled or 
captured. 

While all this work was going on, General Gillmore thought to 
establish a battery near enough to Charleston to subject the city 
itself to bombardment. A site was chosen on the western side 
of Morris Island, and the necessary orders were issued. But the 
ground was soft mud, sixteen feet deep, and it seemed an impos¬ 
sible task. The captain, a West Pointer, to whom it was 
assigned, was told that he must not fail, but he might ask for 
whatever he needed, whereupon he made out a formal requisi¬ 
tion for “ a hundred men eighteen feet high,” and other things in 
proportion. The jest seems to have been appreciated, but the 
jester was relieved from the duty, which was then assigned to 
Col. Edward W. Serrell, a volunteer engineer, who accomplished 
the work. Piles were driven, a platform was laid upon them, and 
a parapet was built with bags of sand, fifteen thousand being 
required. All this had to be done after dark, and occupied 
fourteen nights. Then, with great labor, an eight-inch rifled gun 
was dragged across the swamp and mounted on this platform. 
It was nearly five miles from Charleston, but by firing with 
a high elevation was able to reach the lower part of the city. 
The soldiers named this gun the “ Swamp Angel.” Late in 
August it was ready for work, and, after giving notice for the 
removal of non-combatants, General Gillmore opened fire. A 
few shells fell in the streets and produced great consternation, 


but at the thirty-sixth discharge the Swamp Angel burst, and it 
never was replaced. 

Gillmore had supposed that when Sumter was silenced the 
fleet would enter the harbor, but Admiral Dahlgren did not 
think it wise to risk his vessels among the torpedoes, especially 
as the batteries of the inner harbor had been greatly strength¬ 
ened. As Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg were nearer the city 
by a mile than the Swamp Angel, Gillmore repaired them, 
turned their guns upon Charleston, and kept up a destructive 
bombardment for weeks. 

As a protection to the city, under the plea that its bombard¬ 
ment was a violation of the rules of war, the Confederate author¬ 
ities selected from their prisoners fifty officers and placed them 
in the district reached bvthe shells. Capt. Willard Glazier, 
who was there, writes : “ When the distant rumbling of the 
Swamp Angel was heard, and the cry ‘Here it comes!’ re¬ 
sounded through our prison house, there was a general stir. 
Sleepers sprang to their feet, the gloomy forgot their sor¬ 
rows, conversation was hushed, and all started to see where the 
messenger would fall. At night we traced along the sky a slight 
stream of fire, similar to the tail of a comet, and followed its 
course until ‘whiz! whiz!’ came the little pieces from our 
mighty two-hundred pounder, scattering themselves all around.” 
By placing an equal number of Confederate officers under fire, 
the Government compelled the removal of its own. 



••esarJWM* 


ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH, CHARLESTON, S, C. 




































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


2 9 S 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE CHATTANOOGA CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE OF 
CHICKAMAUGA. 

ROSECRANS AND BRAGG—FIGHT AT DOVER—AT FRANKLIN—AT MIL- 

TON—Morgan’s raid in ohio—manceuvring for Chatta¬ 
nooga—BATTLE AT CHICKAMAUGA—NUMBER OF MEN ENGAGED 
ON EACH SIDE—OPERATIONS OF THE FIRST DAY—RETREAT OF 
FEDERAL FORCES AT CHATTANOOGA—NUMBER OF OFFICERS AND 
MEN KILLED AT CHICKAMAUGA—GENERAL ROSECRANS’S OPINION 
OF THE GENERAL CONDUCT OF THE BATTLE—INSTANCES OF 
PERSONAL COURAGE AND GALLANTRY—GENERAL BRAGG’S CRITI¬ 
CISMS OF GENERAL POLK. 

WHILE Grant’s army was pounding at the gates of Vicksburg, 
those of Rosecrans and Bragg were watching each other at 
Murfreesboro’, both commanders being unwilling to make any 
grand movement. General Grant and the Secretary of War 
wanted Rosecrans to advance upon Bragg, lest Bragg should 
reinforce Johnston, who was a constant menace in the rear of 
the army besieging Vicksburg. The only thing Grant feared 
was, that he might be attacked heavily by Johnston before he 
could capture the place. But Rosecrans refused to move, on the 
ground that it was against the principles of military science to 
fight two decisive battles at once, and that the surest method of 
holding back Bragg from reinforcing Johnston was by constantly 
standing ready to attack him, but not attacking. As it happened 
that Bragg was very much like Rosecrans, and was afraid to stir 
lest Rosecrans should go to Grant’s assistance, the policy of 
quiet watchfulness proved successful—so far at least as immedi¬ 
ate results were 
concerned. 

Bragg did not 
reinforce John¬ 
ston, Johnston 
did not attack 
Grant; and be¬ 
siegers and be¬ 
sieged were left, 
like two brawny 
champions of 
two great ar¬ 
mies, to fight it 
out, dig it out, 
and starve it 
out, till on the 

4th of July the city fell. Whether it afterward 
fared as well with Rosecrans as it might if he had 
attacked Bragg when Grant and Stanton wanted 
him to, is an¬ 
other question. 

But 
the 

mies were quies¬ 
cent, both sent 
out detach¬ 
ments to make 
destruct Lv_e_ 
raids, and that 
season wit¬ 


greater 


ar- 




A PASS IN THE RACCOON RANGE. 


nessed some of the most notable exploits of the guerilla bands 
that were operating in the West, all through the war, in aid of 
the Confederacy. Late in January, 1863, a Confederate force of 
cavalry and artillery, about four thousand men, under Wheeler 
and Forrest, was sent to capture Dover, contiguous to the site 
of Fort Donelson, in order to close the navigation of Cumber¬ 
land River, by which Rosecrans received supplies. The place 
was held by six hundred men, under command of Col. A. C. 
Harding, of the Eighty-third Illinois Regiment, who, with the 
help of gunboats, repelled two determined attempts to storm 
the works (February 3), and inflicted a loss of seven hundred 
men, their own loss being one hundred and twenty-six. 

Early in March, a detachment of about twenty-five hundred 
National troops, under Colonels Coburn and Jordan, moving 
south of Franklin, Tenn., unexpectedly met a force of about ten 
thousand Confederates under Van Dorn, and the stubborn fight 
that ensued resulted in the surrounding and capture of Coburn’s 
entire force, after nearly two hundred had been killed or wounded 
on each side. A few days later, Van Dorn was attacked and 
driven southward by a force under Gen. Gordon Granger. Still 
later in the month a detachment of about fourteen hundred men 
under Colonel Hall went in pursuit of the guerilla band com¬ 
manded by John Morgan, fought it near Milton, and defeated it, 
inflicting a loss of nearly four hundred men. Early in April 
another detachment of National troops, commanded by Gen. 
David S. Stanley, found Morgan’s men at Snow Hill, and 
defeated and routed them so thoroughly that it was two weeks 
before the remnants of the band could be brought together 
again. 

In the same month Col. A. D. Streight, with eighteen hundred 
men, was sent to make a raid around Bragg’s army, cut his 
communications, and destroy supplies. This detachment was 

pursued by For¬ 
rest, who at¬ 
tacked the rear 
guard at Day’s 
Gap, but was re¬ 
pelled, and lost 
ten guns and a 
considerable 
number of men. 
Streight kept on 
his way, with 
continual skirmishing, destroyed a d6pot of 
provisions at Gadsden, had another fight at 

Blount’s Farm, 
in which he 
drove off For¬ 
rest again, and 
burned the 
Round Moun¬ 
tain Iron Works, 
which supplied 
shot and shell 
to the Confed¬ 
erates. But on 
the 3d of May 
he was confront¬ 
ed by so large a 
force that he 
was compelled 
t o surrender. 











(FROM A GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPH.) 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


297 



his men and horses being too jaded to attempt es¬ 
cape. 

1 hese are but examples of hundreds of engagements 
that took place during the war of secession and are 
scarcely known to the general reader because their fame 
is overshadowed by the magnitude of the great battles. 

Had they occurred in any of our previous wars, every 
schoolboy would know about them. In Washington’s 
celebrated victory at Trenton, the number of Hessians 
surrendered was fewer than Streight’s command captured 
by Forrest; and in the bloodiest battle of the Mexican 
war, Buena Vista, the American loss (then considered 
heavy) was but little greater than the Confederate loss in 
the action at Dover, related above. The armies surrendered 
by Burgoyne and Cornwallis, if combined, would constitute 
a smaller force than the least of the three that surrendered 
to Grant. 

One of these affairs in the West, however, was so bold and 
startling that it became famous even among the greater and 
more important events. This was Morgan’s raid across the 
Ohio. In July he entered Kentucky from the south, with a 
force of three thousand cavalrymen, increased as it went by 
accessions of Kentucky sympathizers to about four thousand, 
with ten guns. He captured and robbed the towns of Columbia 
and Lebanon, reached the Ohio, captured two steamers, and 
crossed into Indiana. Then marching rapidly toward Cincinnati, 
he burned mills and bridges, tore up rails, plundered right and 
left, and spread alarm on every side. But the home guards 
were gathering to meet him, and the great number of railways 


H> MORGAN, C. s»- 


MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE L HARTSUFF. 


in Ohio and Indiana favored their 
rapid concentration, while farmers felled 
trees across the roads on hearing of his approach. He passed 
around Cincinnati, and after much delay reached the Ohio at 
Buffington’s Ford. Here some of his pursuers overtook him, 
while gunboats and steamboats filled with armed men were 
patrolling the river, on the watch for him. The gunboats pre¬ 
vented him from using the ford, and he was obliged to turn and 
give battle. The fight was severe, and resulted in Morgan’s 
defeat. Nearly eight hundred of his men surrendered, and he 
with the remainder retreated up the river. They next tried 
to cross at Belleville by swimming their horses ; but the gun¬ 
boats were at hand again, and made such havoc among the 
troopers that only three hundred got across, while of the 
others some were shot, some drowned, and the remnant driven 
back to the Ohio shore. Morgan with two hundred fled still 
farther up the stream, but at last was compelled to surrender 
at New Lisbon. He was confined in the Ohio penitentiary, 
but escaped a few months later by digging under the walls. 
A pathetic incident of this raid was the death of the vener¬ 
able Daniel McCook, sixty-five years old. He had given 
eight sons to the National service, and four of them had 
become generals. One of these was deliberately murdered 
by guerillas, while he was ill and riding in an ambulance in 
Tennessee. The old man, hearing that the murderer was 
in Morgan’s band, took his rifle and went out to join in the 
fight at Buffington’s Ford, where he was mortally wounded. 

When at last Rosecrans did move, by some of the ablest 
strategy displayed in the whole war he compelled Bragg to 
fall back successively from one position to another, all the 
way from Tullahoma to Chattanooga. This was not done 
without frequent and heavy skirmishes, however; but the 
superiority of the National cavalry had now been developed 
at the West as well as at the East, and they all resulted in 
one way. Colonel (afterward Senator) John F. Miller was 
conspicuous in several of these actions, and in that at Liberty 
Gap one of his eyes was shot out by a rifle-ball. 

The purpose of Rosecrans was to get possession of Chat¬ 
tanooga; and when Bragg crossed the Tennessee and occu¬ 
pied that town, he set to work to manoeuvre him out of it. 
To effect this, he moved southwest, as if he were intending to 
pass around Chattanooga and invade Georgia. This caused 
Bragg to fall back to Lafayette, and the National troops took 





vrfoocauwv 


Sccrmont s*» 


■•BAAOrSVUtC 


nry.'wy iuc 


'CKOHY 


S Hciam UE 


ICMCTTS 


1ANCHCSTCR 


/ORh/AND/t 




SOORO’ 


/ROOM 


Ol/HL. 


1CLH/ 


CITY 


THURMANi 




alisoha- 


iOCRSOf 


CHARD 


W/MCHCSTCI 


'/rtiVCRSITr 


JASRtA 


tCHICKAMAUGA 


I ©ANOCRSON 




IQR/HZGOLO 


inns cove 


CAKGROVC 


IV/UC 




tc/crfi ■ 


GUHTCRSVILLi 
acAtt or Mutt s? 


LCBAA/OAH 


QuMMCRVH.Lt 


SCENE OF OPERATION OF THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND IN TENNESSEE, GEORGIA, 

AND ALABAMA. 

























2t$ 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


possession of Chattanooga. But 
at this time Rosecrans was for a 
w h i 1 e in a critical situation, 
where a more skilful general 
than Bragg would probably 
have destroyed him; for his 
three corps—-commanded by 
Thomas, Crittenden, and Mc¬ 
Cook—were widely separated. 

The later movements of this 
campaign had been rendered 
tediously slow by the heavy 
rains and the almost impassable 
nature of the ground ; so that 
although Rosecrans had set out 
from Murfreesboro’ in June, it 
was now the middle of Sep¬ 
tember. 

Supposing that Bragg was in 
full retreat, Rosecrans began to 
follow him ; but Bragg had re¬ 
ceived large reinforcements, and 
turned back from Lafayette, in¬ 
tent upon attacking Rosecrans. 

The two armies, feeling for each 
other and approaching some¬ 
what cautiously for a week, met 
at last, and there was fou ght, 

September 19 and 20, 1863, a 
great battle on the banks of a 
creek, whose Indian name of 
Chickamauga is said to signify 
“ river of death.” 

Rosecrans had about fifty-five 
thousand men ; Bragg, after the arrival of Longstreet at mid¬ 
night of the 18th, about seventy thousand. The general direc¬ 
tion of the lines of battle was with the National troops facing 
southeast, and the Confederates facing northwest, though these 
lines were variously bent, broken, and changed in the course of 
the action. Thomas held the left of Rosecrans’s line, Critten¬ 
den the centre, and McCook the right. Bragg was the attacking 
party, and his plan was, while making a feint on the National 
right, to fall heavily upon the left, flank it, crush it, and seize the 
roads that led to Chattanooga. If he could do this, it would 
not only cut off Rosecrans from his base and insure his decisive 
defeat, but would give Bragg possession of Chattanooga, where 
he could control the river and the passage through the moun¬ 
tains between the East and the West. The concentration of 
the National forces in the valley had been witnessed by the 
Confederates from the mountain height southeast of the creek, 
who therefore knew what they had to meet and how it was 
disposed. 

The battle of the 19th began at ten o’clock in the forenoon, 
and lasted all day. The Confederate army crossed the creek 
without opposition, and moved forward confidently to the 
attack. But the left of the position—the key-point—was held 
by the command of Gen. George H. Thomas, who for a slow 
and stubborn fight was perhaps the best corps commander pro¬ 
duced by either side in the whole war. Opposed to him, on 
the Confederate right, was Gen. (also Bishop) Leonidas Polk. 
There was less of concerted action in the attack than Bragg had 
planned for, partly because Thomas unexpectedly struck out 


with a counter-movement when 
an opportunity offered ; but 
there was no lack of bloody and 
persistent fighting. Brigades 
and divisions moved forward to 
the charge, were driven back, 
and charged again. Batteries 
were taken and re-taken, the 
horses were killed, and the cap¬ 
tains and gunners in some in¬ 
stances, refusing to leave them, 
were shot down at the wheels. 
Brigades and regiments were 
shattered, and on both sides 
many prisoners were taken. 
Thomas’s line was forced back, 
but before night he regained his 
first position, and the day closed 
with the situation practically 
unchanged. 

During the night both sides 
corrected their lines and made 
what preparation they could for 
a renewal of the struggle. Bragg 
intended to attack again at day¬ 
break, his plan (now perfectly 
evident to his opponent) being 
substantially the same as on 
the day before. He wanted to 
crush the National left, force 
back the centre, and make a 
grand left wheel with his entire 
army, placing his right firmly 
across the path to Chattanooga. 
But the morning was foggy, Polk was slow, and the fighting 
did not begin till the middle of the forenoon. Between Polk 
and Thomas the edge of battle swayed back and forth, and the 
Confederates could make no permanent impression. Thomas 
was obliged to call repeatedly for reinforcements, which some¬ 
times reached him and sometimes failed to; but whether they 
came or not, he held manfully to all the essential portions of his 
ground. 

Rosecrans was constantly uneasy about his right centre, where 
he knew the line to be weak; and at this point the great disaster 
of the day began, though in an unexpected manner. It arose 
from an order that was both miswritten and misinterpreted. 
This order, addressed to Gen. Thomas J. Wood, who commanded 
a division, was written by a member of Rosecrans’s staff who had 
not had a military education, and was not sufficiently impressed 
with the exact meaning cf the technical terms. It read : “ The 
general commanding directs that you close up on Reynolds as 
fast as possible, and support him.” It was impossible to obey 
both clauses of this order ; since to “ close up ” means to bring 
the ends of the lines together so that there shall be no gap and 
they shall form one continuous line, while to Vf support,” in the 
technical military sense, means to take a position in the rear, 
ready to advance when ordered. The aid that wrote the order 
evidently used the word “ support ” only in the general sense of 
assist, strengthen, protect, encourage, and did not dream of its 
conflicting with the command to “ close up.” General Wood, 
a West Point graduate, instead of sending or going to Rose¬ 
crans for better orders, obeyed literally the second clause, and 



MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 




CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 





withdrew his command from the line to form it in the rear of 
Reynolds. Opposite to the wide and fatal opening thus left 
was Longstreet, the ablest corps commander in the Confederate 
service, who instantly saw his advantage and promptly poured 
his men, six divisions of them, through the gap. This cut off 
McCook’s corps from the rest of the army, and it was speedily 
defeated and routed in confusion. The centre was crumbled, 
and it looked as if the whole army must be destroyed. Rose- 
crans, who had been with the defeated right wing, appeared to 
lose his head completely, and rode back in all haste to Chatta¬ 
nooga to make arrangements for gathering there the fragments 
of his forces. At nightfall he sent his chief of staff, Gen. James 
A. Garfield (afterward President), to find what had become of 
Thomas, and Garfield found Thomas where not even the destruc¬ 
tion of three-fifths of the army had moved or daunted him. 

When Thomas’s right flank was exposed to assault by the 
disruption of the centre, he swung it back to a position known 
as Horseshoe Ridge, still covering the road. Longstreet was 
pressing forward to pass the right of this position, when he was 
stopped by Gordon Granger, who had been with a reserve at 
Rossville Gap, but was wiser and bolder than his orders, and, 
instead of remaining there, moved forward to the support of 
Thomas. The Confederate commander, when complete victory 
was apparently so near, seemed reckless of the lives of his men, 
thrusting them forward again and again in futile charges, 
where Thomas’s batteries literally mowed them 
down with grape and canister, and a 
steady fire of musketry increased the 
bloody harvest. About dusk the 
ammunition was exhausted, and 
the last charges of the Confed¬ 
erates were repelled with the 
bayonet. Thomas had fairly 
won the title of “ the rock 
of Chickamauga.” In 
the night he fell back 


in good order to Rossville, leaving the enemy in possession of 
the field, with all the dead and wounded. Sheridan, who had 
been on the right of the line and was separated by its disrup¬ 
tion, kept his command together, marched around the moun¬ 
tain, and before morning joined Thomas at Rossville, whence 
they fell back the next day to Chattanooga, where order was 
quickly restored and the defences strengthened. 

The National loss in the two-days’ battle of Chickamauga— 
killed, wounded, and missing—was sixteen thousand three hun¬ 
dred and thirty-six. The Confederate reports are incomplete 
and unsatisfactory ; but estimates of Bragg’s loss make it at 
least eighteen thousand, and some carry it up nearly to twenty- 
one thousand. With the exception of Gettysburg, this was thus 
far the most destructive action of the war. Tactically it was a 
victory for Bragg, who was left in possession of the field ; but 
that which he was fighting for, Chattanooga, he did not get. 

Among the killed in this battle were Brig.-Gen. William H. 
Lytle on the National side, and on the Confederate side Brig.- 
Gens. Preston Smith, Benjamin H. Helm, and James Deshler ; 
also on the National side, three colonels who were in com¬ 
mand of brigades—Cols. Edward A. King of the Sixty-eighth 
Indiana Regiment, Philemon P. Baldwin of the Sixth Indiana, 
and Hans C. Heg of the Fifteenth Wisconsin. The number of 
officers of lower rank who fell, generally when exhibiting notable 
courage in the performance of their dangerous duties, 
was very great. Of General Whittaker’s staff, 
numbering seven, three were killed and three 
wounded. His brigade lost nearly a 
thousand men, and Colonel Mitchell’s 
brigade of four regiments lost near¬ 
ly four hundred. The Ninety- 
sixth Illinois Regiment went 
battle 


the 


with 


four 


into 


LEE AND GORDON'S MILLS ON THE CHICKAMAUGA. 








BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA, GA„ SEPTEMBER 19th AND 20th, 1863. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




hundred and fifteen men, and lost one hun¬ 
dred and sixty-three killed or wounded. Of 
its twenty-three officers, eleven were either 
killed or wounded. In the fall of General 
Lytle we lost another man of great literary 
promise, though his published writings 
were not extensive, whose name must be 
placed on the roll with those of Winthrop, 
Lander, and O’Brien. He was the author 
of the popular poem that begins with the 
line— 

“ I am dying, Egypt, dying." 


Another poet who distinguished himself 
on this field was Lieut. Richard Realf, of 
the Eighty-eighth Illinois Regiment, who 
was honorably mentioned, especially for his 
services in going back through a heavy fire 
and bringing up a fresh supply of ammuni¬ 
tion when it was sorely needed. Realf was 
a personal friend of Lytle’s, and the bullet 
that killed Lytle passed through a sheet of 
paper in his pocket, containing a little poem 
that Realf had addressed to him a short 
time before. Some of Realf's war lyrics are 
among the finest that we have. Here are tw 


“ I -think the soul of Cromwell kissed 
The soul of Baker when, 

With red sword in his bloody fist, 

He died among his men. 

I think, too, that when Winthrop fell, 
His face toward the foe, 

John Hampden shouted, ‘All is well!’ 
Above that overthrow. 


And here is a sonnet suggested by 
the loss of many of his comrades on 
the battlefield : 


“ Thank God for Liberty’s dear slain ; they give 
Perpetual consecration unto it; 

Quickening the clay of our insensitive 
Dull natures with the awe of infinite 
Sun-crowned transfigurations, such as iit 
On the solemn-brooding mountains. Oh, the 
dead ! 

How they do shame the living; how they warn 
Our little lives that huckster for the bread 
Of peace, and tremble at the world’s poor 
scorn, 

And pick their steps among the flowers, and 
tread 

Daintily soft where the raised idols are ; 
Prone with gross dalliance where the feasts 
are spread, 

When most they should stride forth, and flash 
afar 

Light like the streaming of heroic war ! " 


MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. STEEDMAN. 


o stanzas from one 


MAJOR-GENERAL GORDON GRANGER. 


General Garfield was distinguished in this 
action for his judgment and incessant activ¬ 
ity. As chief of staff he wrote every order 
issued by General Rosecrans during the 
action, except the blundering order that 
caused the disaster by the withdrawal of 
Wood’s division from the line. He was 
advanced to the rank of major-general “ for 
gallant and meritorious services at the bat¬ 
tle of Chickamauga.” 

General Rosecrans, in his official report, 
says of his own personal movements on the 
field : “ At the moment of the repulse of 
Davis’s division [when the Confederates 
poured through the gap left by Wood] I 
was standing in rear of his right, waiting 
the completion of the closing of McCook’s 
corps to the left. Seeing confusion among 
Van Cleve’s troops, and the distance Davis’s 
men were falling back, and the tide of 
battle surging toward us, the urgency for 
Sheridan’s troops to intervene became im¬ 
minent, and I hastened in person to the 
extreme right, to direct Sheridan’s move¬ 
ment on the flank of the advancing rebels. 
It was too late. The crowd of returning troops rolled back, 
and the enemy advanced. Giving the troops directions to rally 
behind the ridges west of the Dry Valley road, I passed down 
it, accompanied by General Garfield, Major McMichael, and 
Major Bond, of my staff, and a few of the escort, under the 
shower of grape, canister, and musketry, for two or three hun¬ 
dred yards, and attempted to rejoin General Thomas and the 
troops sent to his support, by passing to the rear of the broken 

portion of our line, but found the routed 
m troops far toward the left; and hearing 
the enemy's advancing musketry and 
cheers, I became doubtful whether the 
left had held its ground, and started 
for Rossville. On consultation and 
further reflection, however, I deter¬ 
mined to send General Garfield there, 
while I went to Chattanooga to give 
orders for the security of the pontoon 
bridges at Battle Creek and Bridge¬ 
port, and to make preliminary disposi¬ 
tion, either to forward ammunition and 
supplies should we hold our ground, or 
to withdraw the troops into good posi¬ 
tion. 

“ General Garfield despatched me 
from Rossville that the left and centre 
still held its ground. General Granger 
had gone to its support. General 
Sheridan had rallied his division, and 
was advancing toward the same point, 
and General Davis was going up the 
Dry Valley road, to our right. Gen¬ 
eral Garfield proceeded to the front, 
remained there until the close of the 
fight, and despatched me the triumph¬ 
ant defence our troops there made 
against the assaults of the enemy.” 


•* And Lyon, making green and fair 
The places where he trod ; 

And Ellsworth, sinking on the stair 
Whereby he passed to God ; 

And those whose names are only writ 
In hearts, instead of scrolls, 

Still show the dark of eartli uplit 
With shining human souls.” 














302 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



COLONEL B F. SCRIBNER. 
(Afterward Brevet Brigadier-General.) 


beyond the 
reach of or- 

BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL H. V. N. BOYNTON. deTS from 

the general 

commanding, moved to its assistance. He soon encountered 
the enemy’s skirmishers, whom he disregarded, well knowing 
that at that stage of the conflict the battle was not there. 
Posting Col. Daniel McCook’s brigade to take care of any¬ 
thing in that vicinity and beyond our line, he moved the re¬ 
mainder to the scene of action, reporting to General Thomas, 
who directed him to our suffering right. He discovered at 
once the peril and the point of danger—the gap—and quick 
as thought directed his advance brigade upon the enemy. 
General Steedman, taking a regimental color, led the column. 
Swift was the charge and terrible the conflict, but the enemy 
was broken. A thousand of our brave men, killed and 
wounded, paid for its possession, but we held the gap. Two 
divisions of Longstreet’s corps confronted the position. Deter¬ 
mined to take it, they successively came to the assault. A bat¬ 
tery of six guns, placed in the gorge, poured death and slaugh¬ 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EMERSON OPDYKE. 

ly, and fought squarely on the 19th. We 
were largely outnumbered, yet we foiled the 
enemy’s flank movement on our left, and 
secured our own position on the road to 
Chattanooga.” 

In this battle the National army expended 
two million six hundred and fifty thousand rounds of musket 
cartridges and seven thousand three hundred and twenty-five 
rounds of artillery ammunition. With figures like these the 
reader may realize how nearly true is the saying that it requires 
a man’s own weight of metal to kill him in battle. Rosecrans 
lost thirty-six pieces of artillery and eight thousand four hun¬ 
dred and fifty stand of small arms. He took two thousand 
prisoners. He says in his report: “A very great meed of praise 
is due to Capt. Horace Porter, of the Ordnance, for the wise 
system of arming each regiment with arms of the same calibre, 
and having the ammunition wagons properly marked, by which 
most of the difficulties of supplying ammunition where troops 
had exhausted it in battle were obviated.” 

Gen. T. J. Wood says in his report, concerning the fight 
on his part of the line: “A part of the contest was witnessed 
by that able and distinguished commander Major-General 
Thomas. I think it must have been two o’clock P.M. when 
he came to where my command was so hotly engaged. His 
presence was most welcome. The men saw him, felt they 
were battling under the eye of a great chieftain, and their 


General Rosecrans says concerning the general conduct of the 
battle: “The fight on the left, after two P. M., was that of the 
army. Never, in the history of this war at least, have troops 
fought with greater energy or determination. Bayonet charges, 
often heard of but seldom seen, were repeatedly made by bri¬ 
gades and regiments in several of our divisions. After the yield¬ 
ing and severance of the division of the right, the enemy bent 
all efforts to break the solid portion of our line. Under the 
pressure of the rebel onset, the flanks of the line were gradually 
retired until they occupied strong, advantageous ground, giving 
to the whole a flattened, crescent shape. From one to half-past 
three o’clock the unequal contest was sustained throughout our 
line. Then the enemy, in overpowering numbers, flowed around 
our right, held by General Brannan, and occupied a low gap in 
the ridge of our defensive position, which commanded our rear. 
The moment was critical. Twenty minutes more, and our right 
would have been turned, our position taken in reverse, and prob¬ 
ably the army routed. Fortunately Major-General Granger, 
whose troops had been posted to cover our left 
and rear, with the instinct of a true soldier and 
a general, hearing the roar of the battle, and being 


ter into them. They charged to within a few yards of the 
pieces; but our grape and canister and the leaden hail of our 
musketry, delivered in sparing but terrible volleys, from car¬ 
tridges taken, in many instances, from the boxes of their fallen 
companions, was too much even for Longstreet’s men. About 
sunset they made their last charge, when our men, being out of 
ammunition, rushed on them with the bayonet, and gave way to 
return no more.” 

General Rosecrans adds that: “ The battle of Chickamauga 
was absolutely necessary to secure our concentration and cover 
Chattanooga. It was fought in a country covered with woods 
and under¬ 
growth, and 
w h o 11 y un¬ 
known to us. 

Every division 
came into ac¬ 
tion opportune- 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


303 



courage and resolution received fresh inspiration from this con¬ 
sciousness.” 

In this terrible two days’ struggle there were innumerable 
instances of the display of special personal courage and timely 
gallantry. When the One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois 
Regiment was struggling to rally after being somewhat broken, 
General Steedman took the flag from the color-bearer and 
advanced toward the enemy, saying to the 


regiment: “Boys, I’ll carry your flag if 


'■DO NOT SKULK HERE- 


you’ll defend it.” Whereupon 
they rallied around him and 
went into the fight once more. 

Will iam S. Bean, a quarter¬ 
master’s sergeant, whose place 
was at the rear, and who might 
properly have remained there, 
went forward to the battle 
line, and is said to have done 
almost the work of a general 
in encouraging the bold and 
animating the timid. Lieut. 

C. W. Earle, a mere boy, was 
left in command of the color 
company of the Ninety-sixth 
Ohio Regiment, and stood 
by his colors unfalteringly 
throughout the fight, though 

all but two of the color-guard were struck down and the flag was 
cut to pieces by the bullets of the enemy. The Twenty-second 
Michigan Regiment did not participate in the first day’s battle, 
but went in on the second day with five hundred and eighty-four 
officers and men, and lost three hundred and seventy-two. Its 
colonel, Heber LeFavour, received high praise for the manner 
in which he led his regiment in a bayonet charge after their 
ammunition was exhausted. He was taken prisoner late in the 
action. 


General Bragg, in his report of the battle, complains bitterly 
of General Polk’s dilatoriness in obeying orders to attack, and 
says: “ Exhausted by two days’ battle, with very limited supply 
of provisions, and almost destitute of water, some time in day¬ 
light was absolutely essential for our troops to supply these 
necessaries and replenish their ammunition before renewing the 
contest. Availing myself of this necessary delay to inspect and 
readjust my lines, I moved, as soon as daylight served, on 
the 21st. . . . Our cavalry soon came upon the enemy’s 

rear guard where the main road passes through Missionary 


Ridge. 


He had availed himself of the night to withdraw 


from our front, and his main body was already in position 
within his lines at Chattanooga. Any immediate pursuit 
by our infantry and artillery would have been fruitless, as it 
was not deemed practicable, with our weak and exhausted 
forces, to assail the enemy, now more than double our num¬ 
bers, behind his intrenchments. Though we had defeated 

him and driven him from 
the field with heavy loss 
in arms, men, and artil¬ 
lery, it had only been 
done by heavy sacrifices, 
in repeated, persistent, 
and most gallant assaults 
upon superior numbers 
strongly posted and pro¬ 
tected. Our loss was in 
proportion to the pro- 




MAJOR-GENERAL 
PATRICK R. CLEBURNE, C. S. A. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL MARCELLUS A. STOVALL, C. S. A. 


longed and obstinate 
struggle. Two-fifths of 
our gallant troops had 
fallen, and the number 
of general and staff offi¬ 
cers stricken down will 
best show how these 
troops were led. Major- 
General Hood, the mod¬ 
el soldier and inspiring 
leader, fell after contrib¬ 
uting largely to our suc¬ 
cess, and has suffered the 
irreparable loss of a leg.” 
General Bragg believed that although he did not gain 
possession of Chattanooga by the battle of Chicka- 
mauga, he had only to make one more move to secure 
the prize. And perhaps he would have been correct in 
this calculation if the commander opposed to him had 
not been succeeded about a month later by General 
Grant. Bragg advanced his army to positions on Look¬ 
out Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and put the town 
of Chattanooga into a state of siege, managing to stop 
the navigation of the river below and cut off all Rose- 
crans’s routes of supply except one long and difficult 
wagon road. This campaign virtually closed the military career 
of General Rosecrans. He had shown many fine qualities as a 
soldier, and had performed some brilliant feats of strategy; but, 
as with some other commanders, his abilities appeared to stop 
suddenly short at a point where great successes were within 
easy reach. It was not more science that was wanted, but more 
energy. When Grant appeared on the scene, with no more 
knowledge of the military art than Rosecrans, but with bound¬ 
less and tireless energy, the conditions quickly changed. 
























































BRIDGE ACROSS TENNESSEE RIVER—CHATTANOOGA AND LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN IN THE DISTANCE. 













































GENERAL SHERMAN'S HEADQUARTERS AT CHATTANOOGA. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 

GRANT’S ARRIVAL AT CHATTANOOGA-GENERAL ROSECRANSS INACTION—OPENING A NEW LINE OF SUPPLY-DESPERATE FIGHTING UNDER 

GENERAL SHERMAN-PAROLED PRISONERS FORCED INTO THE CONFEDERATE ARMY—FIGHTING AROUND KNOXVILLE-THE BATTLE ABOVE 

THE CLOUDS—CAPTURE OF MISSIONARY RIDGE—BRAGG’S ARMY COMPLETELY DEFEATED—PICTURESQUE AND ROMANTIC INCIDENTS. 


A MONTH after the battle of Chickamauga the National forces in the West were to some extent reorganized. The departments 
of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee were united under the title of Military Division of the Mississippi, of which 
General Grant was made commander, and Thomas superseded Rosecrans in command of the Army of the Cumberland. General 
Hooker, with two corps, was sent to Tennessee. Grant arrived at Chattanooga on the 23d of October, and found affairs in a deplor¬ 
able condition. It was impossible to supply the troops properly by the one wagon road, and they had been on short rations for 
some time, while large numbers of the mules and horses were dead. 

From the National lines the tents and batteries of the Confederates on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge were in plain 
sight; their sentinels walked the rounds in a continuous line not a thousand yards away; and from these heights their guns 
occasionally sent a shot within the lines. When General Sherman, on his arrival, walked out and surveyed the situation, he turned 
to Grant and exclaimed in surprise, “Why, General, you are besieged.” “Yes,” said Grant, “it is too true,” and pointed out to 
him a house on Missionary Ridge which was known to be Bragg’s headquarters. General Rosecrans, like a similar commander at 
the East, was able to give most excellent reasons for his prolonged inaction. And so able a soldier as Gen. David S. Stanley, in 
an article read by him before the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, seems to justify Rosecrans. The unpleasant and 
unsatisfactory correspondence of this period, between Rosecrans and the War Department, culminated when the former, having 
reported the success of an expedition against McMinnville, received a despatch from General Halleck, which said: “The Secretary 
of War says you always report your successes, but never report your reverses.” And Rosecrans replied: “If the Secretary of 
War says I report my successes, but do not report my reverses, the Secretary of War lies.” 

It may be that the poor condition of the cavalry, and other discouraging circumstances, were really a proper cause for non¬ 
action to a general who was more inclined to study the safety of his own army than the destruction of the enemy; but somehow 
or other, wherever General Grant appeared, reasons for inactivity seemed to melt away, and the spirit of determined aggression to 
take their place. 

Grant’s first care was to open a new and better line of supply. Steamers could come up the river as far as Bridgeport, and he 
ordered the immediate construction of a road and bridge to reach that point by way of Brown's Ferry, which was done. 
Within five days the “ cracker line,” as the soldiers called it, was opened, and thenceforth they had full rations and abundance 
of everything. The enemy attempted to interrupt the work on the road ; but Hooker met them at Wauhatchie, west of Lookout 
Mountain, and after a three hours’ action drove them off. 

Chattanooga was now no longer in a state of siege; but it was still seriously menaced by Bragg’s army, which held a most 




















































3 o 6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



singular position. Its flanks were on the northern ends of Look¬ 
out Mountain and Missionary Ridge, the crests of which were 
occupied for some distance, and its centre stretched across 
Chattanooga Valley. This line was twelve miles long, and 
most of it was well intrenched. 

Grant ordered Sherman to join him with one corps, and Sher¬ 
man promptly obeyed; but, as he did considerable railroad 
repairing on the way, he did not reach Chattanooga till the 15th 
of November. Moreover, he had to fight occasionally, and be 
ready to fight all the time. At Colliersville he was aroused from 
a nap in the car by a great noise about the train, and was 
informed that the pickets had been driven in, and there was 

every reason to suppose that a large 
cavalry force would soon make an 
attack. Sherman immediately 
got his men out of the train and 
formed them in a line on a 


the fire. This state of things lasted about three hours, when 
the approach of Corse’s division caused the enemy to withdraw. 
Corse’s men had come twenty-six miles on the double quick. 

General Sherman, in his graphic “ Memoirs,” gives many inci¬ 
dents of this march, some of which were not only interesting 
but significant. Just before he set out, a flag of truce came in 
one day, borne by a Confederate officer with whom he was 
acquainted, and escorted by twenty-five men. Sherman invited 
the officer to take supper with him, and gave orders to his own 
escort to furnish the Confederate escort with forage and what¬ 
ever else they wanted during their stay. After supper the con¬ 
versation turned upon the war, and the Confederate officer said : 
“ What is the use of your persevering? It is simply impossible 
to subdue eight millions of people. The feeling in the South 
has become so embittered that a reconciliation is impossible.” 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL / 

JOHN W. GEARY. 

knoll near a railroad cut. 

Presently a Confederate 
officer appeared with a 
flag of truce, and Sher¬ 
man sent out two officers to 
meet him, secretly instructing 
them to keep him in conver¬ 
sation as long as possible. . 

When they returned, it was 
with the message that Gen- 
eral Chalmers demanded the 
surrender of the place. Sher¬ 
man ordered his officers to return again to the line and talk 
as long as possible with the Confederate officer, but finally give 
him a negative answer. In the little time thus gained he got a 
telegraph message sent to Memphis and Germantown, ordering 
Corse’s division to hurry forward, and at the same time backed 
the train into the depot, which was a loopholed brick building, 
and drew his men into some smaller works that surrounded it. 
In a few minutes the enemy swooped down, cutting the wires 
and tearing up the rails on both sides, and then attacked Sher¬ 
man’s little band in their intrenchments. Sherman ordered all 
the houses that were near enough to shelter the enemy’s sharp¬ 
shooters to be set on fire, and, finding some muskets in the 
depot, put them into the hands of the clerks and orderlies, 
making every man available for an active defence. The Con¬ 
federates had some artillery, with which they knocked his loco¬ 
motive to pieces, and set fire to the train; but many of Sher¬ 
man’s men were excellent marksmen and trained soldiers, and 
they not only kept the enemy at bay but managed to put out 


DESPATCHES FOR HEADQUARTERS. 

Sherman answered : “ Sitting as we are here, we appear to be 
very comfortable, and surely there is no trouble in c ur becom¬ 
ing friends.” “Yes,” said the Confederate officer, “ that is very 
true of us ; but we are gentlemen of education, and can easily 
adapt ourselves to any condition of things ; but this would not 
apply equally well to the common people or the common 
soldiers.” Thereupon, General Sherman took him out to the 
campfires behind the tent and showed him the men of the two 
escorts mingled together, drinking coffee, and apparently having 
a happy time. “ What do you think of that ? ” said he. And 
the Confederate officer admitted that Sherman had the best of 
the argument. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the war 
had now continued more than two years, that the territory held 
by the Confederates had steadily diminished, that they had 
passed the climax of their military resources while those of the 
North were still abundant, that Gettysburg and Vicksburg had 
rendered their terrible verdicts, and that all hope of foreign 
assistance or even recognition was at an end—the opinions 























































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


30 7 


expressed by the officer just quoted were very generally held 
at the South. It is perhaps not wonderful that the ordinary 
people and the soldiers in the ranks, few of whom understood 
the philosophy of war in its larger aspects, and to all of whom 
their generals and their Government continually misrepresented 
the state of affairs, should have believed that they were invinci¬ 
ble. But their educated generals and statesmen ought to have 
known better; yet either they did not know better, or they con¬ 
cealed their real opinions. Alexander H. Stephens, by many 
considered the ablest statesman in the Confederacy, late in July 
of this year (1863), made a speech at Charlotte, N. C, in which 
he assured his hearers that there was no reason 
for anything but the most confident hope. 

He said that the loss of Vicksburg was not 
as severe a blow as the loss of Fort 
Pillow, Island No. 10, or New Orleans, 
and, as the Confederacy had survived 
those losses, it would also survive this 
one. He declared that if they 
were to lose Mobile, Charles¬ 
ton, and Richmond, it woul 



statesmen, demagogues, generals, ministers of the gospel, jour¬ 
nalists, and other citizens of lesser note, the Southern people 
were induced to continue the terrible struggle, until, when the 
final surrender came, they had hardly anything left to surrender 
except the ground on which they stood. 

Another incident of the march was one that gave the 
Fifteenth Corps its badge. An Irish soldier of that corps one 
day straggled out and joined a party of the Twelfth Corps at 
their campfire. Seeing a star marked on every tent, wagon, 
hat, etc., he asked if they were all brigadier-generals in that 
corps; and they explained that the star was their corps badge, 
and then in turn asked him what was the badge of his (the 
Fifteenth) corps. Now, this corps as yet had not adopted any 
badge, and the Irishman 


MAJOR-GENERAL HUGH EWING. 

not affect the heart of the Confederacy, which 
would survive all such losses and finally secure its 
independence. The enemy, he said, had made 
two years of unsuccessful war, and thus far had not broken the 
shell of the Confederacy. He alluded to the fact that during' 
the Revolutionary war the British at one time had possession 
of North Carolina, South Carolina, New York, and Philadelphia, 
and yet did not conquer our forefathers; and he added: “In 
the war of 1812 the British captured the capital of the nation, 
Washington city, and burned it, yet they did not conquer us; 
and if we are true to ourselves now, true to our birthright, the 
Yankee nation will utterly fail to subjugate us. Subjugation 
would be utter ruin and eternal death to Southern people and 
all that they hold most dear. Reconstruction would not end 
the war, but would produce a more horrible war than that in 
which we are now engaged. The only terms on which we can 
obtain permanent peace is final and complete separation from 
the North.” With such argument and appeal as this, from 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ABSALOM BAIRD. 

“ Forty rounds in the cartridge 
box and twenty in the pocket.” 
When General Logan heard this 
story, he adopted the cartridge box and 
forty rounds as the badge of his corps. 

The condition of affairs at this time 
in that department, and the reasons for 
it, are set forth with admirable clear¬ 
ness in a letter addressed by General 
Halleck to General Grant, under date of 
October 20, 1863: 

“It has been the constant desire of the Government, from 
the beginning of the war, to rescue the loyal inhabitants of 
East Tennessee from the hands of the rebels, who fully appreci¬ 
ated the importance of continuing their hold upon that coun¬ 
try. In addition to the large amount of agricultural products 
drawn from the upper valley of the Tennessee, they also ob¬ 
tained iron and other materials from the vicinity of Chatta¬ 
nooga. The possession of East Tennessee would cut off one 
of their most important railroad communications, and threaten 
their manufactories at Rome, Atlanta, etc. 

“When General Buell was ordered into East Tennessee in 
the summer of 1862, Chattanooga was comparatively unpro¬ 
tected; but Bragg reached there before Buell, and, by threaten¬ 
ing his communications, forced him to retreat on Nashville and 
Louisville. Again, after the battle of Perryville, General Buell 








































3°8 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


was urged to pursue Bragg’s defeated army and drive it from 
East Tennessee. The same was urged upon his successor; but 
the lateness of the season, or other causes, prevented further 
operations after the battle of Stone River. 

“ Last spring, when your movements on the Mississippi River 
had drawn out of Tennessee a large force of the enemy, I again 
urged General Rosecrans to take advantage of that opportunity 
to carry out his projected plan of campaign, General Burnside 
being ready to cooperate with a diminished but still efficient 
force. But he could not be persuaded to act in time, preferring 
to lie still till your campaign should be terminated. 

“When General Rosecrans finally determined to advance, he 
was allowed to select his own lines and plans for carrying out the 
objects of the expedition. He was directed, however, to report 
his movements daily, till he crossed the Tennessee, and to con¬ 
nect his left, so far as possible, with General Burnside’s right. 
General Burnside was directed to move simultaneously, connect¬ 
ing his right, as far as possible, with General Rosecrans’s left, so 
that, if the enemy concentrated upon either army, the other 
could move to its assistance. When General Burnside reached 
Kingston and Knoxville, and found no considerable number of 
the enemy in East Tennessee, he was instructed to move down 
the river and cooperate with General Rosecrans. These instruc¬ 
tions were repeated some fifteen times, but were not carried out, 
General Burnside alleging as an excuse that he believed that 
Bragg was in retreat, and that General Rosecrans needed no 
reinforcements. When the latter had gained possession of Chat¬ 
tanooga he was directed not to move on Rome as he pro¬ 
posed, but simply to hold the mountain-passes, so as to prevent 
the ingress of the rebels into East Tennessee. That object 
accomplished, I considered the campaign as ended, at least for 
the present. 

“The moment I received reliable information of the depart¬ 
ure of Longstreet’s corps from the Army of the Potomac, I 
ordered forward to General Rosecrans every available man in 
the Department of the Ohio, and again urged General Burnside 
to move to his assistance. I also telegraphed to Generals Hurl- 
but, Sherman, and yourself, to forward all available troops in 
your department. If these forces had been sent to General 
Rosecrans by Nashville, they could not have been supplied ; I 
therefore directed them to move by Corinth and the Tennessee 
River. The necessity of this has been proved by the fact that 
the reinforcements sent to him from the Army of the Potomac 
have not been able, for the want of railroad transportation, to 
reach General Rosecrans’s army in the field. 

“ It is now ascertained that the greater part of the prisoners 
paroled by you at Vicksburg, and General Banks at Port Hud¬ 
son, were illegally and improperly declared exchanged, and 
forced into the ranks to swell the rebel numbers at Chicka- 
mauga. This outrageous act, in violation of the laws of war, of 
the cartel entered into by the rebel authorities, and of all sense 
of honor, gives us a useful lesson in regard to the character of 
the enemy with whom we are contending. He neither regards 
the rules of civilized warfare, nor even his most solemn engaee- 
ments. You may, therefore, expect to meet in arms thou¬ 
sands of unexchanged prisoners released by you and others 
on parole not to serve again till duly exchanged. Although 
the enemy, by this disgraceful means, has been able to concen¬ 
trate in Georgia and Alabama a much larger force than we 
anticipated, your armies will be abundantly able to defeat him. 
Your difficulty will not be in the want of men, but in the means 
of supplying them at this season of the year. A single-track 


railroad can supply an army of sixty or seventy thousand men, 
with the usual number of cavalry and artillery ; but beyond that 
number, or with a large mounted force, the difficulty of supply is 
very great.” 

Meanwhile, General Longstreet, with about twenty thousand 
men, was detached from Bragg’s army and sent against Burnside at 
Knoxville, which is about one hundred and thirty miles northeast 
of Chattanooga. After Sherman's arrival, Grant had about eighty 
thousand men. He placed Sherman on his left, on the north 
side of the Tennessee, opposite the head of Missionary Ridge; 
Thomas in the centre, across Chattanooga valley; and Hooker on 
his right, around the base of Lookout Mountain. He purposed 
to have Sherman advance against Bragg’s right and capture the 
heights of Missionary Ridge, while Thomas and Hooker should 
press the centre and left just enough to prevent any reinforce¬ 
ments from being sent against Sherman. If this were successful, 
Bragg’s key-point being taken, his whole army would be obliged 
to retreat. Sherman laid two bridges in the night of November 
23d, and next day crossed the river and advanced upon the 
enemy’s works; but he met with unexpected difficulties in the 
nature of the ground, and was only partially successful. Hooker, 
who had more genius for fighting than for strictly obeying 
orders, moved around the base of Lookout Mountain, and 
attacked the seemingly impregnable heights. 

General Geary’s command led the way, encountering intrench- 
ments and obstructions of all sorts, both in the valley and on 
the slope of the mountain. Having crossed the Tennessee River 
below, it moved eastward across Lookout Creek, and thence 
marched directly up the mountain till its right rested on the 
palisaded heights. At the same time Grose’s brigade advanced 
farther up stream, drove the Confederates from a bridge, put it 
into repair, and then moved on. At this moment the Confeder¬ 
ates were seen leaving their camps on the mountain and coming 
down to the rifle-pits and breastworks at its foot to dispute the 
progress of their enemy. Then another brigade was sent still 
farther up the stream to make a crossing, and a section of 
artillery was placed where it could enfilade the position just 
taken by the Confederates, while another section was established 
to enfilade the route they had taken in coming down the moun¬ 
tain. All the batteries within range began to play upon the 
Confederates, and it was made so hot for them that they were 
glad to abandon their intrenchments in the valley. Then the 
remainder of Hooker’s men were pushed across the stream, and 
the ascent of the mountain began in earnest. They climbed up 
over ledges and bowlders directly under the muzzles of the guns 
on the summit, driving their enemy from one position after 
another, and following him as closely as possible, in order to make 
him a shield from the fire of the batteries. The advance had 
begun at eight o’clock in the morning, and by noon Geary’s men 
had reached the summit of the mountain. Other brigades came 
up in rapid succession at various points, and on the summit the 
Confederates found themselves surrounded and subjected to a 
rapid fire from every direction save one, in which direction 
(southward along the ridge) all of them who could get away 
retreated, but many were taken prisoners. At this point the 
movement of Hooker’s men was arrested by darkness. Clouds 
had been hanging over the summit of the mountain during the 
morning, and had gradually settled down toward the valley, so 
that the last of the battle was fought above them, spectators 
from below seeing the troops go up into those clouds and dis¬ 
appear. Hooker’s line was then established on the east side of 
the mountain, with the left near the mouth of Chattanooga Creek, 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


309 


and the right on the palisades. To prevent the bringing forward 
of artillery, the Confederates had undermined the road and 
covered it with felled timber. During the night Hooker’s men 
removed the timber and placed the road in a serviceable con¬ 
dition, while all the time an irregular fire was kept up along the 
line, and once a serious attack was threatened by the Confeder¬ 
ates. But before morning they abandoned the mountain entirely, 
leaving behind the camp equipage of three brigades. This action 
is famous as Hooker’s “battle above the clouds,” and that 
evening, when the moon rose over the crest of the mountain, a 


them from the batteries at the top, reached the summit and 
swept everything before them. 

General Sherman advanced, according to orders, against Mis¬ 
sionary Ridge, but met with a more determined resistance, and had 
a much slower fight on the 25th. The enemy massed heavily in 
his front, and Thomas sent a division to his assistance, when the 
whole line was pushed forward ; and at length the enemy retired 
hastily, abandoning the works at the foot of the hill, and were 
closely followed up the slope to the crest, which was soon cap¬ 
tured, with many prisoners and all the guns. Gen. Thomas J. 



BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 


strange spectacle was seen of troops apparently marching across 
its yellow disk. 

The next day, the 25th, Hooker was to pass down the east¬ 
ern slope of Lookout Mountain, cross Chattanooga valley, and 
strike the left of Bragg’s position, as now held on the crest and 
western slope of Missionary Ridge. But the destruction of a 
bridge by the retreating enemy delayed him four hours, and 
Grant saw that Bragg was weakening his centre to mass troops 
against Sherman. So, without waiting longer for Hooker, he 
ordered an advance of the centre held by Thomas. Under the 
immediate leadership of Generals Sheridan and Wood, Thomas’s 
men crossed the valley, walked right into the line of Confederate 
works at the base of Missionary Ridge, followed the retreating 
enemy to a second line halfway up the slope, took this, and still 
keeping at the very heels of the Confederates, who thus shielded 


Wood says in his report: “Troops in line and column check¬ 
ered the broad plain of Chattanooga. In front, plainly to be 
seen, was the enemy, so soon to be encountered in deadly con¬ 
flict. My division seemed to drink in the inspiration of the scene, 
and, when the advance was sounded, moved forward in the per¬ 
fect order of a holiday' parade. 

“ It has been my good fortune to witness, on the Champs-de- 
Mars and on Long Champ reviews of all arms of the French ser¬ 
vice, under the eye of the most remarkable man of the present 
generation. I once saw a review, followed by a mock battle, of 
the finest troops of El Re Galantuomo. The pageant was held 
on the plains near Milan, the queen city of Lombardy, and the 
troops in the sham conflict were commanded by two of the most 
distinguished officers of the Piedmontese service—Cialdini, and 
another whose name I cannot now recall. In none of these dis- 










(FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OWNED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.) 

















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


plays did I ever see anything to exceed the soldierly bearing 
and the steadiness of my division, exhibited in the advance on 
Monday afternoon. There was certainly one striking difference 
in the circumstances of these grand displays. The French and 
Italian parades were peaceful pageants ; ours involved the exi¬ 
gencies of stern war—certainly an immense difference. I should 
do injustice to the brave men who thus moved forward to the con¬ 
flict in such perfect order, were I to omit to record that not one 
straggler lagged behind to sully the magnificence and perfect¬ 
ness of the grand battle array. . . . As soon as our troops 

began to move forward, the enemy opened a terrific fire from 
his batteries on the crest of the ridge. It would not, perhaps, 
be an exaggeration to say that the enemy had fifty pieces of 
artillery disposed on the crest of Missionary Ridge. But the 
rapid firing of all this mass of artillery could not stay the onward 
movement of our troops. When the first line of intrenchments 
was carried, the goal for which we had started was won. Our 
orders carried us no further. We had been instructed to carry 
the line of intrenchments at the base of the ridge, and then 
halt. But the enthusiasm and impetuosity of the troops were 
such that those who first reached the intrenchments at the base 
of the ridge bounded over them and pressed on up the ascent 
after the flying enemy. Moreover, the intrenchments were no 
protection against the enemy’s artillery on the ridge. To 
remain would be destruction ; to retire would be both expensive 
in life and disgraceful. Officers and men all seemed impressed 
with this truth. In addition, the example of those who com¬ 
menced to ascend the ridge so soon as the intrenchments were 
carried was contagious. Without waiting for an order, the vast 
mass pressed forward in the race of glory, each man eager to be 
the first on the summit. The enemy’s artillery and musketry 
could not check the impetuous assault. The troops did not halt 
to fire ; to have done so would have been ruinous. Little was 
left to the immediate commanders of the troops but to cheer on 
the foremost, to encourage the weaker of limb, and to sustain the 
very few who seemed to be faint-hearted.” 

By this brilliant battle, which occupied portions of three days, 
Bragg’s army was completely defeated, and its captured guns 


3 11 

were turned upon it as it fled. His men seemed to have lost all 
respect for him, for when he rode among the fugitives and vainly 
tried to rally them by shouting, “ Here’s your commander,” he 
was derisively answered, “ Here’s your mule,” and was obliged to 
join in the flight. This practically closed his military career. 
He had been a special favorite of Mr. Davis, who is accused 
by some Confederate writers of obstinately placing him where 
it was obvious he should have placed an abler man. He was 
relieved soon after this battle from command, and called to 
Richmond as the military adviser of Mr. Davis. 

In these battles the National loss was nearly six thousand men. 
The Confederate loss was about ten thousand (of whom six 
thousand were prisoners) and forty-two guns. Bragg established 
the remainder of his army in a fortified camp at Dalton, Ga., and 
was soon superseded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Granger 
and Sherman were sent to the relief of Burnside at Knoxville, 
and Longstreet withdrew to Virginia. 

The Chattanooga campaign was perhaps the most picturesque 
of any in the war, and was full of romantic incidents. 

All the armies were followed by correspondents of the great 
newspapers, some of whom were men of high literary ability and 
were alive to the inspiration of the great drama they witnessed. 
Americans may be pardoned for some considerable degree of 
pride when they consider that in the emergency of that great 
war they not only had men of sufficient skill and valor for every 
possible and some seemingly impossible tasks, but also had the 
resources and the art to manufacture nearly all the arms and 
material that were called for, and writers capable of putting 
into dignified and often brilliant literature the rapidly moving 
story of those terrible days. Among these correspondents was 
Benjamin F. Taylor, the journalist and poet, who followed the 
Army of the Cumberland as the representative of the Chicago 
Journal. He witnessed the battles before Chattanooga, and had 
a son among the blue-coated boys that scaled the mountain. 
From his description, written very soon after the events, we take 
the following passages: 

“ Let me show you a landscape that shall not fade out from 
1 the lidless eye of time’ long after we are all dead. A half mile 



COLONEL GREEN B. RAUM. 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN B. TURCHIN. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES R. WOODS. 






















312 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


from the eastern border of Chattanooga is a long swell 
of land, sparsely sprinkled with houses, flecked thickly 
with tents, and checkered with two or three graveyards. 

On its summit stand the red earthworks of Fort Wood, 
with its great guns frowning from the angles. Mount¬ 
ing the parapet and facing eastward you have a singular 
panorama. Away to your left is a shining elbow of the 
Tennessee, a lowland of woods, a long-drawn valley, 
glimpses of houses. At your right you have wooded 
undulations with clear intervals extending down and 
around to the valley at the eastern base of Lookout. 

From the fort the smooth ground descends rapidly to a 
little plain, a sort of trough in the sea, then a fringe of 
oak woods, then an acclivity, sinking down to a second 
fringe of woods, until full in front of you, and three- 
fourths of a mile distant, rises Orchard Knob, a conical 
mound, perhaps a hundred feet high, once wooded, 
but now bald. Then ledges of rocks, and narrow 
breadths of timber, and rolling sweeps of open ground for two 
miles more, until the whole rough and stormy landscape seems 
to dash against Missionary Ridge, three miles distant, that 
lifts like a sea-wall eight hundred feet high, wooded, rocky, 
precipitous, wrinkled with ravines. This is, in truth, the grand 
feature of the scene, for it extends north as far as you can 
see, with fields here and there cut down through the woods to 
the ground, and lying on the hillsides like brown linen to bleach ; 
and you feel, as you look at them, as if they are in danger of 
slipping down the Ridge into the road at its base. And then it 
curves to the southwest, just leaving you a way out between it 
and Lookout Mountain. Altogether the rough, furrowed land¬ 
scape looks as if the Titans had ploughed and forgotten to 
harrow it. The thinly fringed summit of the Ridge varies in 
width from twenty to fifty feet, and houses looking like cigar- 
boxes are dotted along it. On the top of that wall are rebels 
and batteries; below the first pitch, three hundred feet down, 
are more rebels and batteries ; and still below are their camps and 



WAITING FOR ORDERS 


rifle-pits, 
sweeping 
five miles. 

At your 
right, and 
in the 

rear, is Fort Ncgley, the old ‘Star’ fort of Confederate regime; 
its next neighbor is Fort King, under the frown of Lookout; yet 
to the right is the battery of Moccasin Point. Finish out the 
picture on either hand with Federal earthworks and saucy angles, 
fancy the embankment of the Charleston and Memphis Railroad 
drawn diagonally, like an awkward score, across the plain far at 
your feet, and I think you have the tremendous theatre. . . . 
At half-past twelve the order came; at one, two divisions of the 
Fourth Corps made ready to move; at ten minutes before two, 
twenty-five thousand Federal troops were in line of battle. The 
line of skirmishers moved lightly out, and swept true as a sword- 
blade into the edge of the field. You should have seen that 

splendid line, two miles long, as 
straight and unwavering as a ray of 
light. On they went, driving in the 
pickets before them. Shots of mus¬ 
ketry, like the first great drops of 
summer rain upon a roof, pattered 
along the line. One fell here, another 
there, but still, like joyous heralds be¬ 
fore a royal progress, the skirmishers 
passed on. From wood and rifle-pit, 
from rocky ledge and mountain-top, 
sixty-five thousand rebels watched 
these couriers bearing the gift of 
battle in their hands. The buele 

o 

sounded from Fort Wood, and the 
divisions of Wood and Sheridan becran 
to move; the latter, out from the 
right, threatened a heavy attack; the 
former, forth from the left, dashed on 
into the rough road of the battle. 
Black rifle-pits were tipped with fire; 
sheets of flame flashed out of the 
woods; the spatter of musketry deep¬ 
ened into volleys and rolled like muf¬ 
fled drums ; hostile batteries opened 
from the ledges; the ‘ Rodmans’ joined 



A DEAD CONFEDERATE IN THE TRENCHES. 













































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


3i3 


in from Fort Wood ; bursting shell and gusts of shrapnel filled the 
air; the echoes roused up and growled back from the mountains; 
the rattle was a roar—and yet those gallant fellows moved steadily 
on. Down the slope, through the wood, up the hills, straight 
for Orchard Knob as the crow flies, moved that glorious wall of 
blue. The air grew dense and blue, the gray clouds of smoke 
surged up the sides of the valley. It was a terrible journey they 
were making, these men of ours ; and three-fourths of a mile in 
sixty minutes was splendid progress. They neared the Knob ; 
the enemy’s fire converged ; the arc of batteries poured in upon 
them lines of fire, like the rays they call a ‘ glory ’ about the head 
of the Madonna and Child;—but they went up the rugged altar of 
Orchard Knob at the double-quick with a cheer ; they wrapped 
like a cloak round an Alabama regiment that defended it, and 
swept them down on our side of the mound. Prisoners had begun 
to come in before ; they streamed across the field like files of 
geese. Then on for a second altar, Brush Knob, nearly a half-mile 
to the northeast, and bristling with a battery; it was swept of 
foes and garnished with Federal blue in thirty minutes. Perhaps 
it was eleven o’clock on Tuesday morning when the rumble of 
artillery came in gusts from the valley to the west of Lookout. 
Climbing Signal Hill, I could see volumes of smoke rolling to 
and fro, like clouds from a boiling caldron. The mad surges of 
tumult lashed the hills till they cried aloud, and roared through 
the gorges till you might have fancied all the thunders of a long 
summer tumbled into that valley together. And yet the battle 
was unseen. It was like hearing voices from the under-world. 
Meanwhile it began to rain ; skirts of mist trailed over the woods 
and swept down the ravines. But our men trusted in Providence, 
kept their powder dry, and played on. It was 
the second day of the drama; it was the 
second act I was hearing; it was the 
touch on the enemy’s left. The as¬ 
sault upon Lookout had begun ! 

Glancing at the mighty crest 
crowned with a precipice, and now 
hung round about, three hun¬ 
dred feet down, with a curtain of 
clouds, my heart misgave me. 

It could never be taken. Hooker 
thundered, and the enemy came 
down like the Assyrian ; while 
Whittaker on the right, and Colo¬ 
nel Ireland of Geary’s command 
on the left, having moved out from 
Wauhatchie, some five miles from 
the mountain, at five in the morning, 
pushed up to Chattanooga Creek, threw 
over it a bridge, made for Lookout Point, 
and there formed the right under the shelf 
of the mountain, the left resting on the 
creek. And then the play began ; the 

enemy’s camps were seized, his pickets surprised and captured, 
the strong works on the Point taken, and the Federal front 
moved on. Charging upon him, they leaped over his works 
as the wicked twin Roman leaped over his brother’s mud wall, 
the Fortieth Ohio capturing his artillery and taking a Missis¬ 
sippi regiment, and gained the white house. And there they 
stood, ’twixt heaven and—Chattanooga. But above them, grand 
and sullen, lifted the precipice; and they were men, and not 
eagles. The way was strewn with natural fortifications, and 
from behind rocks and trees they delivered their fire, contest¬ 



MAJOR-GENERAL 
A. P. STEWART. C. S. A. 


ing inch by inch the upward way. The sound of the battle rose 
and fell ; now fiercely renewed, and now dying away. And 
Hooker thundered on in the valley, and the echoes of his 
howitzers bounded about the mountains like volleys of musketry. 
That curtain of cloud was hung around the mountain by the 
God of battles—even our God. It was the veil of the temple 
that could not be rent. A captured colonel declared that, had 
the day been clear, their sharp-shooters would have riddled our 
advance like pigeons, and left the command without a leader; 
but friend and foe were wrapped in a seamless mantle, and two 
hundred will cover the entire Federal loss, while our brave 
mountaineers strewed Lookout with four hundred dead, and 
captured a thousand prisoners. Our entire forces bore them¬ 
selves bravely; not a straggler in the command, they all came 
splendidly up to the work, and the whole affair was graced with 
signal instances of personal valor. Lieutenant Smith, of the 
Fortieth Ohio, leaped over the works, discharged his revolver six 
times like the ticking of a clock, seized a sturdy foe by the hair, 

and gave him the heel 
of the ‘ Colt ’ over the 
head. Colonel Ireland 
was slightly wounded, 
and Major Acton, of 
the Fortieth Ohio, was 
shot through the heart 
while leading a bay¬ 
onet charge. And 
now, returning to my 
point of observation, 

I was waiting in pain¬ 
ful suspense to see 
what should come out 
of the roaring caldron 
in the valley, now 
and then, I confess, 
casting an eye up to 
the big gun of Look¬ 
out, lest it might toss 
something my way, 
over its left shoulder—I, a non-combatant, and bear¬ 
ing no arms but a Faber’s pencil ‘ Number 2’—when 
something was born out of the mist (I cannot better 
convey the idea) and appeared on the shorn side of 
the mountain, below and to the west of the white 
house. It was the head of the Federal column ! 
And there it held, as if it were riveted to the rock, and 
the line of blue, a half mile long, swung slowly around 
from the left, like the index of a mighty dial, and swept 
up the brown face of the mountain. The bugles of this city 
of camps were sounding high noon, when in two parallel columns 
the troops moved up the mountain, in the rear of the enemy’s 
rifle-pits, which they swept at every fire. Ah, I wish you had 
been here ! It needed no glass to see it ; it was only just beyond 
your hand. And there, in the centre of the columns, fluttered 
the blessed flag. ‘ My God ! what flag is that ? ’ men cried. And 
up steadily it moved. I could think of nothing but a gallant 
ship-of-the-line grandly lifting upon the great billows and riding 
out the storm. It was a scene never to fade out. Pride and 
pain struggled in my heart for the mastery, but faith carried the 
day; I believed in the flag, and took courage. Volleys of mus¬ 
ketry and crashes of cannon, and then those lulls in a battle 
even more terrible than the tempest. At four o’clock an aid 





MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM B. BATE, C. S. A. 














3H 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




came straight down the mountain 
into the city—the first Federal by 
that route in many a day. Their 
ammunition ran low—they wanted 
powder up on the mountain. He 
had been two hours descending, and 
how much longer the return ! 

“ Night was closing rapidly in, and 
the scene was growing sublime. The 
battery at Moccasin Point was sweep¬ 
ing the road to the mountain. The 
brave little fort at its left was play¬ 
ing like a heart in a fever. The 
cannon upon the top of Lookout 
were pounding away at their lowest 
depression. The flash of the guns 
fairly burned through the clouds; 
there was an instant of silence, here, 
there, yonder, and the tardy thunder 
leaped out after the swift light. For 
the first time, perhaps, since that 
mountain began to burn beneath 
the gold and crimson sandals of the 
sun, it was in eclipse. The cloud of 
the summit and the smoke of the 
battle had met halfway and mingled. 

Here was Chattanooga, but Lookout 
had vanished! It was Sinai over 
again, with its thunderings an d light¬ 
nings and thick darkness, and the Lord was on our side. Then 
the storm ceased, and occasional dropping shots told off the 
evening till half-past nine, and then a crashing volley, and a 
rebel yell, and a desperate charge. It was their good-night to 
our boys; good-night to the mountain. They had been met on 
their own vantage-ground ; they had been driven one and a half 
miles. The Federal foot touched the hill, indeed, but above still 
towered the precipice. 

“At ten o’clock a growing line of lights glittered obliquely 
across the breast of Lookout. It made our eyes dim to see it. It 
was the Federal autograph scored along the 
mountain. They were our campfires. Our 
wounded lay there all the dreary night of rain, 
unrepining and content. Our unharmed heroes 


lay there upon their arms. Our dead 
lay there, ‘ and surely they slept well.’ 
At dawn Captain Wilson and fifteen 
men of the Eighth Kentucky crept 
up among the rocky clefts, handing 
their guns one to another—‘ like 
them that gather samphire—dreadful 
trade ! ’—and stood at length upon 
the summit. The entire regiment 
pushed up after them, formed in line, 
threw out skirmishers, and advanced 
five miles to Summerton. Artillery 
and infantry had all fled in the night, 
nor left a wreck behind. 

“ If Sherman did not roll the 
enemy along the Ridge like a car¬ 
pet, at least he rendered splendid 
service, for he held a huge ganglion 
of the foe as firmly on their right as 
if he had them in the vice of the 
‘ lame Lemnian ’ who forged the 
thunderbolts. General Corse’s, Gen¬ 
eral Jones’s, and Colonel Loomis’s bri¬ 
gades led the way, and were drenched 
with blood. Here Colonel O’Meara, 
of the Ninetieth Illinois, fell. Here 
its lieutenant-colonel, Stuart, received 
a fearful wound. Here its brave 
young captains knelt at the crimson 
shrine, and never rose from worshipping. Here one hundred and 
sixty of its three hundred and seventy heroes were beaten with 
the bloody rain. The brigades of Generals Mathias and Smith 
came gallantly up to the work. Fairly blown out of the enemy’s 
guns, and scorched with flame, they were swept down the hill 
only to stand fast for a new assault. Let no man dare to say they 
did not acquit themselves well and nobly. To living and dead in 
the commands of Sherman and Howard who struck a blow that 
day—out of my heart I utter it—hail and farewell! And as I 
think it all over, glancing again along that grand, heroic line of the 
Federal epic—I commit the story with a childlike 
—-| faith to history, sure that when she gives her 

clear, calm record of that day’s famous work, 
standing like Ruth among the reapers in the 
fields that feed the world, she will declare the 
grandest staple of the Northwest is Man.” 


MAJOR-GENERAL JEREMY F. GILMER, C. S. A. 
Chief Engineer Army of the Tennessee. 


A TYPICAL SOUTHERN MANSION. 
(From a War-time Photograph.) 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


3i5 



PRISONERS IN ANDERSONVILLE STOCKADE. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE BLACK CHAPTER. 

PERSECUTIONS OF UNION MEN-THE BLACK FLAG-THE GUERILLAS— 

SECESSION FROM SECESSION—RIOT IN CONCORD, N.H. — MASSACRE 

AT FORT PILLOW-CARE OF PRISONERS—ANDERSONVILLE—OTHER 

PRISONS—SUSPENSION OF EXCHANGES-VIOLATION OF PAROLES- 

PRINCIPLES RELATING TO CAPTURES—CRUELTIES COMMITTED 
BY UNION SOLDIERS IN VIRGINIA—GENERAL IMBODEN’s STATE¬ 
MENTS REGARDING FEDERAL ATROCITIES—GENERAL EARLYS 
ACCOUNT OF THE BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG. 

So far as the military situation,was concerned, the victories at 
Gettysburg and Vicksburg wrote the doom of the Confederacy, 
and there the struggle should have ended. That it did not end 
there, was due partly to a hope that the Democratic party at 
the North might carry the next presidential election, as well as 
to the temper of the Southern people, which had been concen¬ 
trated into an intense personalized hatred. This began before 
the war, was one of the chief circumstances that made it possible 
to carry the conspiracy into execution, and seemed to be care¬ 
fully nursed by Mr. Davis and his ministers. 

Gen. Andrew J. Hamilton, who had been attorney-general of 
Texas, in a speech delivered in New York in 1863, declared that 
two hundred men were hanged in Texas during the presidential 
canvass of i860, because they were suspected of being more loyal 


to the Union than to slavery. Judge Baldwin, of Texas, speak¬ 
ing in Washington in October, 1864, said : “ The wrongs inflicted 
on the Union men of Texas surpass in cruelty the horrors of the 
Inquisition. From two to three thousand men have been hanged, 
in many cases without even the form of a trial, simply and solely 
because they were Union men and would not give their support 
to secession. Indeed, it has been, and is, the express deter¬ 
mination of the secessionists to take the life of every Union man. 
Nor are they always particular to ascertain what a man’s real 
sentiments are. It is sufficient for them that a man is a d—d 
Yankee. One day a secessionist said to the governor of Texas, 

‘ There is Andrew Jackson Hamilton—suppose I kill the d—d 
Unionist.’ Said the governor, ‘ Kill him or any other Unionist, 
and you need fear nothing while I am governor.’ As I was 
passing through one place in Tex^s, I saw three men who had 
been hanged in the course of the night. When I inquired the 
cause, I was told in the coolest manner that it was to be pre¬ 
sumed they were Union men. In Grayson County, a man 
named Hillier, who had come from the North, was forced into 
the Confederate army. Soon afterward his wife was heard to 
remark that she wished the Union army would advance and take 
possession of Texas, that her husband might return and provide 
for his family. This being reported to the provost marshal, he 
sent six men dressed in women’s clothes, who dragged her to the 
nearest tree and hanged her in the sight of her little children.” 

In the mountainous portions of Virginia, Tennessee, and 
North Carolina, where comparatively few slaves were kept, large 
numbers of the people were opposed to secession, and for their 
devotion to the Union they suffered such persecution as had 
never been witnessed in this part of the world. It was perhaps 
most violent in East Tennessee. Among the numerous deliber¬ 
ate and brutal murders, committed by men in Confederate uni¬ 
form, were those of the Rev. L. Carter and his son in Bradley 
County, the Rev. M. Cavander in Van Buren County, the Rev. 
Mr. Blair of Hamilton County, and the Rev. Mr. Douglas—all 
for the simple reason that they were Unionists. Many of the 
outrages upon the wives and children of Union men were such 
as any writer would shrink from recording. Those who could 
get away fled northward, 
often after their homes 
had been burned and their 
movable property carried 
off, and became subjects 
of charity in the free 
States. 

Many secessionists, re¬ 
siding in States that did 
not secede, had gone un¬ 
hindered to the Confeder¬ 
ate armies, and when such 
were captured by the Na¬ 
tional armies they received 
no different treatment 
from other prisoners of 
war. But the Confederate 
Government professed to 
look upon all Unionists in 
the seceded States (and 
even in some of the States 
whose secession was at 

least a doubtful question) brigadier-general a. j. Hamilton, 

as traitors, and numerous (Military Governor of Texas.) 

















3i6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


orders declaring them such and prescribing their punishment 
were issued. In one of these, dated November 25, 1861, Judah 
P. Benjamin, the Confederate Secretary of War, said to a Con¬ 
federate colonel at Knoxville: “ I now proceed to give you the 
desired instruction in relation to the prisoners of war taken by 
you among the traitors of East Tennessee. First, all such as 
can be identified in having been engaged in bridge burning are 
to be tried summarily by drum-head court-martial, and, if found 
guilty, executed on the spot by hanging. It would be well to 
leave the bodies hanging in the vicinity of the burned bridges. 
Second, all such as have not been so engaged are to be treated 
as prisoners of war, and sent with an armed guard to Tuscaloosa. 
. . . In no case is one of the men known to have been up in 

arms against the Government to be released on any pledge or 
oath of allegiance. They are all to be held as prisoners of war, 
and held in jail till the end of the war.” The Rev. Thomas W. 
Humes, in his “ Loyal Mountaineers,” says that, in consequence 
of this order, “Two men, Hensie and Fry, were hung at Green¬ 
ville by Colonel Ledbetter’s immediate authority, and without 
delay. Had not the execution been so hasty, it might have 
been discovered, in time to save Fry’s life, that not he but 
another person of the same surname was the real offender in 
the case.” Many residents of Knoxville and its vicinity were 
imprisoned under this order; and the Rev. William G. Brownlow, 
who was one of them, says that on the lower floor of the jail, 
where he was kept, the prisoners were so numerous that there 
was not room for them all to lie down at one time, and that the 
only article of furniture in the building was a dirty wooden 
bucket from which the prisoners drank water with a tin cup. 
The following entries, taken from his diary while he was thus 
imprisoned, are fair samples of many: “December 17: Brought 
in a Union man from Campbell County to-day, leaving behind 
six small children, and their mother dead. This man’s offence 
is holding out for the Union. To-night two brothers named 
Walker came in from Hawkins County, charged with having 
‘talked Union talk.’” “December 18: Discharged sixty pris¬ 
oners to-day, who had been in prison from three to five weeks— 
taken through mistake, as was said, there being nothing against 
them.” “ December 22 : Brought in old man Wampler, a Dutch¬ 
man, seventy years of age, from Green County, charged with 
being an ‘Andrew Johnson man and talking Union talk.’” 

In Virginia, Governor Letcher wrote to a man named Fitz¬ 
gerald, who had been arrested on suspicion of Unionism and 
asked to be released: “In 1856 you voted for the abolitionist 
Fremont for President. Ever since the war, you have main¬ 
tained a sullen silence in regard to its merits. Your son, who, 
in common with other young men, was called to the defence of 
his country, has escaped to the enemy, probably by your advice. 
This is evidence enough to satisfy me that you are a traitor to 
your country, and I regret that it is not sufficient to justify me 
in demanding you from the military authorities, to be tried and 
executed for treason.” The Lynchburg Republican said, “ Our 
people were greatly surprised, on' Saturday morning, to see the 
black flag waving over the depot of the Virginia and Tennessee 
Railroad Company. We are for displaying that flag through¬ 
out the whole South. We should ask no quarter at the hands 
of the vandal Yankee invaders, and our motto should be, an 
entire extermination of every one who has set foot upon our 
sacred soil.” And the Jackson Mississippian said, in the summer 
of 1862, “ In addition to pitched battles upon the open field, let 
us try partisan ranging, bushwhacking, and henceforward, until 
the close of this war, let our sign be the black flag and no 


quarter.” According to Governor Letcher, as quoted in Pollard’s 
“Secret History of the Confederacy,” Stonewall Jackson was, 
from the beginning of the war, in favor of raising the black flag, 
and thought that no prisoners should be taken. The same his¬ 
torian is authority for the story that once, when an inferior offi¬ 
cer was regretting that some National soldiers had been killed 
in a display of extraordinary courage, when they might as readily 
have been captured, Jackson replied curtly, “ Shoot them all ; 
I don’t want them to be brave.” 

The rules of civilized warfare forbid the use of explosive 
bullets, on the ground that when a bullet strikes a soldier it is 
likely to disable him sufficiently to put him out of the combat; 
and, therefore, to construct it so that it will explode and kill 
him after it has entered the flesh, is essentially murder. It has 
been asserted that in some instances explosive bullets were fired 
by the Confederates; and it has also been strenuously denied. 
Gen. Manning F. Force, in his “ Personal Recollections of the 
Vicksburg Campaign,” read before the Ohio Commandery of 
the Loyal Legion, says: “There was much speculation and 
discussion about certain small explosive sounds that were heard. 
General Ransom and others maintained they were caused 
by explosive bullets. General Logan and others scouted the 
idea. One day one struck the ground and exploded at Ran¬ 
som’s feet. Picking up the exploded shell of a rifle-ball, he 
settled the question. After the siege, many such explosive rifle- 
balls, which had not been used, were picked up on the former 
camp-grounds of the enemy.” 

The Confederate Congress passed an act, approved April 21, 
1862, authorizing the organization of bands of partisan rangers, 
to be entitled to the same pay, rations, and quarters as other 
soldiers, and to have the same protection in case of capture. 
These partisan rangers were popularly known as guerillas, and 
most of them were irresponsible marauding bands, acting the 
part of thieves and murderers until captured, and then claiming 
treatment as prisoners of war, on the ground that they were regu¬ 
larly commissioned and enlisted soldiers of the Confederacy. 

Some of the devices that were resorted to for the purpose of 
intensifying the hatred of Northern people and Unionists now 
appear ludicrous. Thousands of people in the South were 
made to believe that Hannibal Hamlin, elected Vice-President 
on the ticket with Mr. Lincoln, was a mulatto ; that Mr. Lincoln 
himself was a monster of cruelty; and that the National army 
was made up largely of Irish and German mercenaries. 

As Mr. Lincoln predicted, and as every reflecting citizen must 
have known, those who attempted to carry out the doctrine of 
secession from the United States were obliged to confront its 
corollary in a proposal to secede from secession. In North 
Carolina a convention was held to nominate State officers, with 
the avowed purpose of asserting North Carolina’s sovereignty by 
withdrawing from the Confederacy—on the ground that it had 
failed in its duties as agent for the sovereign States composing 
it—and making peace with the United States. The convention 
was largely attended, and included many of the most intelligent 
and wealthy men in the State ; but the Confederate Govern¬ 
ment sent an armed force to break up the meeting and imprison 
the leaders. In the Confederate Congress there were forty mem¬ 
bers who always voted in a body, in secret session, as Mr. Davis 
wanted them to. They were commonly known as “ the forty 
thieves.” When the war began to look hopeless, a popular 
movement in favor of peace resulted in the choice of other men 
to fill their places. But, before their terms expired, a law was 
passed which made it treason to use language that could be con- 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


3 T 7 


strued as a declaration that any State had a right to secede from 
the Confederacy. The people of southwestern North Carolina, 
like those of eastern Tennessee, were mostly small, industrious 
farmers, without slaves, living in a secluded valley. They 
knew almost nothing of the political turmoil that distracted the 
country, and did not wish to take any part in the war. They 
had voted against disunion, and asked to be exempted from the 
Confederate conscription law. When this was denied, they peti¬ 
tioned to be expatriated : and when this also was refused, they 
resorted to such measures as they could to avoid conscription. 
Thereupon, the Confederate Government sent North Carolina 
troops to subdue them ; and when these were found to frater¬ 
nize with the people, troops from other States were sent; and 
when they also failed to do the required work, a brigade of 
Cherokee Indians was turned into the valley, who committed 
such atrocities as might have been expected.* 


and threw the type into the street. The sheriff's reading of the 
Riot Act consisted in climbing a lamp-post, extending his right 
arm, and saying persuasively to the rioters, “ Now, boys, I guess 
you’d better go home.” 

The most serious charge made by Confederate writers, with 
sufficient proof, of violation of the laws of war on the part of 
National troops or commanders, is that which they bring against 
Gen. David Hunter for his acts in the Shenandoah Valley, when 
he commanded there in the summer of 1864. Gen. John D. 
Imboden has made the most dispassionate and apparently hon¬ 
est statement of these that has been published. He says: 
“ What I write is history—every fact detailed is true, indisputa¬ 
bly true, and sustained by evidence, both Confederate and Fed¬ 
eral, that no living man can gainsay, and a denial is boldly chal¬ 
lenged, with the assurance that I hold the proofs ready for pro¬ 
duction whenever, wherever, and however required. Perhaps no 



EXECUTION OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER FOR DESERTION AND ATTEMPTED COMMUNICATION WITH THE ENEMY. 


There were Unionists also in other parts of North Carolina, 
and against them the Confederate Government appeared to have 
a special grudge. Some of them entered the National service 
by regular enlistment, and when the Confederate force, under 
General Hoke, captured Plymouth, in April, 1864, some of these 
loyal North Carolinians were among the garrison. Knowing 
what would be their fate if captured, they had provided them¬ 
selves with morphine, and when the Confederate sergeants went 
through the ranks and picked them out, they secretly swallowed 
the drug. As soon as it was discovered what they had done, 
each was placed between two Confederate soldiers, who kept 
him walking and awake until its effects had passed away, in 
order that the “ traitors,” as they were called, might die by hang¬ 
ing, and soon afterward they were hanged. 

There were instances of intolerance and outrage at the North, 
but they were comparatively few. One of the most notable 
occurred in Concord, N. IT, in August, 1863, where a news¬ 
paper that had been loud in its disloyalty was punished by a 
mob, mainly of newly recruited soldiers, who gutted the office 


*See report of a speech by the Hon. C. J. Barlow, of Georgia, delivered in 
Cooper Institute, New York, October 15, 1864. 


one now living was in a better position to know, at the time of 
their occurrence, all the details of these transactions than myself. 

“ Up to his occupation of Staunton, where his army was so 
much strengthened by Crook and Averill as to relieve his mind 
of all apprehension of disaster, his conduct had been soldierly, 
striking his blows only at armed men. But at Staunton he com¬ 
menced burning private property, and the passion for house¬ 
burning grew upon him, and a new system of warfare was inaug¬ 
urated that a few weeks afterward culminated in the retaliatory 
burning of Chambersburg. At Staunton, his incendiary appetite 
was appeased by the burning of a large woollen mill that gave 
employment to many poor women and children, and a large 
steam flouring mill and the railway buildings. 

“ At the breaking out of the war David S. Creigh, an old man 
of the highest social position, the father of eleven sons and 
daughters, beloved by all who knew them for their virtues, and 
intelligence, resided on his estate, near Lewisburg, in Greenbrier 
County. His reputation was of the highest order. No man in 
the large county of Greenbrier was better known or more 
esteemed ; few, if any, had more influence. Besides offices of 
high public trust in civil life, he was an elder in the Presbyterian 
church of Lewisburg, one of the largest and most respectable in 










CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


3i8 



like a dog for an act of duty to his helpless wife and 
daughters. 

“ At Lexington he enlarged upon the burning operations 
begun at Staunton. On his way, and in the surrounding country, 
he burnt mills, furnaces, storehouses, granaries, and all farming 
utensils he could find, besides a great amount of fencing and a 
large quantity of grain. In the town he burnt the Virginia 
Military Institute, and all the professors’ houses except the 
superintendent’s (General Smith’s), where he had his head¬ 
quarters, and found a portion of the family too sick to be re¬ 
moved. He had the combustibles collected to burn Washington 
College, the recipient of the benefactions of the Father of his 
Country by his will; but, yielding to the appeals of the trustees 
and citizens, spared the building, but destroyed the philosophical 
and chemical apparatus, libraries, and furniture. He burned the 
mills and some private stores in the lower part of the town. 
Captain Towns, an officer in General Hunter’s army, took sup¬ 
per with the family of Gov. John Letcher. Mrs. Letcher, having 
heard threats that her house would be burned, spoke of it to 
Captain Towns, who said it could not be possible, and remarked 
that he would go at once to headquarters and let her know. He 
went, returned in a half hour, and told her that he was directed 
by General Hunter to assure her that the house would not be 
destroyed, and she might, therefore, rest easy. After this, she 
dismissed her fears, not believing it possible that a man occupy¬ 
ing Hunter's position would be guilty of wilful and deliberate 
falsehood to a lady. It, however, turned out otherwise, for the 

next morning, at half-past eight 
o’clock, his assistant provost- 
marshal, accompanied by a por¬ 
tion of his guard, rode up to the 
door, and Captain Berry dis¬ 
mounted, rang the door-bell, 
called for Mrs. Letcher, and in¬ 
formed her that General Hunter 
had ordered him to burn the 
house. She replied, ‘There 


the synod of Virginia. In the early part of November, 1863, 
there being a Federal force near Lewisburg, Mr. Creigh, on 




entering his house ofte 
day, found a drunken 
and dissolute soldier 
there using the most in¬ 
sulting language to his 
wife and daughters, and 
at the same time break¬ 
ing open trunks and 
drawers, and helping 
himself to their con¬ 
tents. At the moment 
Mr. Creigh entered, the 
ruffian was attempting 
to force the trunk of a 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN S. PRESTON, C S. A. 
(In charge of the Bureau of Conscription.) 


SAMUEL COOPER, C. S. A. 
(Adjutant and Inspector-General.) 

must be some mistake,’ 
and requested to see 
the order. He said it 
was verbal. She asked 
if its execution could 
not be delayed till she 
could see Hunter. He 
replied : ‘ The order is 
peremptory, and you 
have five minutes to 
leave the house,’ Mrs. 


young lady teacher in the fam¬ 
ily. Mr. Creigh asked him to 
desist, stating that it was the 
property of a lady under his 
protection. The villain, rising 
from the trunk, immediately 
drew a pistol, cocked it, pointed 
it at Mr. Creigh, and exclaimed : 

“Go out of this room. What 
are you doing here ? Bring me 
the keys.” Mr. Creigh at¬ 
tempted to defend himself and family, but a pistol he tried 
to use for the purpose snapped at the instant the robber 
fired at him, the ball grazing his face and burying itself 
in the wall. They then grappled, struggled into the pas¬ 
sage, and tumbled downstairs, the robber on top. They 
rose, and Mr. Creigh attempted to wrest the pistol from the 
hands of his adversary, when it was accidentally discharged, 
and the latter wounded. They struggled into the portico, 
where the ruffian again shot at Mr. Creigh, when a negro 
woman who saw it all ran up with an axe in her hand, and 
begged her master to use it. He took it from her and 
despatched the robber. After consultation and advice 
with friends, it was decided to bury the body and say 
nothing about it. 

“ The troops left the neighborhood, and did not return till 
June, 1864, when they were going through to join Hunter. A 
negro belonging to a neighbor, having heard of the matter, went 
to their camp and told it. Search was made, the remains found, 
and Mr. Creigh was arrested. He made a candid statement of 
the whole matter, and begged to be permitted to introduce wit¬ 
nesses to prove the facts, which was refused, and he was marched 
off with the army, to be turned over to General Hunter, at 
Staunton. . . . Mr. Creigh had no trial, no witnesses, no 

counsel nor friends present, but was ordered to be hanged 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
JOHN H WINDER, C. S. A. 
(Superintendent of Prisons.) 


MAJOR-GENERAL S. B. MAXEY, C. S. A. 
(Superintendent of Indian Affairs.) 
























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


319 


Letcher then asked if she could be allowed to remove her mother’s, 
her sister’s, her own and her children’s clothing. This request be¬ 
ing refused, she left the house. In a very short time they poured 
camphene on the parlor floor and ignited it with a match. In the 
meantime Miss Lizzie Letcher was trying to remove some articles 
of clothing from the other end of the house, and Berry, finding 
these in her arms, set fire to them. The wardrobe and bureaus 
were then fired, and soon the house was enveloped in flames. 
While Hunter was in Lexington, Capt. Mathew X. White, 
residing near the town, was arrested, taken about two miles, and, 
without trial, was shot, on the allegation that he was a bush¬ 
whacker. During the first year of the war he commanded the 
Rockbridge cavalry, and was a young gentleman of generous 
impulses and good character. The total destruction of private 
property in Rockbridge County, by Hunter, was estimated and 
published in the local papers at the time as over two million 
dollars. 

“ From Lexington he proceeded to Buchanan, in Botetourt 
County, and camped on the magnificent estate of Col. John T. 
Anderson, an elder brother of Gen. Joseph R. Anderson, of the 
Tredegar Works at Richmond. Colonel Anderson’s estate, on 
the banks of the Upper James, and his mansion, were baronial 
in character. The house crowned a high, wooded hill, was very 
large, and furnished in a style to dispense that lavish hospitality 
which was the pride of so many of the old-time Virginians. It 
was the seat of luxury and refinement, and in all respects a place 
to make the owner contented with his lot in this world. Colonel 
Anderson was old—his head as white as snow—and his wife but 
a few years his junior. He was in no office, and too old to fight, 
hence was living on his fine estate strictly the life of a private 
gentleman. There was no military or public object on God’s 
earth to be gained by ruining such a man. Yet Hunter, after 
destroying all that could be destroyed on the plantation when 
he left it, ordered the grand old mansion with all its contents to 
be laid in ashes. 

“ It seems that, smarting under the miserable failure of his 
grand raid on Lynchburg, he came back to the Potomac more 
implacable than when he left it a month before. His first victim 
was the Hon. Andrew Hunter, of Charlestown, Jefferson County, 
his own first cousin, and named after the general’s father. Mr. 
Hunter is a lawyer of great eminence, and a man of deservedly 
large influence in his county and the State. His home, eight 
miles from Harper's Ferry, in the suburbs of Charlestown, was 
the most costly and elegant in the place, and his family as 
refined and cultivated as any in the State. His offence, in 
General Hunter’s eyes, was that he had gone politically with his 
State, and was in full sympathy with the Confederate cause. 
The general sent a squadron of cavalry out from Harper’s 
Ferry, took Mr. Hunter prisoner, and held him a month in the 
common guard-house of his soldiers, without alleging any offence 
against him not common to nearly all the people of Virginia, 
and finally discharged him without trial or explanation, after 
heaping these indignities on him. Mr. Hunter was an old man, 
and suffered severely from confinement and exposure. While 
he was thus a prisoner General Hunter ordered his elegant 
mansion to be burned to the ground with all its contents, not 
even permitting Mrs. Hunter and her daughter to save their 
clothes and family pictures from the flames. His next similar 
exploit was at Shepherdstown, in the same county, where, on 
the 19th of July, 1864, he caused to be burned the residence of 
the Hon. A. R. Boteler. Mrs. Boteler was also a cousin of General 
H unter. This homestead was an old colonial house, endeared 


to the family by a thousand tender memories, and contained a 
splendid library, many pictures, and an invaluable collection of 
rare and precious manuscripts, illustrating the early history 
of that part of Virginia, that Colonel Boteler had collected by 
years of toil. The only members of the family who were there 
at the time were Colonel Boteler’s eldest and widowed daughter, 
Mrs. Shepherd, who was an invalid, her three children, the 
eldest five years old and the youngest eighteen months, and 
Miss Helen Boteler. Colonel Boteler and his son were in the 
army, and Mrs. Boteler in Baltimore. The ladies and children 
were at dinner when informed by the servants that a body of 
cavalry had turned in at the gate, from the turnpike, and were 
coming up to the house. It proved to be a small detachment 
of the First New York cavalry, commanded by a Capt. William 
F. Martindale, who, on being met at the door by Mrs. Shepherd, 
coolly told her that he had come to burn the house. She asked 
him by what authority. He told her by that of General Hunter, 
and showed her his written order. On reading it, she said: ‘The 
order, I see, sir, is for you to burn the houses of Col. Alexander 
R. Boteler and Mr. Edmund I. Lee. Now, this is not Colonel 
Boteler’s house, but is the property of my mother, Mrs. Boteler, 
and therefore must not be destroyed, as you have no authority 
to burn her house.’ ‘ It’s Colonel Boteler’s home, and that’s 
enough for me,’ was Martindale’s reply. She then said: ‘ I have 
been obliged to remove all my personal effects here, and have 
several thousand dollars’ worth of property stored in the house 
and outbuildings, which belongs to me and my children. Can I 
not be permitted to save it?’ But Martindale curtly told her 
that he intended to ‘ burn everything under roof upon the place.’ 
Meanwhile some of the soldiers were plundering the house of 
silver spoons, forks, cups, and whatever they fancied, while 
others piled the parlor furniture on the floors, and others poured 
kerosene on the piles and floors, which they then set on fire. 
They had brought the kerosene with them, in canteens strapped 
to their saddles. Miss Boteler, being devoted to music, pleaded 
hard for her piano, as it belonged to her, having been a gift from 
her grandmother, but she was brutally forbidden to save it; 
whereupon, although the flames were roaring in the adjoining 
rooms, and the roof all on fire, she quietly went into the house, 
and seating herself for the last time before the instrument, sang 
her favorite hymn, ‘ Thy will be done.’ Then shutting down 
the lid and locking it, she calmly went out upon the lawn, where 
her sick sister and the frightened little children were sitting 
under the trees, the only shelter then left for them.” 

Gen. Jubal A. Early, in his “ Memoir of the Last Year of the 
War,” makes briefly the same accusations against General 
Hunter that have just been quoted from General Imboden’s 
paper, and adds: “ A number of towns in the South, as well as 
private country houses, had been burned by the Federal troops, 
and the accounts had been heralded forth in some of the 
Northern papers in terms ot exultation, and gloated over by 
their readers, while they were received with apathy by others. 

I now came to the conclusion that we had stood this mode of 
warfare long enough, and that it was time to open the eyes of 
the people of the North to its enormity, by an example in the 
way of retaliation. The town of Chambersburg in Pennsylvania 
was selected as the one on which retaliation should be made, 
and McCausland was ordered to proceed with his brigade and 
that of Johnson and a battery of artillery to that place, and 
demand of the municipal authorities the sum of one hundred 
thousand dollars in gold, or five hundred thousand dollars in 
United States currency, as a compensation for the destruc* 


320 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


tion of the houses named and 
their contents; and, in default 
of payment, to lay the town 
in ashes. A written demand 
to that effect was sent to the 
municipal authorities, and they 
were informed what would 
be the result of a failure or 
refusal to comply with it. I 
desired to give the people of 
Chambersburg an opportunity 
of saving their town by making 
compensation for part of the 
injury done, and hoped that the 
payment of such a sum would 
have the desired effect and open 
the eyes of people of other 
towns at the North to the ne¬ 
cessity of urging upon their 
Government the adoption of a 
different policy. McCausland 
was also directed to proceed 
from Chambersburg toward 
Cumberland in Maryland, and 
levy contributions in money 
upon that and other towns able 
to bear them, and, if possible, 
destroy the machinery at the 
coal-pits near Cumberland, and 
the machine shops, depots, 
and bridges on the Baltimore 
and Ohio Railroad, as far as 
practicable. On the 30th of July 
McCausland reached Chambers¬ 
burg and made the demand as 
directed, reading to such of the authorities as presented them¬ 
selves the paper sent by me. The demand was not complied 
with, the people stating that they were not afraid of having 
their town burned, and that a Federal force was approaching. 
McCausland proceeded to carry out his orders, and the greater 
part of the town was laid in ashes. For this act I alone am 
responsible, as the officers engaged in it were executing my 
orders and had no discretion left them.” 

The resentment excited by the enlistment o-f black troops, 
and the determination not to treat them in accordance with 
the rules of civilized warfare, were most notably exemplified 
at the capture of Fort Pillow, April 12, 1864. This work was on 
the bank of the Mississippi, about forty miles above Memphis, 
on a high bluff, with a ravine on either side. In the lower ravine 
were some Government buildings and a little village. The fort, 
under command of Major L. I 7 . Booth, had a garrison of about 
five hundred and fifty men, nearly half of whom were colored. 
The Confederate General Forrest, with about five thousand men, 
attacked the place at sunrise. The garrison made a gallant 
defence, aided by the gunboat New Era , which enfiladed the 
ravines, and after half a day’s fighting, though the commander 
of the fort was killed, the besiegers had made no progress. 
They then resorted to the device of sending in flags of truce, 
demanding a surrender, and took advantage of the truce to 
move up into positions near the fort, which they had vainly 
tried to reach under fire. As soon as the second flag of truce 
was withdrawn, they made a rush upon the fort, passed over the 


works, and with a cry of “No 
quarter!” began an indiscrimi¬ 
nate slaughter, though the garri¬ 
son threw down their arms, and 
either surrendered or ran down 
the river-bank. Women and 
children, as well as men, were 
deliberately murdered, and the 
savagery continued for hours 
after the surrender. The sick 
and the wounded were butch¬ 
ered in their tents, and in some 
cases tents and buildings were 
set on fire after the occupants 
had been fastened so that they 
could not escape. In one in¬ 
stance a Confederate officer had 
taken up a negro child behind 
him on his horse. When Gen¬ 
eral Chalmers observed this, he 
ordered the officer to put the 
child down and shoot him, and 
the order was obeyed. Major 
W. F. Bradford, on whom the 
command of the fort had de¬ 
volved, was murdered the next 
day, when he was being 
marched away as a prisoner. 
Fewer than a hundred of the 
garrison were killed in the bat- 
tie, and about three hundred 
were butchered after the sur¬ 
render. Forrest’s loss is un¬ 
known. His early reports of 
the affair were exultant. In one 
he wrote: “We busted the fort at ninerclock and scatered the 
niggers. The men is still a killanem in the woods. . . . 

Them as was cotch with spoons and brestpins and sich was 
killed and the rest of the lot was payrold and told to git.” 
Again he or his adjutant wrote: “The river was dyed with the 
blood of the slaughtered for two hundred yards. . . . It is 

hoped that these facts will demonstrate to the Northern people 
that negro soldiers cannot cope with Southerners.” Forrest 
had been a slave-trader before the war, and did not know that 
there could be any such thing as cruelty or treachery in dealing 
with black men. When he found that the civilized world was 
horrified at what he had done, he attempted to palliate it by 
saying that the flag at the fort had not been hauled down 
in token of surrender when his men burst over the works, and 
that some of the garrison retreating down the river-bank fired at 
their pursuers. But his argument is vitiated by the fact that, 
three weeks before, in demanding the surrender of a force at 
Paducah he notified the commander that if he had to carry 
the place by storm no quarter need be expected. 

There had been from the beginning a difficulty about the care 
of prisoners in the hands of the Confederates, which arose chiefly 
from the incompetence and brutality of Commissary-General 
Northrop. Once when Captain Warner, who had charge of the 
prisoners in Richmond, was directed to make a requisition on 
Northrop for subsistence, he was answered, “I know nothing of 
Yankee prisoners—throw them all into the James River!” 
“ But,” said the captain, “ at least tell me how I am to keep my 
















































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 




accounts for the prisoners’subsistence.” “ Sir,” said Northrop, 
“ I have not the will or the time to speak with you. Chuck the 
scoundrels into the river!” This man was maintained in the 
post of commissary-general throughout the war—though his 
maladministration of the office many times produced a scarcity 
of food in the Confederate camps—and in the last year the 
subsistence of prisoners was also intrusted to him. 

Of the prisoners captured by the Confederate armies, most of 
the commissioned officers were confined in the Libby warehouse 
(thenceforward known as Libby Prison) in Richmond, and at 
Columbia, S. C. The non-commissioned officers and privates 
were kept in camps—on Belle Isle, in the James River, at Rich¬ 
mond ; at Salisbury, N. C. ; at Florence, S. C.; at Tyler, Tex.; 
and at Andersonville and Millen, Ga. Most of these were 
simply open stockades, with little or no shelter. That at 
Andersonville enclosed about twenty acres, afterward enlarged 
to thirty. The palisade was of pine logs, fifteen feet high, set 
close together. Outside of this, at a distance of a hundred and 
twenty feet, was another palisade, and between the two were the 
guards. Inside of the inner stockade, and about twenty feet 
from it, was a slight railing known as the “ dead line,” since any 
prisoner that passed it, or even approached it too closely, was 
immediately shot. A small stream flowed sluggishly through 
the enclosure, and furnished the prisoners their only supply of 
water for washing, drinking, or cooking. The cook-houses and 
camp of the guards were placed on this stream, above the stock¬ 
ade. There was plenty of timber in sight from the prison, yet 
no shelter was furnished inside of the stockade, except such as 
the prisoners could make with the few blankets they possessed. 
Their rations were often issued to them uncooked, and they 
burrowed in the ground for roots with which to make a little 
fire. The stream was soon polluted, and its banks became a 
mass of mire and filth. A common exclamation of newly 
arrived prisoners, as they entered the appalling place, was, “ Is 
this hell ?” 

It is said that the Confederate general, John H. Winder, under 
whose direction the stockade was built, was asked to leave a 

few trees inside of 


to replace 
General Win¬ 
der by a more 
humane offi¬ 
cer, they an¬ 
swered by 
promoting 
Winder to the 
place of com¬ 
missar y-gen¬ 
eral of all the 
prisoners. 

One of the 
prisoners, 

Robert H. 

Kellogg, ser¬ 
geant-major 
of the S i x- 
teenth Con¬ 
necticut Regi- "CASTLE THUNDER," RICHMOND, VA. 

m e IT t , who (In this building Union prisoners were confined.) 

was taken to 

Andersonville when it had been in use about two months, says 
in his diary: “As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes 
that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts 
within fail us. Before us were forms that had once been 
active and erect, stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking 
skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. In the centre was 
a swamp occupying three or four acres of the narrowed limits, 
and a part of this marshy place had been used by the pris¬ 
oners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent 
arising from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to 
our ninety was near the edge of this plague spot, and how 
we were to live through the warm summer weather in the 
midst of such fearful surroundings was more than we cared to 
think of just then. No shelter was provided for us by the rebel 
authorities, and we therefore went to work to provide for our¬ 
selves. Eleven of us combined to form a family. For the 
small sum of two dollars in greenbacks we purchased eight 
small saplings, eight or nine feet long. These we bent and 
made fast in the ground, and, covering them with our blankets, 
made a tent with an oval roof, about thirteen feet long. We 
needed the blankets for our protection from the cold at night, 
but concluded it to be quite as essential to our comfort to shut 
out the rain. There were ten deaths on our side of the camp 
that night. The old prisoners called it ‘being exchanged,’ and 
truly it was a blessed transformation.” 

At one time there were thirty-three thousand prisoners in the 
stockade, which gave a space about four feet square to each man. 
The whole number sent there was about forty-nine thousand 
five hundred, of whom nearly thirteen thousand died. At 
Salisbury prison the deaths were thirteen per cent, a month, 
and at Florence twelve per cent. Most of the deaths were from 
disease and starvation, but there were numerous murders. It 
was said that every sentry, on shooting a prisoner for violation 
of rules, received a month’s furlough ; and this was corroborated 
by the alacrity with which they seized any pretext for firing. 
In Libby, men were often shot for approaching near enough to 
a window for the sentry to see their heads. In Andersonville 
one was shot for crawling out to secure a small piece of wood 
that lay near the dead-line ; and there were many incidents of 
that kind. Some of the men became deranged or desperate, and 


it, and erect some 
sheds for the shelter 
of the prisoners, but 
he answered, “No! 
I am going to build 
the pen so as to de¬ 
stroy more Yankees 
than can be de- 
stroyedat thefront.” 
Winder’s well- 
k n o w n character, 
the place chosen for 
the stockade, all its 
arrangements, and 
the manner in which 
it was kept, leave no 
reasonable doubt 
that such was the 
purpose. When Mr. 
Davis and his cabi¬ 
net were appealed 
to by the Confeder¬ 
ate inspector of 
prisons, and others, 


MAJOR R. R. TURNER, C. S. A. 
(Keeper of Libby Prison.) 










322 


CAMPFIRE, AND BA TTLEFIELD. 



CAMP DOUGLAS, AT CHICAGO. ^Confederate prisoners were confined here.) 


deliberately walked up to the dead-line for the purpose of 
being put out of their misery. There were many escapes 
from these prisons; but the fugitives were generally soon 
missed, and were followed by fleet horsemen and often 
tracked by bloodhounds, and though they were always be¬ 
friended by the negroes, who fed them, concealed them by 
day, and guided them at night, but few ultimately' reached 
the National lines. 

A captain in the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Regiment, who was 
a prisoner in the hands of the Confederates, gives this leaf from 
his experience : “ During the night of July 27, 1864, while several 
hundred of my brother officers were being transported from 
Macon to Charleston by rail. Captain Kellogg, of Wisconsin, 
Ensign Stoner, of New York, Ensign Smith, now of Washington, 
Lieut. E. P. Brooks, of Washington, Paymaster Billings, of the 
United States Navy, and myself, jumped from a car and escaped 
to the swamp, through which we hardly' thought an alligator 
could have followed us. Late in the afternoon of the second 
day r , however, we heard the deep bay'ing of the dogs, and soon 
we were surrounded with dogs, which we held at bay' with stout 
clubs until the two fiendish hunters had called them off. Before 
starting on our weary march back to that dread imprisonment, 
one of our captors took occasion to say: * It’s a good thing for 
you-uns that our catch-dogs gave out half a mile back, for I 
reckon they’d a tored you-uns up ’fore we-uns got thare.’ He 
said the dogs that recaptured us were a mixture between the 
fox-hound and the beagle-dog, but that the large, brutish catch- 
doss were a cross between the full South American bloodhound 
and the bull-dog. He said he kept two large packs of these dogs, 
with quite a number of catch-dogs, or bloodhounds, at Ham¬ 
burg, which he hired out for the purpose of hunting escaped 
Yankee prisoners and runaway' niggers. I saw Captain Holmes, 
of St. Louis, Mo., a prisoner of war at Macon, Ga., in July, 1864, 
who had been fearfully mangled and torn bv a catch-dog in 
Alabama while he was trying to escape. I frequently saw two 


large South American bloodhounds outside of the stockade at 
Macon. At Andersonville they had a large pack of blood¬ 
hounds.” 

The crowded condition of the prisons in 1864 was owing to 
the fact that exchanges had been discontinued. A cartel for 
the exchange of prisoners had been in operation for some time; 
but when it was found that the Confederate authorities had 
determined not to exchange any black soldiers, or their white 
officers, captured in battle, the L T nited States Government re¬ 
fused to exchange at all, being bound to protect equally all who 
had entered its service. Paroling prisoners on the field was also 
discontinued, because the Confederates could not be trusted to 
observe their parole. There had been much complaint that 
Confederate officers and soldiers violated their word in this 
respect, either because in their intense hatred of the North they 
could not realize that they were bound by' any' promise given to 
it, or because their own Government forced them back into its 
service. Many of them were captured with arms in their hands, 
while they were still under parole from a previous capture. All 
such, by' the laws of war, might have been summarily executed, 
but none of them were. The thirty- thousand taken by' Grant at 
Vicksburg, and the six thousand taken by' Banks at Port Hud¬ 
son, in July', 1863, were released on parole, because the cartel 
designated two points for delivery- of prisoners—Vicksburg in 
the West, and Aiken’s Landing, Va., in the East—and Vicks¬ 
burg, having been captured, was no longer available for this pur¬ 
pose, and Aiken’s Landing was too far away. Three months 
later, the Confederate armies being in want of reinforcements, 
Colonel Ould, Confederate commissioner of exchange, raised the 
technical point that the prisoners captured by- Grant and Banks 
had not been delivered at a place mentioned in the cartel, and 
therefore he declared them all released from their parole, and 
they-were restored to the ranks. At Chattanooga, in November, 
Grant's army captured large numbers from Bragg’s army' whom 
they had captured in July with Pemberton and had released on 

















































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIE LD. 


323 


a solemn promise that they would not take up arms again until 
properly exchanged. 

Other difficulties arose to complicate still further the question 
of exchanges. At one time the Confederate authorities refused 
to make any but a general exchange—all held by either side to 
be liberated—which the National Government declined, since it 
held an excess of about forty thousand. It was observed, also, 
when partial exchanges were effected, that the men returning 
from Southern prisons were nearly all wasted to skeletons and 
unfit for further .service, while the Confederates returning from 
Northern prisons were well clothed, well fed, and generally in 
good health. Photographs of the emaciated men from Anderson- 
ville and Belle Isle were exhibited throughout the North, and 
caused more of horror than the report from any battlefield. 
Engravings from them were published, in the summer of 1864, 
by newspapers of both parties, for opposite purposes—the Re¬ 
publican, to prove the barbarity of the Confederate authorities 
and the atrocious spirit of the rebellion ; the Democratic, to 
prove that President Lincoln was a monster of cruelty in that he 
did not waive all questions at issue and consent to a general 
exchange. At a later period, the Confederate authorities, being 
badly in need of men to fill up their depleted armies, offered to 
give up their point about black soldiers, and exchange man for 
man—or rather skeleton for man—without regard to color. But 
as the war was nearing its close, and to do this would have rein¬ 
forced the Southern armies with some thousands of strong and 
well-fed troops, and prolonged the struggle, the National Govern¬ 
ment refused. Efforts were made, both by the Government and 
by the Sanitary Commission, to send food, clothing, and medical 
supplies to those confined in the Confederate prisons; but only 
a small portion of these things ever reached the men for whom 
they were intended. At Libby Prison, at one time, boxes for 
the prisoners arrived at the rate of three hundred a week ; but 
instead of being distributed they were piled up in warehouses 
insight of the hungry and shivering captives, where they were 
plundered by the guards and by the poorer inhabitants of the 
city. In one case, a lieutenant among the prisoners saw his own 
home-made suit of clothes on a prison official, and pointed out 
his name embroidered on the watch-pocket.* 

The total number of soldiers and citizens captured by the 
Confederate armies during the war was 188,145, and it is esti¬ 
mated that about half of them were actually confined in prisons. 
The number of deaths in those prisons was 36,401. The num¬ 
ber of Confederates captured by the National forces was 476,169, 
of whom 227,570 were actually confined. The percentage of 

* See “ Narrative of Privations and Sufferings of United States Officers and 
Soldiers while Prisoners of War in the Hands of the Rebel Authorities. Being the 
Report of a Commission of Inquiry Appointed by the United States Sanitary Com¬ 
mission. With an Appendix containing the Testimony.” (1S64.) Valentine Mott, 
M.D., was chairman of the commission. 


mortality in the Confederate prisons was over 38 ; in the National 
prisons it was 13.3. 

There has been much acrimonious controversy over this ques¬ 
tion of the prisoners, and attempts have been made, by juggling 
with the figures, to prove that they were as badly treated in 
Northern as in Southern prisons. The most plausible excuse 
for the starving of captives at the South is in the assertion that 
the Confederate army was on short allowance at the same time. 
It is a sorrowful subject in any aspect, and presents complicated 
questions; but if it is to be discussed at all, several principles 
should be kept in view, some of which appear to have been lost 
sight of. No belligerent is under any obligation to enter into a 
cartel for the exchange of prisoners. In the war of 1812-15, 
between the United States and Great Britain, there were no 
exchanges till the close of the contest. Every belligerent that 
takes prisoners is bound by the laws of war to treat them well, 
since they are no longer combatants. A belligerent that has 
not the means of caring properly for prisoners is in so far with¬ 
out the means of carrying on civilized warfare, and therefore 
comes so far short of possessing the right to make war at all. 
Every time a soldier is put out of the combat by being made a 
prisoner instead of being shot, so much is gained for the cause 
of humanity; and if all prisoners could be cared for properly, 
the most humane way of conducting a war would be to make no 
exchanges, since these reinforce both sides, prolong the contest, 
and increase the mortality in the field. 

Whatever may be said of individual experiences in the prisons, 
North or South, and whatever may have been the brutality, or 
the humanity, of this or that keeper, one great fact overtops 
everything and settles the main question of the treatment of 
prisoners beyond dispute. The prisons at the South were open 
stockades, with no building of any kind inside, no tree, no tent, 
no shelter furnished for the prisoners from sun or rain, not 
even the simplest sanitary arrangements, and an enormous num¬ 
ber of prisoners were crowded into them. At Belle Isle the 
prisoners were packed so close that when they lay sleeping no 
one could turn over until the whole line agreed to turn simul¬ 
taneously. On the other hand, the Northern prisons contained 
buildings for the shelter of the prisoners, with bunks as com¬ 
fortable as in any barracks, and stoves to heat them in cold 
weather, while the sanitary arrangements were carefully looked 
after, and good rations issued regularly. It is impossible to look 
upon these contrasted pictures and not say that it was the inten¬ 
tion of the one Government that its prisoners should suffer as 
much as possible, and the intention of the other Government 
that its prisoners should be made as comfortable as prisoners in 
large numbers ever can be. 

S A 























324 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE SANITARY AND CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS. 

WOMEN IN THE WAR—SANITARY COMMISSION FORMED—THE PUBLIC 
IDEA ABOUT IT—WORK OF THE COMMISSION—SANITARY FAIRS— 
THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION—VOLUNTARY NURSES—THE VAST 
AMOUNT OF WORK DONE BY WOMEN IN HOSPITALS—MISS DORO¬ 
THEA L. DIX, MISS ALCOTT, AND MANY OTHERS. 

The ancient sarcasm, that women have caused many of the 
bloodiest of wars, was largely disarmed by the part they played 
in the war of secession. Their contribution to the comfort and 
efficiency of the armies in the 
field, and to the care of the sick 
and wounded soldiers, was on 
the same vast scale as the war 
itself. Their attempts to assist 
the cause began with the first 
call for volunteers, and were as 
awkward and unskilled as the 
green regiments that they 
equipped and encouraged. But 
as their brothers learned the art 
of war, they kept even pace in 
learning the arts that alleviate 
its sufferings. When the Presi¬ 
dent issued the first call for 
troops, in April, 1861, the women 
in many places held meetings to 
confer as to the best methods by 
which they could assist, and to 
organize their efforts and re¬ 
sources. The statement of the 
objects of one of these organiza¬ 
tions suggests some conception 
of the contingencies of war in a 
country that for nearly half a 
century had known almost un¬ 
broken peace : “To supply nurses 
for the sick ; to bring them home 
when practicable; to purchase clothing, provisions, and 
matters of comfort not supplied by Government regulations; to 
send books and newspapers to the camps; and to hold constant 
communication with the officers of the regiments, in order that 
the people may be kept informed of the condition of their 
friends.” 

On one of the last days in April, the Rev. Dr. Henry W. Bel¬ 
lows and Dr. Elisha Harris met casually in the street in New 
York, and fell into conversation concerning the evident need of 
sanitary measures for the armies that were then mustering. 
They agreed to attend a meeting of women that had been called 
to discuss that subject, and from that meeting a call was issued 
to all the existing organizations of women for a general meet¬ 
ing to be held in Cooper Union. This invitation, which furnished 
the basis on which the Sanitary Commission was afterward 
formed, was signed by ninety-two women. The hall was crowded, 
and the Women’s Central Association of Relief was organized, 
under a constitution written by Dr. Bellows, who was chosen 


its president. A committee was sent to Washington to offer the 
services of the organization to the Government, and learn in 
what way they could be most effective. This committee, con¬ 
sisting of Dr. Bellows and three eminent physicians—Drs. Van 
Buren, Harsen, and Harris—presented to the War Department 
an address whose suggestions were based largely upon the 
experience of the British forces in the Crimean war of 1854— 55 * 
Being sent by women who were overflowing with patriotic en¬ 
thusiasm, to officials who were jealous and distrustful of every¬ 
thing outside of the regulations, they had a difficult and delicate 
task. The Government was already embarrassed somewhat in 
the adjustment of authority between regular and volunteer offi¬ 
cers, and dreaded a further complication if a third element of 
civilian authority should be introduced. Even Mr. Lincoln is said 
to have spoken slightingly of their proposition as a fifth wheel to 
a coach. General Scott received the committee kindly, but was 
not willing to give the proposed commission any authority. He 
would, however, consent to their acting in an advisory capacity, 
provided the head of the medical bureau agreed. After an inter¬ 
view with Acting Surgeon-General Wood, they obtained 

his consent to the formation of a 
“ commission of 
inquiry and advice 
in respect to the 
sanitary interests 
of the United 
States forces,” and 
he also wrote a 
letter commending 
the project to the 
other officers whose 
consent was neces¬ 
sary. Most of these 
officers looked upon 
the project with dis¬ 
trust and suspicion, 
and at length the com¬ 
mittee were asked to 
“ tell outright what they 
really did want, under 
this benevolent dis¬ 
guise.” After fighting 
their way through these 
obstacles, the committee 
met with a misfortune in 
the death of Surgeon-Gen¬ 
eral Lawson. His successor, Dr. Clement A. Finley, frowned 
upon the whole matter, but after a long struggle was induced 
to tolerate a commission that should not be clothed with any 
authority, and should act only in connection with officers of the 
volunteer army. 

Finally, on June 13, 1861, the committee received from 
President Lincoln and Secretary of War Simon Cameron an 
order authorizing them to form an association for “ inquiry and 
advice in respect to the sanitary interests of the United States.” 
Their first work was to bring about a re-inspection of the 
volunteer forces, which resulted in the discharge of many boys 
and physically unsound men who had been accepted and mus¬ 
tered in through carelessness. When the committee returned 
to New York, the fact that there was a wide popular demand 
for the establishment of such an organization as they had pro¬ 
posed was made evident through articles in the newspapers, 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


325 


opinions of physicians, and a multitude of letters from all parts 
of the country. Dr. Bellows was made president of the Com¬ 
mission, Frederick Law Olmsted secretary, and George T. 
Strong treasurer, and with them were associated a score of well- 
known men, including several eminent physicians. In the 
organization, the first division of the duties of the Commission 
was into two departments—those of Inquiry and Advice. The 
Department of Inquiry was subdivided into three—the first, to 
have charge of such immediate aid and obvious recommenda¬ 
tions as an ordinary knowledge of the principles of sanitary 
science would enable the board to urge upon the authorities; 
the second, to have charge of the inspection of recruiting stations! 
transports, camps, and hospitals, and to consult with military 
officers as to the condition and wants of their men ; the third, to 
investigate questions of cleanliness, cooking, clothing, surgical 
dressings, malaria, climate, etc. The Department of Advice was 
also subdivided. The general object was “ to get the opinions 
and conclusions of the Commission approved by the Medical 
Bureau, ordered by the War Department, and acted upon by 
officers and men.” One sub-committee was in direct com¬ 
munication with the War Department, another with army 
officers, and a third with the State governments and the local 
associations. 

The popular idea of the Sanitary Commission seemed to be 
that its chief purpose was to form depots for receiving supplies 
of clothing, medicines, and delicacies for the camps and hospitals, 
and forwarding them safely and speedily. And this part of the 
work soon grew to proportions that had never been contemplated. 
The Commission issued an address “ to the loyal women of 
America,” urging the formation of local societies for providing 
these articles, and in response more than seven thousand such 
societies were organized. They were managed entirely by 
women, and were all tributary to the Sanitary Commission. Of 
the fifteen million dollars’ worth of articles received and dis¬ 
tributed, more than four-fifths came from these local societies. 
The Commission was managed as nearly as possible in accordance 
with military ideas of discipline and precision. Every request 
that the stores furnished by a State or city might be con¬ 
veyed to its own regiments was met with the answer that all was 
for the nation and must be turned in to the general store. The 
Commission rapidly disarmed prejudice, and won the admiration 
of everybody in the military service. It employed skilled men 
to cooperate with the regimental surgeons in choosing sites for 
camps, regulating the drainage, and inspecting the cooking. It 
constructed model pavilion hospitals, to prevent the spread of 
contagion. It established a system of soldiers' homes, where the 
sick and the convalescent could be provided for on their way 
back and forth between their homes and the front, and where 
whole regiments were sometimes fed when their own com¬ 
missariat failed them. It fitted up hospital steamers on the 
Mississippi and its tributaries, with surgeons and nurses on 
board, to ply between the seat of war and the points from which 
Northern hospitals could be reached. Dr. Elisha Harris, of 
the Commission, invented a hospital car, in which the stretcher 
on which a wounded man was brought from the field could be 
suspended and thus become a sort of hammock. The cars were 
built with extra springs, to diminish the jolting as much as 
possible, and trains of them were run regularly, with physicians 
and stores on board, until the plan was adopted by the Govern¬ 
ment Medical Bureau. Supplies were constantly furnished in 
abundance, and the Commission established depots at conven¬ 
ient points, where the articles were assorted and labelled, and 


the army officials were kept constantly informed that such and 
such things, in such and such quantities, were subject to their 
requisition. When it was found difficult to transport fresh 
vegetables from distant points, the Commission laid out gardens 
of its own, where vegetables were raised for the use of the 
soldiers in the field. The Commission also had its own horses 
and wagons, which followed the armies to the battlefield, carrying 
supplies that were often welcome when those of the medical 
department were exhausted or had gone astray. After the 
battle of the Antietam, when ten thousand wounded lay on the 
field, the train containing the medical stores was blocked near 
Baltimore; but the wagon-train of the Sanitary Commission had 
been following the army, and for four days the only supplies 
were those that it furnished. On this occasion it issued over 
twenty-eight thousand shirts, towels, pillows, etc., thirty barrels 
of lint and bandages, over three thousand pounds of farina, over 
two thousand pounds of condensed milk, five thousand pounds 
of beef stock and canned meats, three thousand bottles of wine 
and cordial, several tons of lemons, and crackers, tea, sugar, 
rubber cloth, tin cups, and other conveniences. In the course of 
the war, the Commission furnished four million five hundred 
thousand meals to sick and hungry soldiers. In many instances, 
notably at the second battle of Bull Run and at the assault on 
Fort Wagner, the agents of the Commission were on the actual 
battlefield with their supplies, and were close at the front rescu¬ 
ing the wounded. At Fort Wagner they followed up the storm¬ 
ing party to the moat. 

A large part of the money and supplies was raised by means 
of fairs held in nearly every city, and the generosity exhibited 
in a thousand different ways was something for the nation to be 
forever proud of. Those who could not give cash gave all sorts 
of things—horses, cows, carriages, watches, diamonds, books, 
pictures, curiosities, and every conceivable article. The managers 
would be informed that a farmer was at the door with a cow, 
which he wished to give, and some person would be deputed to 
take the cow and find a stable for her until she could be sold. 
Another would appear with a portion of his crops. Men and 
women of note were asked to furnish their autographs for sale, 
and papers were printed, made up of original contributions by 
well-known authors. The sales were largely by auction, and rich 
men would bid off articles at high prices, and then give them 
back to be sold over again. The amount of cash received by the 
Commission was over four million nine hundred thousand dollars. 
The State of California, which was farthest from the seat of war, 
and contributed but few men to the armies, sent more than one 
million three hundred thousand dollars. The value of articles 
received by the Commission was estimated at fifteen million 
dollars. It established convalescent camps, which were after¬ 
ward taken by the Government, and a system of hospital direc¬ 
tories, and a pension bureau and claim agency, by which soldiers’ 
claims were prosecuted free of charge. From beginning to end 
there was never a deficit or irregularity of any kind in its 
finances. 

At the beginning of the war, many of the volunteers were 
members of the Young Men’s Christian Association, and through 
these an especial solicitude was felt in that organization for the 
spiritual needs of the soldiers. Almost as soon as the first call 
for troops was made, measures were taken to supply every 
regiment with religious reading-matter, prayer-meetings were 
held at the recruiting stations, and a soldiers’ hymn-book was 
compiled and printed by thousands. When the army began to 
move, men volunteered to go with it, at their own expense, and 


326 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



continue this work. One of these was Vincent Colyer, the artist, 
who, after spending ten weeks in the field, wrote to the chairman 
of the national committee of the Association, urging the forma¬ 
tion of a Christian Commission to carry on the work systemati¬ 
cally. As a result, such a commission was organized on November 
14, 1861. The approval of the President and the War Depart¬ 
ment was obtained more readily than in the case of the Sanitary 
Commission, but the appeal to the people did not elicit any 
immediate enthusiasm. Even the religious press was in some 


OFFICERS OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 

(From a War-time Photograph.) 

instances distrustful and discouraging. For nearly a year the 
means of the Commission were limited, and its work was feeble. 
In May, 1862, after an earnest address to the public, it was 
enabled to equip and send out fourteen delegates, as they were 
called, ten of whom were clergymen. By the end of that year, 
they had sent four hundred to the army, and had more than a 
thousand engaged in the home work. They had distributed in 
the armies more than a hundred thousand Bibles, as many hymn- 
books, tens of thousands of other books, ten million leaflets, and 
hundreds of thousands of papers and magazines; they had 
formed twenty-three libraries, expended over a hundred and 
forty thousand dollars in money, and distributed an equal value 
in stores. 

At the close of the second year the Commission had one hun¬ 
dred and eleven auxiliary associations, and the work in the field 
was more perfectly organized. General Grant, then in command 
in the West, issued a special order giving the Commission every 
opportunity for the prosecution of its work, and tried, but in vain, 
to obtain permission for its delegates to visit the National soldiers 
in Confederate prisons. George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, was 
chairman of the executive committee, Joseph Patterson treas¬ 
urer, and Lemuel Moss secretary. The work increased rapidly. 
Chapel tents and chapel roofs were furnished to the armies, diet 


kitchens were established in the hospitals, the service called 
“ individual relief ” was extended, and schools were opened for 
children of colored soldiers. Thousands of letters were written 
for disabled men in the hospitals, and thousands of packages for¬ 
warded to the camps. Jacob Dunton, of Philadelphia, invented 
a “ coffee wagon ” and presented it to the Commission. Coffee 
could be made in it in large quantities, as it was driven along. 
Like the Sanitary Commission, the Christian Commission had its 
own teams, and followed the armies with medical supplies. In 

the course of its existence, 
it sent out in all six thou¬ 
sand delegates, none of 
whom received any pay. 
One hundred and twenty of 
these were women employed 
mainly in the diet kitchens. 

There were also many 
women in the service of the 
Government as volunteer 
nurses. The first of these 
was Miss Dorothea L. Dix, 
who offered her services 


eight days after the 
call for troops in 
April, 1861, and was 
accepted by the Sur¬ 
geon-Gen eral, who re¬ 
quested that all women 
wishing to act as nurses re¬ 
port to her. Miss Dix served rev. dr. henry w. bellows. 
thiough the war. Miss Amy (President of the Sanitary Commission.) 

Bradley, besides having charge 

of a large camp for convalescents near Alexandria, Va., assisted 
twenty-two hundred men in collecting arrears of pay due them, 
amounting to over two hundred thousand dollars. Arabella 
Griffith Barlow, wife of the gallant General Francis C. Barlow, 
spent three years in hospitals at the front, and died in the ser¬ 
vice. Miss Clara Barton entered upon hospital work at the 
beginning of the war, had charge of the hospitals of the Army 
of the James during its last year, and after the war undertook 
the search for the missing men of the National armies. Miss 
Louisa M. Alcott, author of “ Little Women,” served as a nurse, 
and published her experiences in a volume entitled “ Hospital 
Sketches.” Many other women, less noted, performed long and 
arduous service, which in some cases cost them their lives, for 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


327 


which they live in the grateful remembrance of those who came 
under their care. 

Among these was Miss Helen L. Gilson, a teacher in Boston, 
who gave this answer to an inquiry as to how she succeeded in 
getting into the work: “ When I reached White House Landing 
I saw the transport Wilson Small in the offing, and knew that it 
was full of wounded men ; so, calling a boatman, and directing 
him to row me to the vessel, I went on board. A poor fellow 
was undergoing an amputation, and, seeing that the surgeon 
wanted help, I took hold of the limb and held it for him. The 
surgeon looked up, at first surprised, then said, ‘ Thank you,’ 
and I stayed and helped him. Then I went on with him to the 


its close, probably from the effects of her arduous work, at the 
age of thirty-two. 

Besides the labors of such women in the field hospitals, a vast 
amount of similar and quite as useful work was done by a great 
number of women in the hospitals at various points in the 
Northern States, whither the wounded were sent as soon as they 
could be removed. A peculiarly sad and romantic case was that 
of Margaret Augusta Peterson, a young lady of brilliant promise, 
who entered upon service in a large hospital at Rochester, N. Y., 
refused to leave it when there was an outbreak of small-pox, say¬ 
ing she was then needed more than ever, and lost her life, at the 
age of twenty-three, from some dreadful mistake in the vaccina- 



L hr ■ mi" 



\ Mi 

A 

A 

■ 


HEADQUARTERS OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 
(From a War-time Photograph.) 


next case; he made no objection, and from that time I never 
had any difficulty there.” 

Dr. Bellows, president of the Sanitary Commission, writing 
of his experiences on the field of Gettysburg, said : “ I went out 
to the field hospital of the Third Corps, where two thousand 
four hundred men lay in their tents, a vast camp of mutilated 
humanity. One woman [Miss Gilson], young and fail, but gra\ c 
and earnest, clothed in purity and mercy—the only woman on 
that whole vast camp—moved in and out of the hospital tent, 
speaking some tender word, giving some restoring cordial, hold¬ 
ing the hand of a dying boy, or receiving the last words of a 
husband for his widowed wife. I can never forget how, amid 
scenes which under ordinary circumstances no woman could 
have appeared in without gross indecorum, the holy pity and 
purity of this angel of mercy made her presence seem as fit as 
though she had indeed dropped out of heaven. The men 
themselves, sick or well, all seemed awed and purified by such 
a resident among them.” Miss Gilson continued her labors 
unremittingly through the war, and died about two years after 


And between the spring and the summer time, 
Or ever the lilac’s bloom is shed, 

When they come witli banners and wreaths and 
rhyme, 

To deck the tombs of the nation’s dead, 

They find there a little flag in the grass. 

And fling a handful of roses down, 

And pause a moment before they pass 

To the captain’s grave with the gilded crown. 

But if perchance they seek to recall 

What name, what deeds, these honors declare, 

They cannot tell, they are silent all 

As the noiseless harebell nodding there. 



tion. Her story, which had other romantic elements, is told 
literally in this poem : 

Through the sombre arch of that gateway tower 
Where my humblest townsman rides at last, 
You may spy the bells of a nodding flower, 

On a double mound that is thickly grassed. 


Margaret Augusta Peterson. 























328 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


She was tall, with an almost manly grace ; 

And young, with strange wisdom for one so young ; 

And fair, with more than a woman's face ; 

With dark, deep eyes, and a mirthful tongue. 

Tiie poor and the fatherless knew her smile ; 

The friend in sorrow had seen her tears ; 

She had studied the ways of the rough world’s guile, 
And read the romance of historic years. 

What she might have been in these times of ours, 

At once it is easy and hard to guess; 

For always a riddle are half-used powers, 

And always a power is lovingness. 

But her fortunes fell upon evil days— 

If days are evil when evil dies— 

And she was not one who could stand at gaze 
Where the hopes of humanity fall and rise. 

Nor could she dance to the viol’s tune, 

When the drum was throbbing throughout the land, 

Or dream in the light of the summer moon, 

When Treason was clinching his mailfed hand. 

Through the long, gray hospital’s corridor 
She journeyed many a mournful league, 

And her light foot fell on the oaken floor 
As if it never could know fatigue. 

She stood by the good old surgeon’s side, 

And the sufferers smiled as they saw her stand; 

She wrote, and the mothers marvelled and cried 
At their darling soldiers’ feminine hand. 

She was last in the ward when the lights burned low, 
And Sleep called a truce to his foeman Pain ; 

At the midnight cry she was first to go, 

To bind up the bleeding wound again. 

For sometimes the wreck of a man would rise, 

Weird and gaunt in the watch-lamp’s gleam, 

And tear away bandage and splints and ties, 

Fighting the battle all o’er in his dream. 


No wonder the youngest surgeon felt 

A charm in the presence of that brave soul, 

Through weary weeks, as she nightly knelt 

With the letter from home or the doctor’s dole. 

He heard her called, and he heard her blessed, 
With many a patriot’s parting breath ; 

And ere his soul to itself confessed. 

Love leaped to life in those vigils of death. 

“ Oh, fly to your home !” came a whisper dread, 
“For now the pestilence walks by night.” 

“ The greater the need of me here,” she said, 

And bared her arm for the lancet’s bite. 

Was there death, green death, in the atmosphere ? 
Was the bright steel poisoned ? Who can tell ? 

Her weeping friends gathered beside her bier, 
And the clergyman told them all was well. 

Well—alas that it should be so ! 

When a nation’s debt reaches reckoning-day— 

Well for it to be able, but woo 
To the generation that’s called to pay! 

Down from the long, gray hospital came 

Every boy in blue who could walk the floor; 

The sick and the wounded, the blind and lame. 
Formed two long files from her father’s door. 

There was grief in many a manly breast, 

While men’s tears fell as the coffin passed ; 

And thus she went to the world of rest, 

Martial and maidenly up to the last. 

And that youngest surgeon, was he to blame ?— 
He held the lancet—Heaven only knows. 

No matter ; his heart broke all the same, 

And he laid him down, and never arose. 

So Death received, in his greedy hand, 

Two precious coins of the awful price 

That purchased freedom for this dear land— 

For master and bondman—yea, bought it twice. 


Such fates too often such women are for ! 

God grant the Republic a large increase, 
To match the heroes in time of war, 

And mother the children in time of peace. 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 




CHAPTER XXX. 

MINOR EVENTS OF THE THIRD YEAR. 

BANDS OF GUERILLAS IN VIRGINIA AND THF. EAST—UNSUCCESSFUL 
ATTEMPTS TO CAPTURE MOSBY—IMPORTANT ACTION AT WAP- 

PING HEIGHTS-NUMEROUS ENGAGEMENTS IN THE SHENANDOAH 

VALLEY AND ON THE SLOPES OF THE BLUE RIDGE—MINOR EN¬ 
GAGEMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE PURSUIT OF LEE’S ARMY 

AFTER GETTYSBURG—MINOR ENGAGEMENTS IN WEST VIRGINIA- 

INVASION OF KENTUCKY BY CONFEDERATES UNDER GENERAL 

PEGRAM-THE CONFEDERATES’ ATTEMPT TO RECAPTURE FORT 

DONELSON-NUMEROUS SMALL BATTLES IN TENNESSEE-LOYALTY 

OF THE PEOPLE OF EASTERN TENNESSEE AND WESTERN NORTH 
CAROLINA—BATTLES AT FAYETTEVILLE, BATESVILLE, AND HEL¬ 
ENA, ARK.-OPERATIONS UNDER THE CONFEDERATE GENERAL 

MARMADUKE IN MISSOURI—SACKING AND BURNING OF LAWRENCE, 

KAN. - CRUELTIES PRACTISED BY CONFEDERATE GUERILLAS 

UNDER QUANTRELL AND OTHERS—CAPTURE OF GALVESTON, 

TEXAS, BY THE CONFEDERATES-MILITARY OPERATIONS AGAINST 

THE INDIANS. 

SOME of the smaller engagements of the year 1863 were so 
closely connected with the great movements that they have been 
described in the chapters devoted to those campaigns. Others 
were isolated from any such connection, and the more notable 
of them are here grouped in a chapter by themselves. 

Suffolk, Va., on Nansemont River, southwest of Portsmouth, 
was held by a National force that included the Eighty-ninth and 
One Hundred and Twelfth New York Regiments, and the 
Eighth and Sixteenth Connecticut. An amusing story is told 
in the “ History of the Sixteenth Connecticut,” of its adventures 
when it first reached Suffolk. It arrived in a dark night, the 
men not knowing which way to go, or what they would find 
when they stepped out of the train, and most of their officers 
having been left behind by accident. Setting out through the 
darkness, they first tumbled down a steep embankment, then 
into a deep brook, and finally brought up against a rail fence. 



A GROCERY STORE IN SOUTHERN VIRGINIA. 

Tearing this down, they found themselves in a field, and set 
about hunting fuel for a fire. Some of them, groping in the 
darkness, came upon a house which they supposed to be unin¬ 
habited, and, beginning at the bottom, pulled off all the clap¬ 
boards as high as they could reach. When daylight came they 
discovered that it was a handsome white house inhabited by the 
owner and his family, who presently appeared on the scene and 
produced a tableau. In the darkness one of the men had bored 
a hole into a barrel of coffee, which he supposed was whiskey, 
and was found shaking it violently and wondering why it did 
not run. Sunlight showed them that they were on the outskirts 
of the town, and immediately the One Hundred and Twelfth 
New York came to their relief with hot coffee, etc. Suffolk 
really had very little military importance, and yet it was the sub¬ 
ject of considerable fighting. Gen. John J. Peck commanded the 
National forces, and was subjected to much elaborate ridicule 
for the extent to which he fortified the place. In January the 
Confederates made an attack, and after some fighting were 
driven off, and, with the assistance of the gunboats, six guns 
and two hundred of their men were captured. In April a 
siege was begun by General Longstreet, who failed in an at¬ 
tempt to carry the place by surprise, and then constructed 
earthworks, intending to bombard it ; but, as soon as he opened 
fire from them, his guns were silenced by the gunboats on the 
river and the heavy artillery in the National works. Early in 
May he was needed to assist General Lee in the impending con¬ 
flict of Chancellorsville, and slowly drew off his men from Suffolk, 

























































































BATTLE OF VERMILION BAYOU, LA 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


331 


when Generals Getty and Harland sallied out from that place 
with a column of seven thousand men and attacked his powerful 
rear guard. A sharp action ensued, which resulted in no imme¬ 
diate advantage to either side, but in the night the Confederates 
left the field. Some stragglers were captured, but otherwise 
there was no definite result except that the siege was raised. 

Guerilla bands, so numerous at the West, were few at the 
East, the most noted being one led by John S. Mosby. In 
March he made a daring midnight raid with a few of his men on 
Fairfax Court House, Va., and captured and carried off Brigadier- 
General Stoughton, two captains, and thirty men, with about 
sixty horses. In May he approached Warrenton Junction with 
about three hundred men and attacked a small cavalry force there. 
The National soldiers were feeding their horses and did not 
have time to mount, but made a gallant resistance on foot, until 
they were overcome by numbers. The Fifth New York cavalry 
then came up, and, sabre in hand, charging upon the guerillas, 
killed and scattered many, and wounded the rest, except a few 
whom they captured. Among the killed was a Confederate spy 
who had just come from Washington and had in his possession 
many important documents. Again, at Kettle Run, Mosby 
attacked a railway train that was loaded with forage. When the 
firing was heard, the Fifth and First Vermont cavalry set out from 
Fairfax Court House and soon came up with the enemy. His 
one howitzer was captured in a gallant charge, and a considerable 
number of his men were killed. It was said that as fast as the 
band was depleted by the casualties of battle it was filled up 
with picked men sent from the Confederate army. 

Several attempts were made to capture Mosby, but although 
there was an occasional fight with his band, and a considerable 
number of his followers fell, he himself eluded captivity till the 
end of the war, when he issued an order announcing to his men 
that he was no longer their commander, and they dispersed. 
The difficulty of capturing a small mounted force, which is 
irresponsible and has no mission but to roam in a lawless way 
over a country like that of Virginia, must be always exceedingly 
great; but there was one opportunity to capture Mosby and his 
band which would have been successful had the affair not been 
disgracefully mismanaged. In April, 1863, one hundred and 
fifty men of the First Vermont cavalry, under Captain Flint, set 
out to capture them, and found them at a farm-house unprepared 
to fight. Flint took his men through the gate, fired a volley at 
Mosby’s men, and then charged with the sabre, which would 
have been correct enough if Flint had kept his command 
together; but he made the mistake of dividing it and sending a 
portion around to the rear, in fear that the guerillas would escape. 
Mosby quickly took advantage of this, ordered a charge upon the 
detachment headed by Captain Flint, and succeeded in cutting 
his way through, Flint and some of his men being killed. Of the 
affair near Warrenton, in May, Mosby, in his somewhat boastful 
“ Reminiscences,” gives this highly colored account: 

“ On May 2, seventy or eighty men assembled at my call. I 
had information that Stoneman’s cavalry had left Warrenton and 
gone south, which indicated that the campaign had opened. My 
plan now was to strike Hooker. 

“ Before we had gone very far, an infantry soldier was caught, 
who informed me that I was marching right into the camp of an 
infantry brigade. I found out that there was some cavalry on 
the railroad at another point, and so I made for that. These 
troops had just been sent up to replace Stoneman’s. I committed 
a great error in allowing myself to be diverted by their presence 
from the purpose of my expedition. They were perfectly harm¬ 


less where they were, and could not help Hooker in the great 
battle then raging. I should at least have endeavored to avoid 
a fight by marching around them. 

“Just as we debouched from the woods in sight of Warrenton 
Junction, I saw, about three hundred yards in front of us, a body 
of cavalry in the open field. It was a bright, warm morning; 
and the men were lounging on the grass, while their horses, with 
nothing but their halters on, had been turned loose to graze on 
the young clover. They were enjoying the music of the great 
battle, and had no dream that danger was near. Not a single 
patrol or picket had been put out. At first they mistook us for 
their own men, and had no suspicion as to who we were until I 
ordered a charge and the men raised a yell. The shouting and 
firing stampeded the horses, and they scattered over a field of 
several hundred acres, while their riders took shelter in some 
houses near by. We very soon got all out of two houses ; but 
the main body took refuge in a large frame building just by the 
railroad. I did not take time to dismount my men, but ordered 
a charge on the house; I did not want to give them time to 
recover from their panic. I came up just in front of two windows 
by the chimney, from which a hot fire was poured that brought 
down several men by my side. But I paid them back with interest 
when I got to the window, into which I emptied two Colt’s re¬ 
volvers. The house was as densely packed as a sardine box, and 
it was almost impossible to fire into it without hitting somebody. 
The doors had been shut from the inside; but the Rev. Sam 
Chapman dismounted, and burst through, followed by John 
Debutts, Mountjoy, and Harry Sweeting. The soldiers in the 
lower rooms immediately surrendered; but those above held out. 
There was a haystack near by ; and I ordered some of the hay to 
be brought into the house, and fire to be set to it. Not being 
willing to be burned alive as martyrs to the Union, the men above 
now held out a white flag from the window. The house was 
densely filled with smoke, and the floor covered with the blood of 
the wounded. The commanding officer, Major Steel, had received 
a mortal wound ; and there were many others in the same condi¬ 
tion. All who were able now came out of the house. 

“After a severe fight I had taken three times my own number 
prisoners, together with all their horses, arms, and equipments. 
Most of my men then dispersed over the field in pursuit of the 
frightened horses which had run away. I was sitting on my 
horse near the house, giving directions for getting ready to leave 
with the prisoners and spoil, when one of my men, named Wild, 
who had chased a horse some distance down the railroad, came 
at full speed, and reported a heavy column of cavalry coming 
up. I turned to one of my men and said to him, ‘ Nozu we 
will whip them.' I had hardly spoken the words when I 
saw a large body of Union cavalry, not over two hundred or 
three hundred yards off, rapidly advancing. Most of my com¬ 
mand had scattered over the field, and the enemy was so 
close there was no time to rally and re-form before they got 
upon us. In attempting to do so, I remained on the ground 
until they were within fifty yards of me, and was nearly captured. 
So there was nothing to do but for every man to take care of 
himself. The command I had at this time was a mere aggrega¬ 
tion of men casually gathered, belonging to many different regi¬ 
ments, who happened to be in the country. Of course, such a 
body has none of the cohesion and discipline that springs from 
organization, no matter how brave the men may be individually. 
Men never fought better than they did at the house, while the 
defenders were inspired to greater resistance, knowing that relief 
was near. We had defeated and captured three times our own 


Campfire and battlefield. 





Colonel John S. Mosby, C. S. A. 
A GROUP OF MOSBY'S RAIDERS. 


number, and now had to give up the fruits of victory, and in turn 
to fly to prevent capture. My men fled in every direction, taking 
off about fifty horses and a number of prisoners. Only one of 
my men,Templeman, was killed, but I lost about twenty captured, 
nearly all of whom were wounded.” 

In March General Hooker, learning that a Confederate force, 
under Stuart, had set out for Fauquier and the adjoining counties 
to enforce the draft, determined to send out a large cavalry force 
to intercept them, and at the same time to make a reconnoissance 
on the south side of the Rappahannock. The troops chosen for 
this work were the First and Fifth regulars, the Thirty-fourth 
and Sixteenth Pennsylvania, the First Rhode Island, the Fourth 
New York, and the Sixth Ohio, with a battery of six guns, all 
under the command of Gen. William W. Averill. At the close 
of the first day’s march the expedition encamped near Kelly’s 
Ford on the Rapidan, and the next morning, the 17th, on riding 
down to the ford, found the passage disputed. The Confeder¬ 
ates had constructed abatis along the southern bank and were in 
strong force. Several attempts to cross the stream by separate 
regiments were ineffectual, until a squadron of the First Rhode 
Island, led by Lieutenant Brown, plunged boldly through the 
stream, cut their way through the abatis, charged up the bank, 
and routed the enemy in their immediate front. The whole 
force then crossed and formed in line of battle. As they moved 
on, the Confederates charged upon them, but were met in a 
counter charge and broken. Rallying, they attempted it again, 


and again were broken and put to flight. Meanwhile the Penn¬ 
sylvania regiment struck them on the flank, and the artillery 
opened upon them. When a point about a mile and a half 
from the river had been reached, General Averill re-formed his 
line, which then moved through the woods and fired as it went. 
The Confederates now, for the first time, brought their artillery 
into play, of which they had twelve pieces, and the shot fell fast 
among Averill’s men. Following this, the Confederates made 
another charge, but were broken by the Third Pennsylvania. 
A participant says: “ From the time of crossing the river until 
now there had been many personal encounters, single horsemen 
dashing at each other with full speed, and cutting and slashing 
with their sabres until one or the other was disabled. The 
wounds received by both friend and foe in these single combats 
were frightful, such as I trust never to see again.” A running 
fight was now kept up, the Confederates retreating slowly, and 
occasionally halting to use their artillery, until a point six miles 
from the river was reached, when General Averill, finding that 
his artillery ammunition was nearly exhausted, and that there 
were strong intrenchments not far ahead, ordered a return. 
The Confederates, who had been retreating, now advanced in 
their turn, and annoyed the retiring column somewhat with 
their artillery. General Averill lost nine men killed, thirty-five 
wounded, and forty captured. The Confederate loss is not 
exactly known, but Averill’s men brought away sixty prisoners, 
including Major Breckenridge, of the First Virginia cavalry. In 





CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


333 


this action was killed John Pelham, commander of Stuart’s horse 
artillery, who was called the “ Boy Major” and had won high 
reputation as an artillerist. His fall is the subject of the finest 
poem produced at the South during the war, written by James 
R. Randall. 

“ Just as the spring came laughing through the strife 
With all its gorgeous cheer, 

In the bright April of historic life, 

Fell the great cannoneer. 

The wondrous lulling of a hero’s breath 
His bleeding country weeps ; 

Hushed in the alabaster arms of Death 
Our young Marcellus sleeps. 

Nobler and grander than the child of Rome, 

Curbing his chariot steeds, 

The knightly scion of a Southern home 
Dazzled the land with deeds. 

Gentlest and bravest in the battle-brunt, 

The champion of the truth. 

He bore his banner to the very front 
Of our immortal youth. 

A clang of sabres ’mid Virginian snow. 

The fiery pang of shells—- 

And there’s a wail of immemorial woe 
In Alabama dells. 

The pennon drops that led the sacred band 
Along the crimson field ; 

The meteor blade sinks from the nerveless hand 
Over the spotless shield. 

We gazed and gazed upon that beauteous face; 

While round the lips and eyes, 

Couched in their marble slumber, flashed the grace 
Of a divine surprise. 

O mother of a blessed soul on high. 

Thy tears may soon be shed! 

Think of thy boy with princes of the sky, 

Among the Southern dead ! 

How must he smile on this dull world beneath, 

Fevered with swift renown— 

He, with the martyr’s amaranthine wreath 
Twining the victor’s crown !” 

When Lee, after Gettysburg, retreated southward up the 
Shenandoah Valley, Meade pursued on the eastern side of the 
Blue Ridge in a parallel line, taking possession of the passes as 
far southward as Manassas Gap. On the 22d of April, he learned 
that a Confederate corps was near the western end of that gap, 
which was held by Buford’s division of cavalry alone. The 
Third Corps, then guarding Ashby’s Gap, was thereupon ordered 
down to Manassas Gap, and made a prompt and swift march, 
reaching Buford at midnight. The next day, from a lofty point 
on the mountains, the movements of a large part of the Con¬ 
federate army could be seen. One immense column was in 
plain sight, consisting, first, of several thousand infantry, fol¬ 
lowed by disabled soldiers mounted on horses that had been 
taken in Pennsylvania, the rear being brought up by a large 
body of cavalry, while the wagon trains were moving on a 
parallel road further west, and all were pushing southward as 
rapidly as possible. It was thought that a movement through 
the gap might cut the Confederate column in two, and this was 
accordingly ordered. Berdan’s sharp-shooters, the Twentieth 


Indiana, the Sixty-third Pennsylvania, and the Third and Fourth 
Maine Regiments, of high reputation as skirmishers, were pushed 
forward, and soon brushed away the small Confederate force 
that occupied its western end. This fell back upon a supporting 
force posted on a lofty hill. Here the sharp-shooters kept the 
attention of the Confederates while the Maine regiments silently 
crept up the face of the hill, unobserved from its summit, 
delivered a volley, and then made a rapid charge which cleared 
the hill of all Confederates except those that were disabled or 
made prisoners. It was then discovered that the main body of 
the Confederate force that was intended to dispute the passage 
of the gap was on another line of hill, still farther to the west, 
and strongly fortified. The Excelsior brigade, commanded by 
General Spinola, was now brought forward to dislodge the enemy. 
Passing through the line of skirmishers, the men of this brigade 
soon reached the slope of the hill, which was ragged and pre¬ 
cipitous and swept by a fire from the crest. Without a minute’s 
hesitation they scrambled up the ascent, which was more than 
three hundred feet high, grasping at the bushes and points of 
rock until they reached the summit, when they fired a volley, 
fixed their bayonets, gave a shout, and rushed upon the enemy, 
who immediately fled in confusion. General Spinola was twice 
wounded in this assault, and the command devolved upon Colonel 
Farnum, who immediately re-formed the line and set out to carry 
in a similar manner another crest, which he succeeded in doing, 
and took a considerable number of prisoners. At this point of 
time, General Meade, having learned that a Confederate corps 
was moving down the valley to take part in this action, ordered 
the troops to discontinue their advance and hold the points 
already gained. At the same time he brought up the bulk of 
his army in anticipation of the battle the next day. But when 
the sun next arose the Confederates had all disappeared. By 
this movement General Meade lost two days in the race of the 
armies southward, which enabled the Confederates to get back 
to their old ground, south of the Rappahannock, before he could 
reach it. This action is known as the battle of Wapping 
Heights. The National loss was one hundred and ten men, 
killed or wounded ; the Confederate loss is unknown. 

In August, General Averell’s cavalry command made an 
expedition through the counties of Hardy, Pendleton, High¬ 
land, Bath, Green Briar, and Pocahontas. They destroyed 
saltpetre works and burned a camp with a large amount of 
equipments and stores. They had numerous skirmishes with a 
Confederate cavalry force, commanded by Gen. Samuel Jones, 
and at Rocky Gap, near Sulphur Springs, a serious engagement. 
This battle lasted two days. On the first day the Confederates 
opened the fire with artillery, which was answered by Averell’s 
guns, and a somewhat destructive duel ensued. The Confeder¬ 
ates attempted to capture Averell’s battery by charging across 
an open field, but were repelled by its steady fire. On the other 
hand, similar charges were made seven times in succession by a 
portion of Averell’s men, and not one of them was successful. 
When, finally, Averell’s ammunition was nearly exhausted, and 
he learned that the enemy was about to be reinforced, he with¬ 
drew from the field in good order. The loss in this engagement 
was about two hundred on each side. 

In an irregular and unsatisfactory campaign of manoeuvres 
between Meade and Lee, along the slopes of the Blue Ridge, 
after the battle of Gettysburg, but before the retirement to 
winter quarters, there were some engagements which would 
have been notable had not the whole campaign resulted in 
nothing. One of these was at Bristoe Station, three miles west 


334 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



of Manassas Junction, October 14th, when Meade was making 
retrograde movements, and Lee attacked his rear guard with 
A. P. Hill’s corps. The Second Corps formed the rear of Meade’s 
line, and marched to Bristoe on the south side of the track of 
the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, with flankers well out on 
both sides, and skirmishers deployed. About noon, the advance 
of this corps, which was Gen. Alexander S. Webb’s division, 
reached the eastern edge of woods that look out toward Broad 
Run. The rear of the Fifth Corps, which preceded the Second 
on the march, had just crossed the Run. Suddenly they were 
fired upon by artillery which emerged from the woods by an 
obscure road, and then a line of Confederate skirmishers appeared 
on the hill north of the railroad. Immediately General Webb's 
division was thrown forward in a line south of the railroad, with 
its right resting on Broad Run, and General Hays’s division 
took position at Webb’s left, while Caldwell’s faced the railroad, 
and a section of Brown’s Rhode Island battery was put in 
position on the other side of Broad Run where it could enfilade 
the enemy’s skirmishing line, and the remainder was placed on 
a hill west of the Run. Arnold's famous battery was also put 
in a commanding posi¬ 
tion. Very soon Con¬ 
federates opened a 
furious fire of artillery 
and musketry from the 
edge of the wood ; but 
when the National 
battery began its work 
their batteries were very 
soon silenced, and their 
skirmishing line melted 
away. General Warren or¬ 
dered a detail of ten men from 
each regiment in that part of 
the Fifth Corps which had par¬ 
ticipated in the fight, to rush for¬ 
ward and bring off the Confederate 
guns, which, for the minute, seemed 
to have been deserted. With a cheer 
the men crossed the railroad track, 
climbed the hill, wheeled pieces into posi¬ 
tion, and fired them at the retreating Con 
federates, and then dragged them away. But 
they had not gone far when the enemy came 
out of the wood again and charged upon them. 

Whereupon they dropped the battery, resumed 
their small arms, drove back the charge, and then brought off the 
guns. A participant says, “ I have heard some cheering on elec¬ 
tion nights, but I never heard such a yell of exultation as rent the 
air when the rebel guns, caissons, and equipments were brought 
across the railroad track to the line of our infantry.” The Con¬ 
federates now tried the experiment of attacking the Second 
Corps, and two regiments of North Carolina troops charged upon 
its right over the railroad. When they reached the track, they 
were met by two or three deadly volleys, which sent them rapidly 
back again. They became broken, and hid themselves behind 
rocks and logs, or came in as prisoners, when the National line was 
advanced. Still their main body kept up the fight until dark, 
when they finally retired into the woods, after losing six guns, two 
battle flags, seven hundred and fifty prisoners, and an unknown 
number in killed or wounded. Among the Confederate losses 
in this section was Brig.-Gen. Carnot Posey, mortally wounded. 


There was considerable desultory fighting around Charlestown, 
Va. On the 15th of July a National cavalry force overtook 
and attacked a Confederate force near that place, and captured 
about one hundred prisoners, afterward holding the town. On 
the 18th of October a Confederate cavalry force, under Gen. 
John J. Imboden, attacked the garrison, finding them in the 
court-house and other buildings, and demanded the surrender ; 
to which the commander, Colonel Simpson, answered, “ Take 
me if you can.” Imboden then opened fire on the court-house 
with artillery at a distance of less than two hundred yards, and of 
course soon drove out the occupants. After exchanging a volley 
or two, most of the National troops surrendered, while some had 
escaped toward Harper’s Ferry. Two hours later 

a force came up from that place and drove 

out Imboden’s men, who . £ , \ retired slowly toward 

Berryville, ^ y J; fighting all the way. 

I n its 'ww'kgSer*. slow pursuit of the 

Army of \ Northern Virginia; 




BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL R. S. FOSTER, AND STAFF. 

the Army of the Potomac, early in November, came up with that 
army at Rappahannock Station, where the Orange and Alex¬ 
andria Railroad crosses the Rapidan River. General Lee showed 
an intention to get into winter quarters here, for the ground was 
elaborately fortified on both sides of the river, and his men were 
known to be building huts. General Meade made his dispositions 
for a serious attack at this point. Lee had a strong force in¬ 
trenched with artillery on the north side of the river to prevent 
any crossing, and works extended thence for a considerable dis¬ 
tance in each direction, while the main body of his army was on 
the south side of the river and also intrenched. General Meade 
placed the Fifth and Sixth Corps under the command of General 
Sedgwick, fronting Rappahannock Station. General French was 
placed in command of the First, Second, and Third Corps, and 
ordered to move to Kelly’s Ford, four miles below Rappahan¬ 
nock Station, cross the river, carry the heights on the south side, 
and then move toward the enemy’s rear at Rappahannock to 




CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


335 



assist General Sedgwick's column in its front attack. General 
Buford’s cavalry was to cross the Rappahannock above these 
positions, and General Kilpatrick’s below. Sedgwick’s column 
arrived within a mile and a half of the river at noon, on the 7th 
of November, and threw out skirmishers to examine the enemy’s 
works. At the same hour, French’s column arrived at Kelly’s 
Ford. General French promptly opened the battle with his artil¬ 
lery, sent a brigade across the river which captured many prisoners 
in the rifle trenches, and an hour later crossed the division and 
began the laying of pontoon bridges, so that his entire command 
crossed before night. General Lee, believing that the 
demonstration at Rappahannock Station was a 
feint and that at Kelly’s Ford the real movement, 
heavily reinforced his troops at the Ford. Those 
on the north side of the river at Rappahannock 
Station were also reinforced. Sedgwick’s plan of 
attack was to have the Fifth Corps get possession 
of the river bank on the left, and the Sixth Corps on 
the right, and plant his batteries on high ground, 
from which he could compel evacuation of the 
works. This movement 
was made, and the batter¬ 
ies opened their fire, but 
the Confederates did not 
leave the works. In the 
edge of evening it was 
determined to make an 
assault in heavy force. 

The artillery kept up a 
rapid fire, until the as¬ 
saulting column, led by 
Gen. David A. Russell, 
had moved forward and 
approached near to the 
works. This movement 
appears to have been a 
surprise to the Confeder¬ 
ates, and it was carried 
out so systematically and 

rapidly that the storming party, led by the Fifth 
Wisconsin and the Sixth Maine Regiments, 
carried the works in a few minutes. The Forty- 
ninth and One Hundred and Nineteenth Penn¬ 
sylvania were close after them, and the Fifth 
Maine and One Hundred and Twenty-first New 
York at the same time carried the rifle-pits on the 
right, while the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New 
York and the Twentieth Maine, which had been on 
picket duty, promptly joined in the assault. This 
gallant affair was a complete- success, and General 
Wright remarked at the time that it was the first 
instance during the war in which an important intrenched 
position had been carried at the first assault. The National 
loss in killed and wounded was three hundred and seventy- 
one men. The Confederate loss, killed, wounded, and miss¬ 
ing, was nearly seventeen hundred, including thirteen hundred 
captured. The captures also included seven battle-flags, twelve 
hundred stands of small arms, and four guns. When the Con¬ 
federate commander learned of the disaster, he burned his 
pontoon bridge, and in the night fled back to Mount Roan, 
from which position the next day he withdrew to his old camps 
south of the Rapidan. A heavy fog on the 8th prevented 




MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL JONES, 
C. S. A. 


main 


me, 


BRIGADIER 


HENRY 


the National commander from pursuing in time to effect any¬ 
thing. 

When the Army of Northern Virginia retired from the action 
at Rappahannock Station to the south side of the Rapidan, it 
took up an intrenched position stretching nearly twenty miles 
along the river, from Barnett’s Ford above the railroad crossing 
to Morton’s Ford below. The cavalry were thrown out to 
watch the fords above and below this position. Lee then con¬ 
structed a new intrenched line, nearly at right angles with the 

to protect his right flank. As 
soon as the railroad was re¬ 
paired, General Meade began 
another advance, and after con¬ 
sidering Lee’s new position, 
determined to attack him by 
crossing at the lower fords 
and moving against his right 
flank. He planned to move 
three columns simultane¬ 
ously, concentrating two of 
them at Robertson’s tavern, 
and then advance rapidly 
westward by the turnpike 
and the plank road to strike 
Lee’s right and overcome 
it before it could be re¬ 
inforced from the more 
distant wing. The orders 
were issued for the move¬ 
ment to begin on the 
24th of November, but 
a heavy rainstorm de¬ 
layed it two days. 
Everything was care¬ 
fully explained to the 
corps commanders, and all pos¬ 
sible pains were taken to make the different 
parts of the great machine move harmoni¬ 
ously. The Third and Sixth Corps were to 
cross at Jacob’s Ford and move to Robert¬ 
son’s Tavern, through wood roads which were 
not known except through inquiry. The 
ground to be moved over was a part of the 
so-called Wilderness, which was made famous 
when Grant began his overland campaign the 
next spring. The Second Corps, crossing at 
Germanna Ford, was also to move to Robertson’s 
Tavern. The First and Fifth Corps were to cross at 
Culpeper Mine Ford, and move to the plank road at 
Parker’s Store, advancing thence to New Hope Church, 
where a road comes in from Robertson’s Tavern. 
Gregg’s cavalry division was to cross at Ely’s Ford, covering the 
left flank, while the other division, under Custer, was to guard 
the fords above, facing the main line of the enemy. Merritt’s 
cavalry was to protect the trains. Every experienced soldier 
knows how difficult it is to bring about simultaneous and con¬ 
centric movements of large bodies of troops separated by any 
considerable distance, and moving by different routes. Any one 
of many contingencies may stop the progress of any column or 
send it astray, and very few such plans have ever succeeded. 
This one of General Meade’s was devised with the utmost care, 
and every possible provision against miscarriage seemed to have 


enerw- 

bbev6 t “y ; EBELL . 

WlU-lAM W. A 


-GENERAL 

PRINCE. 









336 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




been made. Yet at the very outset, on the morn¬ 
ing of the 26th, there was a delay of two hours 
in crossing the river, because the Third Corps was 
not up in time, and then there was a further serious 
loss of time because the bridges for Jacob’s Ford 
and Germanna Ford were found to be a little too 
short, lacking only one pontoon each. The river 
banks here on the south side are more than one 
hundred feet high, and very steep, so that it was 
only with great labor that the wagons and the guns 
could be taken up. The artillery of two corps had to 
be taken to another ford than that by which the infan¬ 
try of this corps crossed. It happened, therefore, that 
when the day was spent the heads of the column, in¬ 
stead of being at Robertson’s Tavern, were only about 
three miles from the river, while the tavern is six or 
seven miles from the river by the road. These fords 
had all been watched by Confederate cavalry, and the 
movements of the Army of the Potomac were by this 
time well known at the Confederate headquarters. They 
had been inferred still earlier when the Confederate signal 
men saw the troops and trains moving in the morning. 

One thing, however, General Lee did not know—whether 
it was Meade’s intention to attack his army where it was, 
or to move eastward toward Richmond and draw it out of its 
intrenchments. In the night of the 26th Lee drew his army 
out of its lines and put it in motion ready to act in accordance 
with either of these movements of Meade, as the event might 
determine. 

Thus affairs were in a state likely to produce exactly such a 
conflict in the Wilderness as actually was produced when Grant 
crossed the Rapidan in the spring of 1864, but there was this 

difference, 
that it was 
Meade’s in¬ 
tention to 
turn west¬ 
ward and at- 
tack Lee 
where he 
was, while it 
was Grant's 
intention to 
move east¬ 
ward, get out 
of the Wil¬ 
der ness if 
possible, 
plant himself 
across Lee’s 
communica¬ 
tions, and 
compel him 
to leave his 
intrench- 
ments. In 
the after¬ 
noon of the 
27th, the 
leading di¬ 
vision of the 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN S. WILLIAMS, C. S. A. Fifth Corps, 




w 


br 1 gadi ER -g— 












. 


COLONEL HIRAM BERDAN. 

commanded by 

Gen. Alexander Hays, came into collision with the leading divi¬ 
sion of Early’s Confederate corps, and drove back his skirmishers 
on the turnpike, while Webb’s division to the right, with Rodes's 
Confederate division in its front, promptly deployed, and drove 
back his skirmishers toward Raccoon Ford. The National troops 
in deploying possessed themselves of a strong position, and the 
Confederate commanders were not willing to attack until rein¬ 
forced, but their reinforcements were delayed near Bartlett’s 
Mills by being fired upon by the Third Corps pickets, and the 
expectation of an attack at that point. General French, com¬ 
manding the Third Corps, appears to have blundered as to the 
road he was to take, and at the forks took the right hand instead 
of the left, which not only threw his corps nearer the enemy, 
but prevented him from appearing where he was expected at 
Robertson's Tavern at the same hour when the Second Corps 
arrived there. He then blundered still further by haltiner and 
sending word that he was waiting for the Fifth Corps, when in 
fact the Fifth was waiting for him. By the time that orders 
had passed back and forth explaining his error, the enemy had 
begun to throw out a large infantry force upon his right flank. 
The plan of action was then necessarily so far changed, as that 
General French was ordered to attack the enemy in his front at 
once, which he did, the divisions engaged being those of Carr, 
Prince, and Birney. The heaviest fighting fell upon Carr’s 
division, and there were charges and countercharges, the lines 
swaying back and forth several times. General Meade, unwilling 
to bring on a general engagement until he could get his army 
together, had been holding the First and Fifth Corps in their 
positions waiting for French’s corps to join them, and there was 
a little fighting in front of the Fifth when the enemy came close 
to its lines. General Lee was quite as reluctant to attack in 
force as was General Meade, and that night he drew back his 
army within its intrenchments. A hard storm the next dav 
delayed all movements, and when, toward evening, Meade 
advanced to the eastern bank of Mine Run, he found that the 
Confederate intrenchments on the western bank were altoo-ether 
too strong to justify an assault. Sending the Fifth Corps, in the 
night of the 28th, to threaten the Confederate right flank in the 

















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


33 7 



morning, and turn it if possible, Meade directed his other corps 
commanders to search for possible weak points in the enemy’s 
lines. One was found on the extreme Confederate left and 
another near the centre, while the First and Fifth Corps com¬ 
manders reported that there was no weak spot whatever in their 
front. A simultaneous assault on these points was arranged for 




BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD HATCH. 


passable. General Meade, therefore, withdrew his army to the 
north side of the Rapidan in the night of December 1st. In 
this unfortunate and altogether unsatisfactory affair, Meade lost 
about a thousand men, most of them in the Third Corps; the 
Confederate losses were reported at about six hundred. 

Early in the morning of January 3d, a strong Confederate 
cavalry force made a dash upon Moorefield, 
\V. Va., and, after a contest of several hours 
with the garrison, was driven off. The Con¬ 
federates, however, carried away sixty-five 
prisoners and some arms and horses. 

In April a Confederate force of 
five hundred men descended the 
\ Kanawha on flat-boats and attacked 
Point Pleasant, which was garri¬ 
soned by fifty men under Captain 
Carter of the Thirteenth Virginia 






A FORAGING PARTY. 


the morning of the 
30th, to be covered, 
as usual, by a heavy 
artillery fire. The 
guns opened prompt¬ 
ly at the designated 
hour, and were as 
promptly replied to 
by the Confederate 
artillery; but before 
the assault began, 
General Warren sent 
word to General 
Meade that he found 
the enemy had so 
strengthened the 
works on their right, as to make an assault there hopeless. Gen¬ 
eral Meade, therefore, gave orders to suspend the attacks that 
were already begun at the other points, and here the campaign 
virtually ended. There was no other possible movement, except 
to march around the right of the Confederate position, and for 
this it would have been necessary first to bring over the trains 
which had been left on the north side of the river. Further, 
the weather was very severe: some of the pickets had been 
frozen to death, and the roads were rapidly becoming im¬ 


(National) Regiment. A fight 
of four hours ensued, the gar¬ 
rison successfully defending 
themselves in the court 
house, and refusing to sur¬ 
render even when the Con¬ 
federates threatened to burn 
the town. After the assail¬ 
ants had lost about seventy 
men, and inflicted a loss on 
the garrison of nearly a 
dozen, they withdrew, and 
their retreat was hastened by 
some well-directed shots from 
a Government transport in 
the river. 

The most considerable en¬ 
gagement that resulted from 
an expedition under General 
Jones was near Fairmount, 
where the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad crosses the Monongahela 
River. The defensive forces here consisted of only three hun¬ 
dred men, while the Confederates numbered several thousands. 
At their approach, a company of militia and armed citizens went 
out on the hills to meet them, and made such good preparations 
for disputing their passage by the turnpike, that a force was sent 
around the slopes to drive them off, which was accomplished 
after some fighting. As the Confederates approached the sus¬ 
pension bridge, a part of the defensive force made a gallant 
stand, taking shelter in a foundry and firing with great effect 
upon the Confederate skirmishers and sharp-shooters. After a 
time, this little force fell back, and the Confederates crossed by 
the suspension bridge and advanced toward the railroad bridge. 
At the latter there was a similar attack and defence, until the 
detachments that had crossed at the suspension bridge came up 
in the rear of those who defended the railroad bridge, and the 
little band was summoned to surrender. This, however, they 
did not do until they were completely surrounded and could 
fight no longer, when they raised a white flag and the firing 
ceased. Hardly had this taken place, when a detachment of 
National troops came up the railroad with two guns, and shelled 
the Confederates on the west side of the river. The Confeder¬ 
ates then set about destroying the railroad bridge, which at that 
time was the finest in the United States. It was of iron, sup¬ 
ported on tubular columns of cast iron, which rested on massive 























(FROM A GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN DURING THE WAR.) 





CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


339 


stone piers, and had cost about half a 
million dollars. They poured powder by 
the kegful into the hollow iron column 
and exploded it, blowing the whole struct¬ 
ure into the river. They had lost in the 
fight nearly a hundred men, while the 
National loss was but half a dozen. After 
robbing every store in the town, and de¬ 
stroying much private property, including 
the law and private libraries of Governor 
Pierpont, which they carried into the street 
and burned, the Confederates departed. 

On the 13th of July a cavalry expedi¬ 
tion of two regiments, commanded by Col. 

John Toland, set out to cut the railroad 
at Wytheville, Va. They crossed Lens 
Mountain, reached Coal River, and moved 
along that stream toward Raleigh Comt 
House, where they began to meet with re¬ 
sistance. They then ascended the Guyan 
Mountain, and descended on the other side 
into an almost unknown valley, where, writes one of the officers, 
“ The few inhabitants obtained a livelihood largely by digging 
ginseng and other roots. They live in huts that the Esquimaux 
would scorn to be invited into. Long, dirty, tobacco-dried, sal- 
low-complexioned women stare at you as you pass. Ask them 
a question, they answer you, giving what information they 
possess, but it is so little as to render you no assistance. Here 
stands a small, dirty tavern, with two or three half-starved old 
men gazing upon the Yankees as they march by.” The expedi¬ 
tion crossed the Tug Mountains, and descended to Abb’s Val¬ 
ley. Here they captured a small Confederate camp with thirty- 
six men. The writer just quoted says of Abb’s Valley : “ The 
scenery beggars description for beauty. As far as the eye can 
reach, stretch hills and vales in every direction. The country is 
rich, owned principally by wealthy citizens who were very influ¬ 
ential in bringing about the rebellion, living in luxury and ease. 
They little dreamed that they, living in so remote a place, should 
be made to feel the weight of the hand 
of war.” The expedition then marched 
to Clinch River, and crossed Rich Moun¬ 
tain. “The people had heard much and 
seen little of Yankee soldiers, and the 
white population looked upon us with 
fear, ready to give all when attacked. 

On the other hand, the negroes assem¬ 
bled in groups, threw themselves in every 
conceivable form, jumping, singing, danc¬ 
ing, yelling, and giving signs that the 
year of jubilee had come. The white 
men fled as we approached, leaving their 
homes at our mercy, which were not 
molested, except those that had been 
used in some way to benefit the rebel 
army; in such cases, they were always 
destroyed.” The next march was across 
Garden Mountain, Rich Valley, and 
Walker’s Mountain, to the vicinity of 
Wytheville. Here the Confederate pick¬ 
ets were encountered, and skirmishing 
began. When the whole body of the 
expedition charged upon the town, they 


found the Confederates not in line of 
battle, but in buildings commanding the 
principal streets, from which they opened 
fire upon the advancing column. This 
firing from the houses was participated 
in by citizens, and also to some extent 
by women, and was very effective. The 
three companies that first rode into the 
town discovered two pieces of artillery in 
position, and made a dash and captured 
them. Colonel Toland hurried up with 
the remainder of his force, and, finding 
that the enemy could not otherwise be 
dislodged from the buildings, gave orders 
to burn the town. The officers were the 
special mark of the sharp-shooters, and in 
ten minutes the colonel fell dead, when 
the command devolved upon Colonel 
Powell, who also was struck and had to be 
carried off, seriously wounded. Reinforce¬ 
ments were sent to the Confederates from 
various points, but before they arrived the town was laid in 
ashes, and the expedition fell back, burning a bridge behind 
them. They then slowly retraced their line of march, with 
occasional skirmishes on the way, but finding their chief hard¬ 
ships in the lack of food and the exhaustion of the horses. 
“We ascended Blue Stone Mountain by file. The road was 
very steep, and ere we reached the top twenty-three horses 
lay stretched across the road, having fallen from exhaustion. 
The descent was terrible, cliffs ten to thirty-one feet, down 
which the smooth-footed horse would slip with scarce life 
enough to arrest his progress, except it be stopped by contact 
with a tree or some other obstacle.” They at length reached 
Raleigh, N. C., where provisions were forwarded to them from 
Fayetteville. They had been absent eleven days, and had 
ridden about five hundred miles. Their loss was eighty-five men 
and three hundred horses. 

An invasion of Kentucky by the Confederate General Pegram, 

with about two thousand six hundred 
men, in March, came to a sudden end at 
Somerset, in the central part of the State. 
General Gillmore, with twelve hundred 
mounted men, set out from that town to 
attack him, and found him in a strong 
position at Dutton’s Hill, twelve miles 
from Somerset. Gillmore drew up in 
line of battle, placed his guns in the 
centre, and, in an artillery fight of an 
hour and a half, dismounted three of the 
enemy’s pieces. He then ordered his 
wings to advance, which they did in the 
face of a brisk fire. But, disregarding 
this, they pressed on up the hill rapidly 
until the enemy broke and fled. A body 
of Confederate cavalry, led by Scott and 
Ashby, were then detected in a flank 
movement. This was promptly met, and, 
after a short conflict, sixty of them were 
made prisoners and the remainder were 
put to flight. Three miles from Somer¬ 
set the Confederates made a stand, 
but here again they were routed, and 



MAJOR-GENERAL W. H. FRENCH. 







' 

■ _ . ■: 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD FERRERO. 










340 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


in the night they crossed the river, where it was said many of 
them were drowned. The Confederate loss was nearly a hundred 
killed or wounded, besides many prisoners. Gillmore’s loss was 
about forty. They placed a battery on the river bank in the 
morning, but Gillmorc’s artillery soon knocked it to pieces, and 
in another dash four hundred cattle that they had taken were 
recaptured. His men captured the flags of a Louisiana and a 
Tennessee cavalry regiment. A participant wrote: “Wolford 
himself pursued the rebel leader, Colonel Scott, so closely that 
when within thirty paces of him, with levelled pistol he called 
upon him to die or surrender. At the moment, Wolford's horse 
was shot, and Scott escaped. When Mclntirc arrived, cheering 
his men forward on foot, the rebels broke in confusion and fled. 
Wolford halted for ammunition, but Mclntire, with seventy-two 
men yelling like a thousand, followed across an open field and 
into the woods, and here began the most extraordinary flight 
and pursuit, I venture to assert, that has been recorded during 
the war. The rebel panic increased with every rod passed over 
in their terrific flight over hill and valley, brook and rock, 
tangled brush and fallen timber. Any one to review the field 
to-day would pronounce such a race over such ground impossible. 
At the base of a precipitous hill, and embarrassed by the con¬ 
tracting valley, high fences, and a complication of lanes, the 
rebels were evidently about to turn at bay in very desperation, 
when additional reinforcements, under Colonel Sanders, appeared 
dashing along at their left. This completed their consternation, 
and they again broke, every man for himself.” 

Early in January Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, commanding the 
district of Tennessee, issued a proclamation at Memphis, in 
which he warned the resident sympathizers with the Confederate 
cause that they must expect to suffer if the guerilla operations, 
which had become very frequent and annoying in that State, 
were continued. He alluded especially to the threat to tear up 
the railroads, and declared that for every such raid he would 
select ten families from the wealthiest and most noted secession¬ 
ists in Memphis and send them South. 

A detachment of Confederates, commanded by Lieutenant- 
Colonel Dawson, made a raid into Tennessee in January, and 
busied themselves especially in burning all the cotton they could 
find. But on the 8th a detachment of the Twentieth Illinois 
cavalry, under Captain Moore, surprised Dawson’s camp, near 
Ripley, at sunrise, and, without losing a man, killed eight of the 
Confederates, wounded twenty, and captured forty-six, while the 
remainder escaped. 

On the last day of January a scouting party of National 
cavalry, setting out from Nashville, came unexpectedly upon a 
portion of Wheeler’s cavalry at the little village of Rover, and 
immediately attacked them. A hand-to-hand sabre fight ensued, 
which resulted in the complete defeat of the Confederates, who 
had thus been taken unawares. About twenty-five of them were 
disabled, and three hundred made prisoners. 

Fort Donelson, which Grant’s army had captured in February, 
1862, was now held by six hundred men under Col. A. C. Hard¬ 
ing, and on February 3, 1863, was attacked by a force of five 
thousand under Generals Wheeler and Forrest. At the ap¬ 
proach of the enemy Harding sent out his cavalry to recon¬ 
noitre, but they were all captured. At the same time his 
telegraph lines were cut, and lie sent out mounted messengers 
to bring up a gunboat that was down the river. He had hardly 
placed his little command in position for defence, when the Con¬ 
federates sent in a flag of truce and demanded a surrender, 
which lie declined. The enemy then opened upon him with 


eight guns, and he replied steadily with five, called in his skir¬ 
mishers, and strengthened his line as much as possible. The 
fight continued from noon till evening, when surrender was again 
demanded and again refused. The Confederates now made 
arrangements for an assault, and Harding placed his men in the 
rifle-pits with fixed bayonets to await the onset. A distant gun 
told him that help was coming, and very soon the black hull 
of the Lexington was seen moving up the river. The garrison 
began to cheer, and when her shells were sent over their heads 
and fell among the enemy, the siege was raised at once and 
the Confederates quickly fled away. In a charge made at the 
moment when they broke, Harding took some prisoners. He 
had lost about seventy-five men, killed or wounded, and the Con¬ 
federates over four hundred. 

Learning that a Confederate cavalry force was foraging, plun¬ 
dering, and conscripting, near Bradyville, twelve miles from 
Murfreesboro’, General Stanley set out (March 1st) with sixteen 
hundred men in search of it. He found it strongly posted near 
the village, and at once attacked and drove it through the town. 
The Confederates took up a new position half a mile distant, 
where a ledge of rocks gave them good shelter. Stanley then 
sent a squadron around their left flank, and another to their 
right, while he made a show of attacking in front. The Confed¬ 
erates stood their ground until they found themselves subjected 
to two enfilading fires, when they at once gave way, and Stan¬ 
ley’s men rode in among them and used their sabres and pistols. 
They were pursued three miles "and completely disorganized. 
About thirty of them were disabled, and a hundred taken 
prisoners. 

Three days later a similar expedition, under Col. John Coburn, 
set out from Franklin in search of a similar party of Confederates. 
They found them near Thompson’s Station, and were attacked 
by riflemen hidden behind a stone wall near the depot. A few 
minutes later two batteries opened upon them, and the enemy 
advanced in line of battle. Coburn’s infantry stood their ground 
bravely, but his artillery was badly managed, and his cavalry 
retired instead of advancing. When his ammunition failed, at 
the end of three hours, Coburn was obliged to surrender with such 
of his forces as had not escaped. He lost four hundred men, 
killed or wounded, and about twelve hundred captured. About 
six hundred of the Confederates were disabled. 

Still another of these expeditions left Murfreesboro’, March 18, 
in search of marauding bands of Confederates. It was com¬ 
manded by Col. A. S. Hall. At Statesville he encountered and 
quickly defeated a small body of Confederate cavalry. At Au¬ 
burn he discovered that a Confederate force, superior to his own, 
was moving up to attack him, whereupon he drew back to 
Vaught’s Hill, near Milton, and formed his line. One of his two 
guns began the fight by throwing shells over the little village and 
into the advance guard of the enemy. The Confederates, con¬ 
sisting of eleven regiments, commanded by Generals Wheeler and 
Morgan, promptly attacked along the whole line. I Tail’s guns were 
advantageously placed, and raked the lines of the enemy as they 
advanced, while his infantry were very skillfuly managed, and held 
their ground against determined attacks on both flanks. A de¬ 
tachment of cavalry which had passed around the right flank, and 
was attempting to get into the rear, was met by such a deadly 
fire that it immediately withdrew in confusion. The Confeder. 
ates, enraged at the execution of one of Hall’s guns, concentrated 
a large force and made a desperate rush for its capture. Hall’s 
men allowed them to come within forty yards, and then opened 
upon them with a fire of musketry so destructive that they soon 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


34 1 



Thomas 


Sc orr, c. 


broke and fled in confusion. The assailants now drew off and 
contented themselves with cannonading at a distance, which was 
kept up until one of Hall’s skilfully managed guns sent a shot 
which dismounted one of theirs, and then they withdrew alto¬ 
gether. I he Confederate loss in this action was about four hun¬ 
dred, killed or wounded ; the National loss was about forty. 

Again, in April, General Stanley set out with a brigade of in¬ 
fantry and two thousand cavalry to attack Morgan’s and Whar¬ 
ton s Confederate force at Snow Hill. After some preliminary 
skirmishes and desultory fighting two regiments of Stanley’s 
cavalry succeeded in getting into the rear of the enemy, when 
they broke and fled, losing more than a hundred men disabled or 
captured. 

1 he Confederate General Van Dorn, who had been for some 
time threatening to attack the garrison of Franklin, commanded 
by Gen. Gordon Granger, appeared before 
the town on the ioth of April, with a heavy 
force, and drove in the outposts. He then 
formed a strong skirmish line, and behind 
this a line of battle ready for an immediate 
charge. Granger’s advance troops, consist¬ 
ing of the Fortieth Ohio Regiment, com¬ 
manded by Capt. Charles G. Matchett, 
were quickly placed in a critical position, 
having both flanks menaced at the same 
time that the enemy was advancing in 
front. Captain Matchett gave the order 


Confederates now opened fire with their batteries, which was 
replied to by the siege guns in the fortifications, and by field bat¬ 
teries, which drove them off. Meanwhile, a force under General 
Stanley had moved out and struck the flank of the Confederates, 
capturing six guns and two hundred prisoners. The National loss 
was about one hundred men ; the Confederate loss is unknown. 

On the 7th of September a Confederate force of four regi¬ 
ments, which had 
fortified Cumber¬ 
land Gap and occu¬ 
pied it nearly a year, 
surrendered to a 
National force 
u n d c r G e n e r a 1 
Shackleford without 
firing a gun. 

General 


r/s- * 


F 








Br,Gadi ^g £N£ral 

to fall back 
at a double 
quick, and 
was, as he 
expected 
to be, fol- 
lowed 
closely 
by the 
enemy’s 
mounted 
ski rm i sh- 
ers. Sud¬ 
denly he 
halted his 
regiment, 

aced them about, and gave the pursuers a volley that drove them 
>ack from their main line, when he continued his retreat. 1 his 
nanoeuvre was repeated several times in admirable style, the front 
:ompany each time retiring on the double quick to the rear of the 
>ther companies, when they faced about and delivered their fire, 
n this manner they reached the town, took advantage of the 
louses and other defences, and checked any further pursuit. 1 he 




BRIGADIER-GENERAL POWELL CLAYTON. 


MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES P. FAGAN, C. S. A. 

Shackleford, undertaking to drive the 
various bands of Confederates out of 
East Tennessee, in September, found 
one near Bristol, fought it, pursued it, 
and fought it again, until it made a de¬ 
cided stand at Blountville, September 22. 
Here he opened fire upon them, and the 
fight lasted from one o’clock till dusk, 
when the Confederates were defeated, and 
fled, closely pursued by Colonel Carter's 
command. They were ultimately dis¬ 
persed, some of them taking to the mountains, and the others 
returning to their homes. 

The position of General Burnside was peculiar, and probably 
was more influenced by a feeling of personal regard than that of 
any other commander on the National side. His enthusiastic 
loyalty, his bravery, his hearty and manly conduct among his 
fellow patriots, and his personal modesty were all perfectly 
evident. II is capacity for a large independent command was at 
least doubtful. Early in the war he had led a successful expedi¬ 
tion through many dangers of wind and wave on the coast of 
North Carolina. Later he had made two notable failures—as a 
corps commander at Antietam, and as commander of the army 
at Fredericksburg. But he had never aspired to the chief com¬ 
mand, which really was thrust upon him, and he so frankly 
assumed the responsibility and blame for his errors, that the 
feeling toward him was much the same as that in the South 
toward Lee after his disastrous failure at Gettysburg. Although 
he was not retained in command of the Army of the Potomac, 
he was, in March, 1863, given command of the Department of 
the Ohio, and his old corps, the Ninth, was sent to him with 
the intention of having him go through eastern Kentucky and 
Tennessee, and relieve the Union people there from the Con- 




























342 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


federate.oppression and outrages that they were suffering. This 
plan was delayed by the necessity of sending his corps to rein¬ 
force Grant at Vicksburg, and Burnside was practically idle 
through the summer. But late in August, with twenty thou¬ 
sand men, he set out from Richmond, Ky., and moved south¬ 
ward into East Tennessee, where he met with a most enthusi¬ 
astic reception from the inhabitants. The stars and stripes, 
which had been hidden away during the presence of Confed¬ 
erate forces, were now waving from nearly every house, and 
supplies of all kinds were freely brought to his forces. His 
coming, however, was not the only reason for the withdrawal of 
the various Confederate bands that had infested that region ; 
these were being united to Bragg’s army to strengthen it for his 
contemplated movement on Chattanooga. Meanwhile, Long- 
street, with his corps, had been detached from Lee’s 
army and sent to Bragg’s, and had played an 
important part, as we have seen, in the battle 
of Chickamauga. Various detachments of 
Burnside’s forces had encountered the 
enemy, and some of these actions have 
already been described in this chapter. 

The next important movement 
made by the Confederates was de¬ 
signed to destroy Burnside’s force, 
or drive it out of East Tennessee. 

That mountainous region, with its 
sturdily loyal people, lying be¬ 
tween the disloyal portions of Vir¬ 
ginia and North Carolina on the 
one hand, and those of Tennessee 
on the other, was a constant 
source of discomfort to the Con¬ 
federate Government, and would 
evidently be a standing menace to 
the Confederacy should its inde¬ 
pendence ever be established. Hence 
their anxiety to clear it of Union sen¬ 
timent, by whatever means. About 
twenty thousand men, under the com 
mand of General Longstreet, were detached 
from Bragg’s army and sent out upon this 
errand. Burnside had scattered his own forces 
pretty widely, and some of his detachments were 
obliged to fight the enemy at various points before 
they were all concentrated again. One of these (Kit Carson) 

actions was at the village of Philadelphia, where 
two thousand men, under Col. F. T. Wolford, were attacked by 
three times their number of Confederates, and, after a gallant 
resistance, escaped with the loss of their artillery and wagons, 
and managed to carry away half a hundred prisoners. Reinforce¬ 
ments coming up, the train was recaptured and the enemy driven 
in turn. About a hundred men were killed or wounded on each 
side. Longstreet’s general plan and purpose being now evident, 
Burnside began the concentration of his forces, and, being joined 
by his Ninth Corps again, had about the same number of men as 
Longstreet. He chose an advantageous position at Campbell’s 
Station, a dozen miles southwest of Knoxville, and gave battle. 

He had no difficulty in holding his own against the enemy, 
although their line was more extended than his, for his artillery 
was in place while theirs had not yet come up. But when, late 
in the day, they brought their guns to the front, he was obliged 
to fall back to another strong position, which he held until his 



BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
CHRISTOPHER CARSON. 


trains were safely under way, and in the night fell back still 
farther to the defences of Knoxville. In the action at Camp¬ 
bell's Station he had lost about three hundred men ; the Con¬ 
federate loss is unknown. Longstreet followed him slowly, and 
on the 17th of November sat down before the city. The place 
was strongly fortified, and although the Confederates by a quick 
assault carried a position on the right of Burnside’s line, they did 
not materially impair his defences. In this affair Burnside lost 
about a hundred men, including Brig.-Gen. William P. Sanders 
killed. Longfstreet’s men skirmished and bombarded for ten 
days, at the end of which time, having been reinforced, he 
determined upon the experiment of a heavy assault. On the 
28th of November he hurled three of his best brigades against 
an unfinished portion of the works on Burnside’s left, where 
Gen. Edward Ferrero was in command. The assault 
was gallantly delivered, but was quite as gallantly 
met, and proved a failure, Longstreet losing 
about eight hundred men, including two 
colonels killed, while the defenders of 
the works lost but one hundred. A 
few days later Grant, having thor¬ 
oughly defeated Bragg at Chatta¬ 
nooga, sent a force under Sherman 
to the relief of Knoxville, and 
Longstreet was obliged to aban¬ 
don the siege, and returned to 
Virginia. 

When, in June, it was learned 
that a Confederate force was 
about to make a raid upon the 
railroad in Northern Mississippi 
and destroy the bridges, Lieuten¬ 
ant-Colonel Phillips, of the Ninth 
Illinois Cavalry, was sent out to 
meet them with his own regiment 
and parts of the Fifth Ohio and Eigh¬ 
teenth Missouri. At Rocky Crossing, 
on the Tallahatchie, he encountered a 
Confederate force of two thousand men, 
infantry, cavalry, and artillery, under General 
Ruggles, and, although he had but six hundred 
men and no guns, he at once gave battle, and his 
men fought so spiritedly and skilfully that they drove 
off the enemy, inflicting a loss of one hundred and 
thirty-five in killed and wounded, and captured thirty 
prisoners, themselves losing about thirty-five men. 

On the 16th of July, Jackson, capital of Mississippi, which had 
been besieged by Sherman’s forces since the fall of Vicksburg, 
was evacuated by Johnston, who quietly moved away to the 
eastward, and the National troops took possession of the town. 
During the investment there had been no serious fighting, ex¬ 
cept on the 12th, when General Lauman’s division, on Sherman’s 
extreme right, attempted to make an advance and was repelled 
with heavy loss. 

On the same day when Jackson was evacuated, Col. Cyrus 
Bussey, Sherman’s chief of cavalry, was sent out with a thou¬ 
sand horsemen and a brigade of infantry to attack Jackson’s 
cavalry, which was known to be near Canton. The enemy was 
discovered within two miles of that place, on the west side of 
Bear Creek, in a position to receive battle. Colonel Bussey im¬ 
mediately deployed his forces and attacked. The Confederates 
made several attempts to get by his flank and capture his train, 




Campfire and battlefield. 


343 


but all were thwarted, and, after a somewhat stubborn fight, the 
whole body of Confederates was driven back through the woods 
and crossed the creek, destroying the bridge behind them. The 
next day Bussey moved into the town, and destroyed the forges 
and machinery that had long been employed in furnishing the 
Confederates with war materials. He also burned the railroad 
buildings, with all their contents, thirteen large machine shops, 
fifty cars, and other property. The retiring force of Confederates 
had already burned the depot and six hundred bales of cotton. 
Before the expedition returned it destroyed about forty miles of 
the railroad that was used by the Confederates for bringing sup¬ 
plies from the west. 

On the 13th of October a National cavalry force, commanded 
by Colonel Hatch, consisting of twenty-five hundred men with 
eight guns, appeared before the town of Wyatt’s, on the Talla¬ 
hatchie, which was fortified and held by a strong Confederate 
force. The Confederates began in the afternoon with an attack 
on the National left, which was not successful. They then 
massed their forces and made a desperate attempt to break the 
centre, but were again foiled. Colonel Hatch slowly advanced 
his line, keeping up a wary fight until evening, when the Con¬ 


federates retired under cover of darkness and crossed the river. 
Colonel Hatch lost about forty men and captured seventy-five 
prisoners, the Confederate loss in killed and wounded being 
unknown. 

Arkansas was still the scene of occasional fighting, though 
always on a small scale. It furnished supplies to the Confed¬ 
eracy, and was in some respects a tempting field for foraging. 
Early in February a detachment of cavalry, commanded by Col. 
George E. Waring, Jr., made a raid in Arkansas and rode sud¬ 
denly into the town of Batesville, attacked the Confederate force 
there, defeated it, and drove it out of the town. The Confeder¬ 
ates fled in such haste that those who could not crowd into the 
boats swam the river. Colonel Waring then remounted his men 
with horses from the surrounding country. 

On the 15th of the same month there was a fight at Arkadel- 
phia between a small party of National troops and one of Confed¬ 
erates, in which about twenty men were disabled on each side. 

On the 18th of April a Confederate force of cavalry, with a 
section of artillery and a considerable number of guerillas, made 
a night march from the Boston Mountains and attacked the 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM DWIGHT COMMANDING AT THE BATTLE OF VERMILION BAYOU, LA. 

(Fram an original drawing by Jamas E. Taylor.) 











344 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


National force at Fayetteville, Ark., commanded by Col. M. L. 
Harrison, of the First Arkansas cavalry. They charged up 
a deep ravine and made a desperate attempt to capture Colonel 
Harrison’s headquarters; but he had had some intimation of 
their coming, and had promptly thrown his men into line for 
defence, so that every charge was gallantly repelled. The Con¬ 
federates then tried an artillery fire without doing much damage, 
and finally a desperate cavalry charge upon Harrison’s right 
wing, which was met by a most destructive fire that caused them 
to recoil and then to retreat in disorder to the woods. Harrison 
then sent out two companies, which went within rifle-range of 
the enemy’s artillery and compelled them to withdraw their bat¬ 
tery. Their wings were soon broken, but their centre still made a 
stubborn fight, until about noon that too gave way, and the whole 
force retreated. Harrison’s loss was thirty-five men. That of the 
enemy was unknown, except that about sixty were captured and 
a considerable number were left dead or wounded on the field. 

Helena, Ark., on the Mississippi, one hundred and fifty 
miles above Vicksburg, was held by a National force, under 
Gen. B. M. Prentiss, when on the 4th of July it was attacked by 
about nine thousand Confederates, under command of Generals 
Price and Holmes. Learning of their coming, General Prentiss 
drew his entire force within the fortifications. By a sudden 
rush, a detachment of the Confederates captured a battery, 
drove some of the infantry out of the rifle-pits, and were 
advancing into the town. But a portion of Prentiss’s force was 
boldly pushed forward to check them, and those in possession 
of the battery were soon subjected to so severe a fire that they 
were glad to surrender. The Confederates had now planted guns 
upon commanding positions, with which they opened fire upon 
the works, but at the same time the gunboat Tyler had moved 
up to the scene and soon began sending its broadsides along 
the slopes and through the ravines that they occupied. Their 
batteries were ultimately silenced by this fire, and their infantry 
lost heavily. A heavy fog settling down caused a cessation of 
the engagement for some time, and when it lifted the fighting 
was resumed, the Confederates making desperate assaults upon 
the works and subjecting themselves to the terrible fire of the 
heavy guns. After several hours of this reckless work, they 
were drawn off, leaving their dead and wounded on the field and 
many prisoners. Prentiss’s loss was two hundred and thirty; 
that of the Confederates, nearly two thousand, including the 
numerous prisoners. An incident is told that illustrates the 
character of the fighting. One assaulting column was led by a 
lieutenant-colonel who preceded his men, and was standing on a 
log waving his sword and yelling wildly, when the captain of the 
battery called out to him, “ What do you keep swinging that 
'sword for? why don’t you surrender?” “By what authority 
do you demand my surrender?” said the Confederate officer. 

“ By authority of my twelve-pound howitzer,” replied the 
captain. The Confederate looked about him, saw that his com¬ 
mand had melted away, and then held out his sword saying, 
“Very well, sir, I surrender.” 

On the 1st day of September' there was a fight at a place 
called Devil's Backbone, sixteen miles from Fort Smith, between 
a portion of General Blunt’s forces, under Colonel Cloud, and a 
Confederate force under Colonel Cabell, in which the latter was 
defeated and routed with a loss of about sixty men, the National 
loss being fourteen. This was an incident of the advance of 
General Blunt to Fort Smith, which place he occupied on the 
loth. It had been in the possession of the Confederates since 
the beginning of the war. 


The garrison at Pine Bluff, Ark., commanded by Col. Powell 
Clayton, was attacked on the 25th of October by a Confed¬ 
erate force under General Marmaduke. The Confederate skir¬ 
mishers came forward with a flag of truce, met Lieutenant 
Clark of the Fifth Kansas cavalry outside of the town, and 
demanded a surrender. Clark replied, “ Colonel Clayton never 
surrenders, but is always anxious for you to come and take 
him ; and you must get to your command immediately, or I will 
order my men to fire on you.” Clayton sent out skirmishers 
to delay the advance of the enemy, and then set three hundred 
negroes at work rolling out cotton bales and barricading the 
streets, while he placed nine guns in position to command every 
approach to the square. His sharp-shooters were posted in the 
houses, and he then set the negroes at work bringing water from 
the river and filling all the barrels they could find, so that, if 
necessary, he might sustain a siege. The enemy opened upon 
him with twelve guns, and in the course of two hours succeeded 
in setting fire to several buildings, some of which were destroyed 
before the flames were extinguished by the work of the negroes. 
Meanwhile, Clayton’s sharp-shooters had fired at every Confeder¬ 
ate that came within range, and succeeded in killing or wound¬ 
ing about one hundred and thirty of them. Finding that he 
could not set fire to the town, and could not assault the barri¬ 
cades without heavy loss, Marmaduke retired from the field. 
Whereupon Clayton sent out a pursuing force and captured 
some prisoners. Thirty-nine of Clayton's men and seventeen 
of the negroes were killed or wounded. 

Missouri, a slave State almost surrounded by free territory, 
was still a ground of contention for small armed bands, although 
it had long since become evident that it could not be taken out 
of the Union. 

The garrison at Springfield, commanded by Gen. E. B. Brown, 
was attacked by about five thousand men, under Marmaduke 
on the 8th of January. Outposts at Lawrence Mills and Ozark 
were driven in by the advancing enemy, while General Brown 
called in small reinforcements from various stations -and made 
hasty preparation to defend the place. The convalescents in 
the hospitals were brought out and armed, and three guns were 
made ready in the night. The Confederates advanced slowly 
across the prairie, coming up in line of battle with three pieces 
of artillery and cavalry on the wings. General Brown ordered 
the burning of several houses south of the fort, to prevent their 
use by the enemy, and opened with his guns as soon as the Con¬ 
federates came within range. Within an hour there was brisk 
fighting all along the line, with several charges and counter¬ 
charges, in one of which the Confederates captured a gun after a 
desperate fight. At the same time a detachment of them took 
possession of an unfinished stockade. The Confederates massed 
against the centre and the right wing successively, and gained 
possession of several houses, from one of which a sharp-shooter 
shot General Brown, wounding him so that he was carried from 
the field, when the command devolved upon Colonel Crabb. 
The fighting was kept up steadily with varying fortune, but with 
no decisive result, till dark, when the Confederates withdrew. 
The National loss in this action was one hundred and sixty-two 
men ; the Confederate loss is unknown. 

Three days later Marmaduke came into collision at Hartsville 
with a force of eight hundred men, commanded by Colonel Mer¬ 
rill, which was on the march for Springfield. Early in the morn¬ 
ing Merrill learned of the approach of the Confederates, and 
threw his little command into line of battle. The Confederates 
came up and fought them for an hour, and then unaccountably 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


345 




fell back. Finding that they were moving on Hartsville by 
another road, Merrill moved to intercept them, and took another 
position close to the town. Here he was attacked about noon, 
first with artillery, and then in a cavalry charge. His infantry 
lay flat upon the ground until the Confederate horsemen were 
within easy range, when they rose and fired with such accuracy 
as to throw them all into confusion. For three hours the Con¬ 
federates continued to attack in small bodies at a time, every 
one of which was 
repelled. In the 
afternoon, they 
slowly gave up the 
attempt and fell 
back, and at night 
they disappeared. 

Merrill lost about 
seventy-five men ; 
the Confederates 
nearly three hun¬ 
dred. The credit 
of the victory was 
given largely to the 
artillery, which was 
served with great 
skill. 

One of the most 
horrible occur¬ 
rences of the war 
was the sacking and 
burning of Law¬ 
rence, Kan., on the 
21st of August, by 
the notorious band 
of Confederate 
guerillas led by 
Quantrell. They 

rode suddenly into the town, shooting right and left, 
indiscriminately, at whatever citizens they happened to 
meet, and then, spreading through the place, began sys¬ 
tematic plunder. Where they could not get the keys of 
safes, they blew them open with powder. They took 
possession of the hotels and robbed the guests of every¬ 
thing valuable, even their finger-rings. Unarmed people, 
who gave up their money and surrendered, were in numer¬ 
ous instances wantonly shot. The guerillas appeared to 
have a special animosity against Germans and negroes, 
and murdered all of these that they could find. The 
only soldiers there were twenty-two men at a recruiting 
station, and eighteen of these were shot. After thorough¬ 
ly sacking the town, the guerillas set many buildings on 
fire, and a large portion of it was destroyed. It was 
estimated that their plunder included about three hundred thou¬ 
sand dollars in cash. 

The first action of the year in Louisiana was by a combined 
naval and land force, under Gen. Godfrey Weitzel and Com¬ 
mander McKean Buchanan, against the obstructions in Bayou 
Teche. It was found that the Confederates had a steam vessel 
of war, called the J. A. Cotton , there, that they had erected 
many batteries, and that they were now collecting forces above 
Donaldsonville. General \\ eitzel set out, with five regiments 
and three batteries, on the iith of January, with the gunboats 
Calhoun , Diana , Kinsman , and Estrella , the cavalry and artillery 


going by land. They proceeded up the Atchafalaya, and on the 
14th found the enemy. The gunboats steamed up to a point 
near the batteries and opened fire upon them, and received a fire 
in return, but without any special effect. Here a torpedo ex¬ 
ploded under the Kinsman and lifted her violently out of water, 
yet without doing serious damage. Commander Buchanan then 
steamed ahead in his flagship, the Diana, when he was subjected 
to a fire from rifle-pits, and he was the first to fall, shot through 
the head. At this point the bayou was very narrow, so 
that the longest of the gunboats could hardly turn around 
in the channel. Meanwhile, the land forces had been put 
ashore on the side of the river where the batteries were 
located, and while one regiment gained the rear of the 
rifle-pits and drove out the Confederates, taking about 
forty prisoners, the three batteries passed around a piece 
of forest and took an advantageous position, from which 
they opened fire upon the steamer Cotton. This craft 
made a vain effort to fight these batteries, and was raked 
from stem to stern. She finally retired up the bayou 
and gave it up, and the next morning she floated down 
stream in flames. The expedition before returning cap¬ 
tured a large number of cattle, but the obstructions 
to navigation of the bayou were not removed. 

When Banks 
marched out to in¬ 
vest Port Hudson, a 
portion of his forces, 
under Gen. Godfrey 
Weitzel, made a long 
detour to the west 
from New Orleans 
and thence north¬ 
ward. At Franklin, 
on the Atchafalaya, 
a strong force of the 
enemy was found, 
and Weitzel at once 
attacked it, April 
12th. There was 
spirited fighting with 
both infantry and 
artillery through the 
day, but with no de¬ 
cisive result, and at 
night the Confeder¬ 
ates retreated toward 
Irish Bend. Here 
they met Grover’s 
division, which had 
been sent there to 
cut off their retreat, 
and on the 14th there was another battle. The Twenty-fifth 
Connecticut Regiment, thrown out as a skirmish line, advanced 
to the edge of the woods, when they were met with a sharp 
musketry fire, and also came within range of the Confederate 
battery and the Confederate gunboat Diana. It was the first 
time that this regiment had been under fire, but the men stood 
to the work like veterans, and very soon a brigade, under Gen. 
Henry W. Birge, came to their support. Two guns were 
brought up, which answered the artillery fire of the enemy; 

but still the advance troops were suffering from a cross-fire, 

which was increased by the appearance of two Confederate 


LIEUTENANT W. T. CLARK. 
(Afterward Brigadier-General.) 








BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES CRAIG. 


















•;&» ' 

r-**' •- 




-■- 










vV; 


=-»:t 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


347 



BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL S. J. CRAWFORD. 


COLONEL H. G. G'BSON. 

hastily withdrawn. A second 
brigade was now sent to the 
assistance of the first, and 
the whole made a grand 
charge, before which the 
Confederates fled in dis¬ 
order ; and when a third 
brigade came up and threat¬ 
ened the capture of the gunboat Diana, her crew abandoned her 
and blew her up. Sixty prisoners were taken, and some artillery 
horses and many small arms. Out of three hundred and fifty 
men of the Twenty-fifth Connecticut Regiment, which took the 
leading part in this action, eighty-six were killed or wounded, 
and ten were missing. The Thirteenth Connecticut lost seven 
killed and forty-six wounded. Many instances of peculiar valor 
in this small but destructive battle are recorded. Of Lieut. 
Daniel P. Dewey, who was killed at the point where the hostile 
lines came nearest together, the adjutant wrote: “I saw him 
then, and the sight I shall never forget—waving his sword above 
his head, calling to his men, ‘ Remember you are Company A,’ 


his whole bearing so brave and heroic that it seemed 
almost impossible for any enemy to avoid marking 
him. Standing unmoved in a rain of bullets, he had 
a word of encouragement for every man near him, 
kindly greeting for a friend, and even a merry quota¬ 
tion from a favorite song to fling after a shell that 
went shrieking by. 


I last saw him, so I shall 
always remember him.” Lieutenant Dewey had left 
his studies in Trinity College, Hartford, to enlist. 

At Vermilion Bavou there were several slight 
actions, the most considerable of which took place 
October ioth. The Confederates being discovered 
here to the number of six or seven thousand, together 
with two batteries and a cavalry force, the Nineteenth 
Corps advanced to take them. After cavalry skirmish¬ 
ing a line of battle was formed, and the Confederates 
were driven across the bayou. Three batteries of rifled 
guns were then brought up, and they were diligently 
shelled wherever there was any appearance of them 
on the shore or in the woods. The cavalry found a 
ford, and the infantry improvised a pontoon bridge, 
which was partly supported by the burned portions 
of the bridge that the enemy had used. The whole force then 
crossed the bayou, but was not able to overtake the flying Con¬ 
federates. A report says : “ The conduct of all concerned in 
this affair was excellent, and the most conspicuous of all was the 
gallant General Weitzel on his war-horse, riding boldlv to the 
front, whither he had forbidden any other going on horseback. 
His appearance inspired the troops with the wildest enthusiasm, 
and the firing, which was warm and rapid before, seemed to 
redouble as he rode along the line.” 

In April, another expedition, commanded by Col. 0 . P. Good¬ 
ing, consisting of one brigade, marched against the Confederate 
works on the Bayou Teche. As soon as they arrived in sight of 


regiments on the 
right flank. One 
regiment was moved 
to the left, and ad¬ 
vanced rapidly upon 
the battery, firing as 
it went, when the 
guns were soon 
whirled away to save 
them from capture. 
This regiment did 
capture the bat¬ 
tery's flag, and was 
just resting in sup¬ 
posed victory, when 
another Confederate 
force came upon its 
flank, and it was 


AN ENCOUNTER BETWEEN A UNION AND A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER. 








n 






























34 ^ 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


the batteries, on the 13th, they were met by an artillery fire, 
which they returned at the same time that a large part of the 
infantry crossed the bayou and gained a position partly in the 
rear. Here they were met by a heavy skirmish line, which they 
gradually drove back into the works. A portion of the intrench- 
ments were then carried by assault, when darkness put an end 
to the fight. In the morning it was found that the enemy had 
fled. One hundred and thirty of them had been made prisoners. 
Colonel Gooding’s loss was seventy-two men, killed or wounded. 
One of the many instances of personal daring and skill that 
occurred in this great war is specially mentioned in the colonel’s 
report. In the course of the fight Private Patrick Smith, of the 
Thirty-eighth Massachusetts Regiment, came suddenly upon 
three Confederate soldiers in the woods. He shot one, and 
compelled the other two to surrender, and brought them in as 
prisoners. 

Galveston, Tex., had been occupied by National forces, and 
its harbor closed to blockade-running, in October, 1862. On the 
first day of January, 1863, a strong Confederate force, under Gen. 
John B. Magruder, attacked the fleet and the garrison, and suc¬ 
ceeded in retaking the town and raising the blockade. The 
naval force there consisted of six gunboats, under Commander 
W. B. Renshaw. Three Confederate steamers were discovered 
in the bay by the bright moonlight of the preceding night, and 
very early in the morning they came down to attack the gun¬ 
boats, while at the same time the land force attacked the gar¬ 
rison. The gunboat Harriet Lane was set upon by two Con¬ 
federate steamers, which were barricaded with cotton bales, and 
carried rifled guns, besides a large number of sharp-shooters on 
the decks. The Harriet Lane made a gallant fight, and was 
rammed by one of the steamers, which so injured itself in the 
collision that it ran for the shore and sank. The other steamer 
then ran into the Harriet Lane, made fast to her, sent volleys of 
musketry across her deck, and boarded her. She was quickly 
captured; but her commander, J. M. Wainwright, refused to 
surrender, and defended himself with his revolver until he was 
killed. The first lieutenant and five of the crew also fell. 
The Owasco , going to the assistance of the Harriet Lane , got 
aground several times, and finally, seeing that the guns of the 
Harriet Lane were turned upon her, drew off, but continued the 
engagement with the enemy on shore. The other gunboats had a 
similar ill-fortune, and when some of them finally arrived within 
range of the Harriet Lane they were prevented from firing upon 
her by the fact that the Confederates exposed her captured crew 
on deck. Flags of truce, demanding surrender, were now sent 
in by the Confederates, who used the opportunity while opera¬ 
tions were thus suspended to capture the garrison on shore, and 
get artillery into position to fire upon the gunboats. Com¬ 
mander Renshaw declined to surrender, and ordered his execu¬ 
tive officer to blow up the Westfield, in case she could not be 
got afloat. Arrangements for this were made, and the explo¬ 
sion took place prematurely, killing Commander Renshaw, two 
other officers, and a dozen of the crew. The remaining gunboats 
escaped and abandoned the blockade. General Magruder then 
issued a proclamation declaring the port opened to commerce. 

The minor events of the third year included a few naval affairs 
of some importance in their way. On the 14th of January guer¬ 
illas captured the steamer Forest Queen at Commerce, Miss., 
and destroyed her. The privateer Nashville had been for some 
time blockaded by Du Pont’s vessels, where she lay under the 
guns of Fort McAllister, Ga. She made several unsuccessful 
attempts to get to sea, and finally, on the 27th of February, Com¬ 


mander John L. Worden, perceiving that she had grounded, 
moved up rapidly with the iron-clad Montauk , and at twelve hun¬ 
dred yards fired into her with eleven-inch and fifteen-inch shells. 
Several of these exploded inside of the Nashville and set her on 
fire. She burned until the flames reached her magazine, when 
she was blown into fragments. Worden had been assisted by 
three wooden vessels of the blockading fleet, which kept down 
the fire of the battery. On the Nansemond River, Va., in April, 
one of the National gunboats, the Mount Washington, being dis¬ 
abled, the Confederate gunboats came down to attack her, using 
both artillery and sharp-shooters. Lieut. William B. Cushing, 
commanding the Barney, went to her assistance, and after a 
sharp fight drove off the Confederate boats and brought away 
the Mount Washington in tow. Three of his men were killed and 
seven wounded. He says in his report: “It is only requisite to 
look at the Mount Washington to see with what desperate gal¬ 
lantry Lieutenant Lampson fought his vessel.” 

The troubles with Indians, which reached their height in the 
Minnesota massacres of 1862, continued to some extent through 
1863. In July a body of troops, commanded by Lieut.-Col. 
William R. Marshall, had a severe fight with them at a place 
called Big Mound, in Dakota. The Indians were posted among 
the rocky ridges and ravines of the summit range, and Marshall 
was obliged to make several detours to flank them as he drove 
them successively from one ridge to another. At the same 
time a detachment under Major Bradley had fought them on an¬ 
other ridge, and finally, in a desultory fight that lasted from four 
o'clock in the morning till nine o’clock at night, the Indians were 
completely routed and scattered. Colonel Marshall lost eight 
men, including a surgeon who was murdered before the fight, 
and killed or wounded about one hundred of the Indians. In 
September there were several other engagements of the usual 
character with the Indians, in Dakota, the most considerable of 
them taking place at Whitestone Hill. Here Gen. Alfred Sully’s 
command attacked a party of Indians who had been murdering 
and plundering, and not only defeated them and put them to 
flight, but captured much of the property of the Indians, in¬ 
cluding dogs, tents, and a large quantity of dried buffalo meat, 
all of which he burned. He took more than one hundred 
Indians prisoners. On the 8th of July there was a fight near 
Fort Halleck, Idaho, between the garrison of the fort and a party 
of Ute Indians. The engagement had lasted two hours, when 
the soldiers, led by Lieutenant Williams, made a charge that 
finished the battle, and the Indians fled to the mountains. 
Sixty of the Indians had been killed or wounded, and half a 
dozen of the soldiers. 

One of the incidents of this year well illustrates the true 
method of dealing with a contingency that arises in nearly every 
war. General Burnside had ordered the execution of two Con¬ 
federate officers who were detected in recruiting for their army 
within his lines—in other words, inducing his men to desert. In 
this action he followed strictly the laws of war. When it became 
known to the Confederate authorities, they ordered that two 
captains should be selected by lot from among the prisoners 
held in Libby, for execution in retaliation. The order was 
transmitted to the keepers of the prison, who proceeded to 
carry it out, and three chaplains among the prisoners were 
appointed to conduct the drawing. The lot fell upon Capt. 
Henry W. Sawyer, of the Second New Jersey cavalry, and 
Captain Flynn, of the Fifty-first Indiana Regiment. The Rich¬ 
mond Despatch said in its report: “ Sawyer heard the decision 
with no apparent emotion, remarking that some one had to be 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


349 


drawn, and he could stand it as well as any one else. Flynn 
was very white and much depressed.” The two condemned 
men were conveyed to the headquarters of General Winder, who 
warned them not to be deluded by any hope of escape, as the 
retaliatory punishment would certainly be inflicted eight days 
from that time. Captain Sawyer obtained permission to write 
to his wife, on condition, of course, that the letter should be read 
by the prison authorities. In this letter, after telling what had 
been done, he wrote : “The Provost-General, J. H. Winder, assures 
me that the Secretary of War of the Southern Confederacy 
will permit yourself and my dear children to visit me before 
I am executed. You will be permitted to bring an attendant. 
Captain Whilldin, or uncle W. W. Ware, or Dan, had better 
come with you. My situation is hard to be borne, and I can¬ 
not think of dying without seeing you and the children. I am 
resigned to whatever is in store for me, with the consolation 
that I die without having committed any crime. I have no 
trial, no jury, nor am I charged with any crime, but it fell to my 
lot. You will proceed to Washington. My Government will 
give you transportation to Fortress Monroe, and you will get 
here by a flag of truce, and return the same way.” Sawyer and 
Flynn were then placed in close confinement in a dungeon 
under ground, where they were fed on corn-bread and water, 


the dungeon being so damp that their clothing mildewed. 
Captain Sawyer’s letter had precisely the effect that he in¬ 
tended—his wife immediately went to Washington with it, and 
laid it before the President and the Secretary of War. It 
happened at this time, that among the Confederate officers who 
were held as prisoners by the National authorities were a son 
of General Lee and a son of General Winder, and Secretary 
Stanton immediately ordered that these officers be placed in 
close confinement, as hostages for the safety of Sawyer and 
Flynn, while notification was sent by flag of truce to the Con¬ 
federate Government, that, immediately upon receiving informa¬ 
tion of the execution of Sawyer and Flynn, Lee and Winder 
would be likewise executed. The result was what it always is 
when prompt and sufficient retaliation is prepared for in such 
cases—none of the men were executed, and within three weeks 
Captains Flynn and Sawyer were placed again on the same foot¬ 
ing as other prisoners in Libby. During the war, whenever 
there was a proposal of retaliation for an outrage, there was 
always an outcry against it, on the ground that it would only 
result in double murders. Those who made such outcries could 
not have read history very attentively, or they would have 
known that the result has always been exactly the opposite of 
that. 



rryrrrryrrrr 

v T i L L l l l 


CHAIN BRIDGE OVER THE POTOMAC RIVER, NEAR WASHINGTON. 
(From a War-time Photograph.) 




































CONSTRUCTING WINTER QUARTERS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN. 


GRANT MADE I.IF.UTENANT-GENERAL WITH COMMAND OF ALL THE ARMIES—HEADQUARTERS WITH THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC-PLAN OF 

THE CAMPAIGN—POSITION OF THE ARMIES—RELATIVE NUMBERS—A GREAT ARMY IN WINTER QUARTERS—PICTURESQUE AND INTEREST¬ 
ING DETAILS OF CAMP LIFE—GRANT CROSSES THE RAPIDAN—BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS—BATTLE OF SPOTTSYLVANIA—BATTLE OF 
COLD HARBOR—THE LOSSES OF BOTH SIDES—GRANT CROSSES THE JAMES—CAVALRY OPERATIONS—CRITICISMS OF GENERAL GRANT— 
GENERAL LONGSTREET WOUNDED—EWELL SEES THE END. 



At the close of the third year of the war—the winter of 1863-4 
—it was evident to all thoughtful citizens that something was 
lacking in its conduct. To those who understood military opera¬ 
tions on a large scale this had been apparent long before. It was 
true that there had been great successes as well as great failures. 
Both of Lee’s attempts at invasion of the North had resulted 
disastrously to him—the one at the Antietam, the other at 
Gettysburg; and when he recrossed the Potomac the second 
time, with half of his army disabled, it was morally certain that 
he would invade no more. Grant, first coming into notice 
as the captor of an army in February, 1862, had captured 
another, more than twice as large, in the summer of 1863, 
thus securing the stronghold of Vicksburg, and enabling the 
Mississippi, as Lincoln expressed it, to flow unvexed to the 
sea. Later in the same year he had won a brilliant victory 
over Bragg at Chattanooga, securing that important point 

and relieving East Tennessee. New Orleans, _— 

by far the largest city in the South, had 
been firmly held by the 
National forces ever since 
Farragut captured it, 

April, 1862. There 
were also numerous 
points on the coast 
of the C a r o 1 i n a s, 

Georgia, and Florida 
where the Stars and 
Stripes floated every 
day in assertion of the 
nation’s claim to su¬ 
preme authority. 

Missouri, Kentucky, poplar grove 

Maryland, West Vir- (Built by the United states m 


m 


ginia, and Tennessee—all confidently counted upon by the Con¬ 
federates at the outset—were now hopelessly lost to them. 
Though it had seemed, from the reports of the great battles, 
and the manner in which they were discussed, that the Confed¬ 
erates must be making headway, yet a glance at the map showed 
that the territory covered by Confederate authority had been 
steadily diminishing. Only one recapture of any consequence 
had taken place, and that was in Texas. Faulty though it was, 
if the military process thus far pursued by the Administration 
had been kept up, it must ultimately have destroyed the Con¬ 
federacy. And there was no military reason (using the word 
in its narrow sense) why it could not be kept up ; for the 
resources of the North, in men and material, were not seriously 
impaired. All the farms were tilled, all the workshops were 
busy, the colleges had almost their usual number of students; 
and there were not nearly so many young women keeping 
books or standing behind counters as now. More¬ 
over, the ports of the North were all open, and 
the markets of the world accessible. It 
is true that the currency and the na¬ 
tional securities were at a discount, 
and it was certain that their value 
would be diminished still 
further by the prolonga¬ 
tion of the war; but this 
was not fatal so long as 
our own country pro¬ 
duced everything essen¬ 
tial, and it was equally 
certain that with a re¬ 
stored Union the na¬ 
tional credit would be so 
high that we could take 


CHURCH. 

litary Engineer Corps.) 






























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


35 * 



viously borne this commission in the United States service, and 
through three years of the war we had nothing higher than a 
major-general in the field. Rank was cheaper in the Confederacy, 
where there were not only lieutenant-generals, but several full gen¬ 
erals. The corps commanders in Lee’s army, at the head of ten 
thousand or fifteen thousand men, had nominally the same rank 

(lieutenant-general) as Grant when he as¬ 
sumed command of all the National forces 
in the field. When Lincoln handed Grant 
his commission, they met for the first time. 

A year and a month later the war was 
ended, Grant was the foremost soldier in 
the world, and Lincoln was in his grave. 
When the question of headquarters arose, 
General Sherman, who was one of the 
warmest of Grant’s personal friends as well 
as his ablest lieutenant, besought him to 
remain in the West, for he feared the Wash¬ 
ington influences that had always been most 
heavily felt in the army covering the capital. 
General Sherman, never afraid of anything 
else, was always in mortal 


our own time about paying the debt, distributing the burden 
over as many generations as we chose. 

The necessity for a swifter process was more political than 
military. There was a half-informed populace to be satisfied, 
and a half-loyal party to be silenced. The subtlest foe was in 
our own household; and the approach of the Presidential and 


Congressional elections, unless 
great National victories should 
intervene, might bring its oppor¬ 
tunity and seal the fate of the Re¬ 
public. 

The one thing required was a 
single supreme military head for all 
the armies in the field. The faulty 
disposition by which, in many of the 
great battles, the several parts of an 
army had struck the enemy success¬ 
ively instead of all at once, existed 
also on the grander scale. There was 
no concert of action between the ar¬ 
mies of the East, the West, and the 
Southwest ; so that large detachments 
of the Confederate forces were sent back 
and forth on their shorter interior lines, 
to fight wherever they were most needed. 

Thus Longstreet’s powerful corps was 
at one time engaged in Pennsylvania, a little later besieging 
Burnside in Tennessee, and again with Lee in Virginia. Not 
only was the need for a supreme commander apparent, but 
it was now no longer possible to doubt who was the man. We 
had one general that from the first had gone directly for the 
most important objects in his department, and thus far had 
secured everything he went for. Accordingly Congress passed a 
bill reviving the grade of lieutenant-general in February, 1864, 
and President Lincoln promptly conferred that rank upon Gen¬ 
eral Ulysses S. Grant. Only Washington and Scott had pre¬ 


p\C^ ETS 




paSS£S ticians. Grant 

appears not to have feared 
even the politicians ; for he promptly fixed 
his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, thus 
placing himself where, on the one hand, he could withstand 
interference that might thwart the operations of a subordinate, 
and where, on the other, he would personally conduct the cam¬ 
paign against the strongest army of the Confederacy and its 
most trusted leader. 

He planned a campaign in which he considered the Army of 
the Potomac his centre; the Army of the James, under General 
Butler, his left wing; the Western armies, now commanded by 
Sherman, his right wing ; and the army under Banks in Louisi¬ 
ana, a force operating in the rear of the enemy. In its great feat- 


IN WINTER QUARTERS. 















WHARF AT BELLE PLAIN, VA. 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD, 


353 


ures, the plan was this: that all should move simultaneously— 
Butler against Petersburg, to seize the southern communications 
of the Confederate capital; Sherman against Johnston’s army 
(then at Dalton, Ga.), to defeat and destroy it if possible, or 
at least to force it back and capture Atlanta with its work¬ 
shops and important communications; Banks to set out on an 
expedition toward Mobile, to capture that city and close its 
harbor to blockade-runners; Sigel to drive back the Confederate 
force in the Shenandoah valley, and prevent that fertile region 
from being used any longer as a Confederate granary ; while the 
Army of the Potomac, taking Lee’s army for its objective, should 
follow it wherever it went, fighting and flanking it until it should 
be captured or dispersed. 

South of the Rapidan is a peculiar region twelve or fifteen 
miles square, known as the Wilderness. Some of the earliest 
iron-works in the country were here, and much of the ground 
was dug over for the ore, while the woods were cut off to supply 
fuel for the furnaces. A thick second growth sprang up, with 
tangled underbrush; the mines were deserted, the furnaces went 
to decay, and the whole region was desolate, save a roadside 
tavern or two, and here and there a little clearing. Chancellors- 
ville, where a great battle was fought in May, 1863, was upon 
the eastern edge of this Wilderness. The bulk of Lee’s army 
was now (May, 1864) upon its western edge, with a line of ob¬ 
servation along the Rapidan, and headquarters at Orange Court- 
House. The Army of the Potomac was north of the Rapidan, 
opposite the Wilderness, where it had lain since November, when 
it had crossed to the south side with the purpose of attacking the 
Army of Northern Virginia (as narrated in a previous chapter), 
but found it too strongly intrenched along Mile Run, and so 
recrossed and went into winter quarters. 

The conduct of affairs where a great army lies in winter quar¬ 
ters, making a peculiar sort of community by itself, has its pict¬ 
uresque and interesting details and incidents, as well as its 
general dulness. The reader may get a suggestive glimpse of 
the camp on the north side of the Rapidan that winter, if he 
will look at it through the eyes of Captain Blake : 

“ The army steadily advanced in successive years from river to 
river, and erected its winter quarters upon the banks of the Poto¬ 
mac, the Rappahannock, and the Rapidan. The headquarters 
were established at the same point that had been occupied by 
Lee, and the staff which he left in his hasty flight was un¬ 
adorned ; while the American flag daily ascended and descended 
the high pole when the call ‘ to the color ’ was sounded at sun¬ 
rise and sunset. The telegraph office in the town was occupied 
bv the same operator for the fifth time in the various changes 
that had taken place in the position of the army—the rebels 
always possessed it for a similar purpose as soon as it was aban¬ 
doned ; and both parties used the same table, and several miles 
of the same wire. Operations against the enemy, and drills, 
were suspended during the inclement season; and details to 
guard the trains, the camps, and the picket-lines, and labor 
upon the roads, comprised the routine of duty. Courts-martial 
assembled frequently to determine the nature and punishment 
of military crimes ; and one tribunal, of which the author was 
judge-advocate, tried about forty men for misconduct in skulk¬ 
ing from Mine Run ; and a chaplain was found guilty of stealing 
a horse, and dismissed from the service by order of the President. 

“ The face of the country soon assumed the barren aspect of 
Falmouth ; and the pickets of the brigade, for a month, made 
their fires of the woodwork of corn-shelling, threshing, and the 
numerous other machines with which a large farm was supplied ; 


and iron rods, bolts, ploughshares, cranks, and cogwheels were 
sprinkled upon the ground in the vicinity of the posts. The 
fifteen hundred inhabitants that lived in Culpeper before the 
Rebellion had been reduced to only eighty persons, who were 
chiefly dependent upon the Government for the means of suste¬ 
nance. The court-house and slave-pen had been gutted, and 
were used as places of confinement for rebel prisoners. The 
fences that enclosed the cemeteries which were attached to the 
churches had been torn down and burned ; and sinks, booths, 
stables for horses, and the fires of the cooks were scattered in 
the midst of the gravestones and tombs. The state of destitu¬ 
tion that prevailed may be illustrated more clearly by quoting 
the remark of a young woman who resided in the place: ‘ My 
father was worth three hundred thousand dollars; but all his 
people, except a small boy, ran away with your folks; his large 
house was burned by your cavalry; we eat your pork and bread; 
and. just think of it. I haven’t had a new dress or bonnet since the 
war began ! ’ The refugees and their families constantly entered 
the lines; and one of them said that he was assisted by a friend, 
who gave him his horse, and manifested much indignation and 
declared that the animal had been stolen, to mislead the neigh¬ 
bors, when he received the news of his successful escape. De¬ 
serters exhausted their ingenuity in finding ways to reach the 
cavalry videttes; and some gladly swam across the Rappahan¬ 
nock in the coldest nights of the year. 

“ The old residents asserted that the ground upon which the 
division had encamped was always submerged in winter, and it 
would be impossible for the men to remain there until spring: 
but the barracks were never swept away by any inundation ; and 
they explained the matter by saying that it was the dryest season 
that had existed for thirty years. The results of one severe 
rain, that deluged the plain, showed that, if they were often 
repeated, all persons would perceive the wisdom of the warning. 
The river rose and overflowed the swamp so suddenly that the 
members of seven posts which were located near it were obliged 
to climb trees to avoid the unlooked-for danger of drowning; and 
the brief tour of picket duty was extended many hours. Squads 
that were not stationed in the forest found themselves upon an 
island, and waded through the deep water a long distance; and 
some were compelled to swim to reach the reserve upon what was 
the mainland. A small stream was enlarged to the dimensions 
of a lake one-fourth of a mile in width ; and a part of the cavalry 
provost-camp was submerged, and an officer discovered that the 
rushing water was two feet deep in his tent when he awoke. The 
weather-wisers always glanced at the mountains; and the voices 
of experience uttered the following precept—that there would be 
rain once in every two days as long as the snow crowned the 
crests of the Blue Ridge. 

“ During this period the enemy did not attempt to make any 
movement, although a long line of railroad conveyed supplies 
from Alexandria; and the troops of Lee labored unceasingly, 
and constructed miles of earthworks upon the bluffs that had 
been fortified by nature; while the Union forces rested in their 
camps, and relied for defence upon the strong arm and loyal 
heart. A number of false alarms occurred, and the soldiers were 
sometimes ordered to be in readiness to march at a second’s 
notice to resist an advance. 

“The number of officers’ wives and other ladies that were 
present in the camps was much larger than at any previous 
period ; and balls and similar festivities relieved the monotony 
of many winter quarters. Large details, that sometimes com¬ 
prised a thousand men, were ordered to report at certain head- 


354 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



quarters for the purpose of constructing suitable halls of logs 
on the ‘ sacred soil ’ of Virginia. A chapel was built within the 
limits of the brigade by the soldiers, who daily labored upon it 
for three weeks; and many of the officers contributed money to 
purchase whatever appeared to be required for it. An agent of 
the Christian Commission furnished a capacious tent, which formed 
the roof; and religious, temperance, and Masonic meetings were 
frequently held, until this apostle, who employed most of his 
time in writing long letters for the press, that portrayed in vivid 
colors the ‘good work’ which he was accomplishing, removed 
the canvas because an innocent social assembly occupied it 
during one evening. The enlisted men, who rarely enjoyed 


fit of these 
structures which 
they erected, ori- 
IN THE wilderness ginated dances of 

a singular charac¬ 
ter. By searching the cabins and houses of the natives, and 
borrowing apparel, and a liberal use of pieces of shelter tents 
and the hoops of barrels, one-half of the soldiers were arrayed 
as women, and filled the places of the seemingly indispensable 
partners of the gentler sex. The resemblance in the features of 
some of these persons were so perfect that a stranger would be 
unable to distinguish between the assumed and the genuine 
characters. 

“Thousands of crows rendered good service by devouring the 
entrails of animals which had been slaughtered by the butchers, 
and the carcasses of dead horses and mules. They were never 
shot, because the citizens had no guns, and the soldiers would 
be punished if they wasted ammunition ; and they grew tame 
and fat in opposition to the well-known saying, and propagated 
so rapidly that their immense numbers blackened acres of ground 
in the vicinity of the camps. One noticeable event was a fire 
which swept over the field of Cedar Mountain, and caused the 
explosion of shells that had remained there nearly two years 
after the battle. 

“The ordinary preparations for active operations were made 
as soon as the roads became dry and hard: the ladies were 


notified to leave the camps previous to a specified date; sur¬ 
plus baggage resumed its annual visit to the storehouses in 
the rear; and reviews, inspections, and target-practice daily took 
place.” 

The Army of the Potomac was now organized in three infan¬ 
try corps, the Second, Fifth, and Sixth—commanded respectively 
by Gens. Winfield S. Hancock, Gouverneur K. Warren, and John 
Sedgwick—and a cavalry corps commanded by Gen. Philip H. 
Sheridan ; Gen. George G. Meade being still in command of 
the whole. Burnside’s corps, the Ninth, nearly twenty thousand 
strong, was at Annapolis, and nobody but General Grant knew 
its destination. President Lincoln and his Cabinet thought it 

was to be sent on some duty down the coast; 
and so perhaps did the enemy. Grant knew 
too well that there was a leak somewhere in 
Washington, through which every Govern¬ 
ment secret escaped to the Confederates ; 
and he therefore delayed till the last moment 
the movement of Burnside’s corps to a point 
from which it could follow the Army of the 
Potomac across the Rapidan within twenty- 
four hours. 

The Army of Northern Virginia consisted 
of two infantry corps, commanded by Gens. 
Richard S. Ewell and Ambrose P. Hill, with 
a cavalry corps commanded by Gen. James 
E. B. Stuart; the whole commanded by Gen. 
Robert E. Lee; while, as an offset to Burn¬ 
side’s corps, Gen. James Longstreet’s was 
within call. The exact number of men in 
either army cannot be told, as reports and authorities 
differ; nor can the approximate numbers be mentioned 
fairly, unless with an explanation. The method of counting for 
the official reports was different in the two armies. In the 
National army, a report that a certain number of men were 
present for duty included every man that was borne on the 
pay-rolls, whether officer, soldier, musician, teamster, cook, or 
mechanic, and also all that had been sent away on special duty, 
guarding trains and the like. This was necessary, because they 
were all paid regularly, and the money had to be accounted 
for. In the Confederate army there was no pay worth speak¬ 
ing of, and the principal object of a morning report was to show 
the exact effective force available that day; accordingly, the 
Confederate reports included only the men actually bearing mus¬ 
kets or sabres, or handling the artillery. Counted in this way, 
Lee had sixty thousand, or perhaps sixty-five thousand, men— 
for exact reports are wanting, even on that basis. If counted 
after the fashion in the National army, his men numbered about 
eighty thousand. Grant puts his own numbers, everything in¬ 
cluded, at one hundred and sixteen thousand, and thinks the 
preponderance was fully offset by the fact that the enemy was 
on the defensive, seldom leaving his intrenchments, in a country 
admirably suited for defence, and with the population friendly to 
him. As each side received reinforcements from time to time 
about equal to its losses, the two armies may be considered as 
having, throughout the campaign from the Rapidan to the James, 
the strength just stated. 

It was clearly set forth by General Grant at the outset that 
the true objective was the Army of Northern Virginia. In that 
lay the chief strength of the Confederacy; while that stood, the 
Confederacy would stand, whether in Richmond or out of it; 
when that fell, the Confederacy would fall. To follow that 










CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


355 


army wherever it went, fight it, and destroy it, was the task that 
lay before the Army of the Potomac ; and every man in the 
army, as well as most men in the country, knew it was a task 
that could be accomplished only through immense labor and 
loss of life, hard marching, heavy fighting, and all manner of 
suffering. 

1 he intention was to have the simultaneous movement of all 
the armies begin as near the ist of May as possible. It actually 
began at midnight of the 3d, when the Army of the Potomac 
was set in motion and crossed the Rapidan, which is there about 
two hundred feet wide, on five pontoon bridges near Germania, 
Culpeper Mine, and Ely’s fords. On crossing, it plunged at 
once into the Wilderness, which is here traversed from north 
to south by two roads, a mile or two apart. And these roads 
are crossed by two—the Orange turnpike and Orange plank 
road—running nearly east and west. Besides these, there are 
numerous cross-roads and wood-paths. It would have been easy 
for the army to pass through this wooded tract in a very few 
hours, and deploy in the 
open country ; but the sup¬ 
ply and ammunition train 
consisted of four thousand 
wagons, and the reserve 
artillery of more than one 
hundred guns—all of which 
must be protected by keep¬ 
ing the army between them 
and the enemy. Conse¬ 
quently the troops remained 
in the Wilderness during the 
whole of the 4th, while the 
long procession was filing 
across the bridges and 
stretching away on the east¬ 
ernmost roads. And after 
this the bridges themselves 
were taken up. Grant’s 
headquarters that night 
were at the old Wilderness 
Tavern, on the Orange turn¬ 
pike, near the intersection 
of the road from Germania 
Ford. It had been supposed 
that Lee would either dis¬ 
pute the passage of the 
river, or (as he had done 
on previous occasions) await 
attack on some chosen 
ground that was suitable 
for fighting. As he had not 
disputed the passage, the 
army now expected to 
march out of the Wilder¬ 
ness the next day, thus 
turning the enemy’s right 
flank, and placing itself be¬ 
tween him and his capital. 

But Grant kept pickets 
out on all the roads to the 
west; and it cannot be 
said that he was surprised, 
though he was probably 


disappointed, when he found his lines attacked on the morning 
of the 5th. The movement was believed at first to be only a 
feint, intended to keep the Army of the Potomac in the Wilder¬ 
ness, while the bulk of the enemy should slip by to the south 
and take up a position covering the approach to Richmond. 
But it was developed rapidly, and it soon became evident that 
the Confederate commander had resorted to the bold device of 
launching his whole army down the two parallel roads, with the 
purpose of striking the Army of the Potomac when it was ill- 
prepared to receive battle. Under some circumstances he would 
thus have gained a great advantage ; as it was, the army was 
clear of the river, with all its trains safe in the rear, was reason¬ 
ably well together, had had a night’s rest, and was not in any 
proper sense surprised. Hancock’s corps, which had the lead 
and was marching out of the Wilderness, was quickly recalled, 
Burnside’s was hurried up from the rear, and a line of battle 
was formed—so far as there could be any line of battle in a 
jungle. Neither artillery nor cavalry could be used to any 

extent by either side, and 
the contest was little more 
than a murdering-match be¬ 
tween two bodies of men, 
each individual having a 
musket in his hand, and 
being unable to see more 
than a few of his nearest 
neighbors. This went on 
all day, increasing hourly as 
more of the troops came 
into position, with no real 
advantage to either side 
when night fell upon the 
gloomy forest, already dark¬ 
ened by smoke that there 
was no breeze to waft away. 
Lee’s attack had been vigor¬ 
ous on his left, but imper¬ 
fect- on his right, where 
Longstreet’s corps did not 
get up in time to participate 
in the fighting that day. 
No sooner had the battle 
ended than both sides 
began to intrench for the 
struggle of the morrow, and 
they would hear the sound 
of each other’s axes, only 
a few rods distant, as they 
worked through the night, 
cutting down trees, piling 
up logs for breastworks, and 
digging the customary 
trench. 

Grant intended to take 
the initiative on the morn¬ 
ing of the 6th, and gave or¬ 
ders for an attack at five 
o’clock. But Lee, who did 
not want the real battle of 
the day to begin till Long- 
street’s corps should be in 
place on his right, attacked 











356 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



with his left at a still earlier hour. 
Grant recognized this as a feint, 
and went on with his purpose of 
attacking the enemy’s right before 
Longstreet should come up. This 
work devolved upon Hancock’s 
corps, which, as usual, was ready 
to advance at the hour named ; but 
just then came rumors of a flank 
movement by Longstreet, and Han¬ 
cock, detaching troops to meet it, 
greatly weakened the blow he was 
ordered to deliver. This was all a 
mistake, as there was no enemy in 
that direction, save Rosser’s Con¬ 
federate cavalry, which Sheridan’s 
defeated that day in three encoun¬ 
ters. But Hancock’s advance was 
powerful enough to drive the enemy 
before him for more than a mile. 
At that juncture Longstreet came 
up, the broken Confederate line 
rallied on his corps, and Hancock 
was driven back in turn. Here 
the fighting was stubborn, and the 
losses heavy. Gen. James S. 
Wadsworth, one of the most 
patriotic men in the service, was 
mortally wounded, and died within 
the Confederate lines. The Con¬ 
federate General Jenkins was killed, 
and Longstreet was seriously 
wounded in almost ex¬ 
actly the same way that 
Stonewall Jackson had 
been, a year and three 
days before, on nearly 
the same ground. As 
he was returning from 
the front with his staff, 
some of his own men 
mistook them for Na¬ 
tional cavalry and fired 
upon them. Longstreet 
was shot through the 
neck and shoulder, and 
had to be carried from 
the field. His men had 
been thrown into great 
confusion, and General 
Lee, who now took com¬ 
mand of them in person, 
found it impossible to 
rally them for an attack 
on Hancock’s intrench- 
ments, or at least de¬ 
ferred the attack that 
had been planned. But 
late in the afternoon 
such an assault was 
made, and met with a 
little temporary success. 


The Confederates burst through the 
line at one point, but were soon 
driven back again with heavy loss. 
At this time a fire broke out in 
Hancock’s front, and soon his log 
breastworks were burning. His 
men were forced back by the heat, 
but continued firing at their enemy 
through the flame. Large numbers 
of the dead and wounded were still 
lying where they fell, scattered over 
the belt of ground, nearly a mile 
wide, where the tide of battle had 
swayed back and forth, and an un¬ 
known number of the wounded 
perished by the fire and smoke. 
Burnside had come into line during 
the day, and fightinghad been kept 
up along the entire front, but it was 
nowhere so fierce as on the left or 
southern end of the line, where each 
commanderwas trying to double up 
the other’s flank. At night the 
Confederates withdrew to their in- 
trenchments, and from that time 
till the end of the campaign they 
seldom showed a disposition to 
leave them. 

The terrible tangle of the Wilder¬ 
ness in which this great battle was 
fought is indicated by the fact that 
in several instances squads from 
either army, who were 
guarding prisoners and 
intending to take them 
to the rear, lost their 
way and carried them 
into their opponents’ 
lines, wheretheguards in 
turn became prisoners. 
A participant says of 
the fighting on the Na¬ 
tional right, where the 
Confederates gained 
some ground the first 
day: “The extreme 
heat of the day increased 
the fatigue, and tears 
were shed by some who 
overrated the results of 
the d i s a s t e r. The 
slaughter in many regi¬ 
ments had been large, 
and at one point the 
bodies of the killed de¬ 
fined with terrible ex¬ 
actness the position held 
by the Union troops, 
and a long line of rebel 
corpses was extended 
in front of it. One of 
the flag-staffs of the 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS C. DEVIN. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL J, I. GREGG. BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER. 

MAJOR-GENERAL WESLEY MERRITT. 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


35 ; 




regiment was severed by a bullet, and each hand of the bearer 
grasped a piece of it.’ The same participant says of the fight¬ 
ing on his part of the line during the second day: 

The division was posted once more behind the slight breast¬ 
work which had been erected upon the Germania-Ford road; 
the skirmishers were deployed in its front at four P.M., and the 
author commanded the detachment from the regiment. The 
groups were properly aligned within the next ten minutes, 
when the tramp of a heavy force resounded through the 
woods. Orders were excitedly repeated—* Forward ! ’ * Guide 
right ! ’ * Close up those intervals ! ’—and finally a void 

shouted : * Now, men, for the love of God and your country’, 
forward! The legions of Longstreet advanced without 
skirmishers; the muskets of the feeble line were dis¬ 
charged to alarm the reserve ; the men upon the out¬ 
posts rushed to the main body'; and thousands of gflis- 
tening gun-barrels which were resting upon the works 
opened, and the fusillade began. I he soldiers crouched 
upon the ground, loaded their pieces with the utmost 
celerity^, rose, fired, and then reloaded behind the shelter; 
so that the loss was very’ slight ; while the enemy suf¬ 
fered severely, as the trees were small, and there was no 
protection. The only’ artillery’ that was used in the after¬ 
noon was planted upon the left of the brigade, and consisted 
of four cannons, which hurled canister, shell, and solid shot 
until their ammunition was exhausted. Unfortunately, the dry 
logs of which the breastwork was formed were only partially’ 
covered with earth; and the flames, ignited by the burning 
w'adding during the conflict (an enemy that could not be re¬ 
sisted as easily as the myrmidons of Longstreet), destroyed 
them, and every second of time widened the breaches. The 
undaunted men crowded together until they formed fourteen or 
sixteen ranks; and those who were in the front discharged the 
guns which were constantly passed to them by their comrades 
that were in the rear and could not aim with accuracy’ or safety. 

The fingers of 
many men were 
blistered by the 
muskets, which 
became hot from 
the rapid firing. 
The fire tri- 
umphed when it 
flashed along the 
entire barrier of 
wood, reduced it 
to ashes, and 
forced the defend¬ 
ers, who had with¬ 
stood to the last 
its intolerable 
heat, to retire to 
the rifle-pits a 
short distance in 
the rear. The 
shattered rebel col- 
umns cautiously 
approached the 
road ; but the im¬ 
part i a 1 flames 
which had caused 
the discomfiture of 


the division became an ob¬ 
stacle that they’ could not 
surmount. The same mis¬ 
fortune followed the Union 
forces, and no exertions 
could 


COLONEL WILLIAM H MORRIS. 


check the consuming 
ment ; and the second 
w r as burned like the first, 
conflagration in the road 


ele- 

line 

The 

had 

the 

the 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
THOMAS A. SMYTH. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOSHUA J. OWENS. 


nearly’ ceased at this time; 
enemy’ yelled with exultation ; 
odious colors w’ere distinctly’ seen when 
the smoke slowly’ disappeared ; a gen¬ 
eral charge was made, which resulted 
in the capture of the original position; and the pickets were 
stationed half of a mile in the advance at sunset without opposi¬ 
tion. Many were eating their dinners when the assault com¬ 
menced ; and an officer hurriedly’ rushed to the works with a 
spoon in one hand and a fork in the other.” 

The losses in this great two-day’s’ battle cannot be stated 
accurately’. The best authorities vary as to the National loss, 
from fewer than fourteen thousand—killed, wounded, and miss¬ 
ing—to about fifteen thousand four hundred. As to the Con¬ 
federate loss, the figures can only’ be made up from partial 
reports, estimates, and inferences. According to these, it did 
not differ materially’ from the National loss, and in the circum¬ 
stances of the battle there was no reason for thinking it would. 
Among the officers lost, besides those already mentioned, were, 
on the National side, Gen. Alexander Hays killed ; Generals 
Getty, Baxter, and McAllister, and Colonels Carroll and Keifer 
wounded ; and Generals Seymour and Shaler captured ; on the 
Confederate side, Generals Pegram and Benning wounded. 

If General Lee supposed that the Army’ of the Potomac, after 
a sudden blow and a bloody’ battle, would turn about and go 
home to repair damages—as it had been in the habit of doing— 
he omitted from his calculation the fact that it was now led by 
a soldier who never did anything of the sort. Indeed, he is 
reported to have said to his lieutenants, after this costly experi¬ 
ment : “ Gentlemen, at last the Army’ of the Potomac has a 
head.” Tactically’, it had been a drawn battle. Grant accounts 
it a victory, which he says “ consisted in having successfully 
crossed a formidable stream, almost in the face of an enemy, 
and in getting the army’ together as a unit.” It was also a Na¬ 
tional victory in a certain dismal sense, from the fact that—in 
changing off man for man to the extent of twelve or fifteen thou¬ 
sand—that had been done which the enemy’ could least afford. 























35S 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



There was no fighting on the 7th except a cavalry engagement 
at Todd’s Tavern, by which Sheridan cleared the road for the 
southward movement of the army ; and in the afternoon Grant 
gave the order to move by the left flank toward Spottsylvania. 
Gen. William T. Sherman says in a private letter : “ It was then 
probably that General Grant best displayed his greatness. For¬ 
ward by the left flank!—that settled that campaign.” That the 
same opinion was held by a large part of the army itself at the 
time, is shown by the testimony of various men who were there. 
Frank Wilkeson writes: “Grant’s military standing with the 
enlisted men this day hung on the direction we turned at the 
Chancellorsville House. If to the left, he was to be rated with 
Meade and Hooker and Burnside and Pope—the generals who 
preceded him. At the Chancellorsville House we turned to the 
right. Instantly all of us heard a sigh of relief. Our spirits 
rose. We marched free. The men began to sing. The 
enlisted men understood the flanking movement That 
night we were happy.” 

Grant’s general purpose was 
to place his army between the ,, 

enemy and Richmond, interfer¬ 
ing with the communications 
and compelling Lee to 
fight at disadvantage. 

The immediate purpose 
was a rapid march to 
Spottsylvania 
Court-House, fif¬ 
teen miles south¬ 
east of the Wilder¬ 
ness battle-field, 
and a dozen miles 
southwest of Fred¬ 
ericksburg, to take 
a strong position 
covering the roads 
that radiate from 
that point. War¬ 
ren’s corps was to 
take the advance, 
marching by the 
Brock road, to be 
followed by Han¬ 
cock’s on the same 
road. Sedgwick’s 
and Burnside’s were 
to take a route far¬ 
ther north, through 
Chancellorsville. 

The trains were put 
in motion on Satur¬ 
day, May 7th, and 
Warren began his 

march at nine o’clock that evening. To withdraw an army in 
this manner, in the presence of a powerful enemy, and send it 
forward to a new position, is a difficult and delicate task, as it 
may be attacked after it has left the old position and before 
it has gained the new. The method adopted by General Grant 
was repeated in each of his flanking movements between the 
Wilderness and the James. It consisted in withdrawing the 
corps that held his right flank, and passing it behind the others 
while they maintained their position. Four small rivers rise in 


seen circum- 
the race and 
suing battle. 


GENERAL 


LONGSTREET 


HIS 


WOUNDING 


this region—the Mat, the Ta, the Po, and the Ny—which unite 
to form the Mattapony. Spottsylvania Court-House is on the 
ridge between the Po and the Ny. The country around it is 
heavily wooded, and somewhat broken by ravines. 

The distances that the two armies had to march to reach 
Spottsylvania Court-House were very nearly the same ; if there 
was any difference, it favored the National; but two unfore- 

stances determined 
the form of the en- 
The Brock road 
was occupied by a 
detachment of Con¬ 
federate cavalry, 
and Warren’s corps 
stood still while the 
National cavalry 
undertook to clear 
the way. This was 
not done easily, and 
the road was fur¬ 
ther obstructed 
where the Confed¬ 
erates had felled 
trees across it. 
After precious time 
had been lost War¬ 
ren’s corps went 
forward and cleared 
the way for itself. 
The other circum¬ 
stance was more 
purely fortuitous. 
Anderson’s divi- 
sionof Longstreet’s 
corps led the Con¬ 
federate advance, 
and Anderson had his 
orders to begin the 
march early on Sunday 
morning, the 8th. But from 
the burning of the woods he 
found no suitable ground for bivouac, 
and consequently marched all night. 
The National cavalry were in Spott¬ 
sylvania Court-House Sunday morning, and 
found there but a slight force of cavalry, 
easily brushed away ; but they had to retire be¬ 
fore the Confederate infantry when Anderson 
came down the road. Consequently, when 
Warren came within sight of the Court-House, 
he found the same old foe intrenched in his 
front. Still, if Hancock had come up promptly, 
the works might have been carried by a rapid 
movement, and held till the army should be where Grant wanted 
it, in position between the enemy and their capital. But Han¬ 
cock had been held back, because of apprehensions that the 
Confederates would make a heavy attack upon the rear of the 
moving columns. So the remainder of Longstreet’s corps, 
and finally all of Lee’s troops, poured into the rude sylvan 
fortress, and once more the Army of Northern Virginia stood 
at bay. 

At this point of time, May 8th, Grant sent Sheridan with his 


OWN MEN. 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


359 


cavalry to do to the Confederate army what in previous cam¬ 
paigns its cavalry had twice done to the Army of the Potomac— 
to ride entirely around it, tearing up railroads, destroying bridges 
and depots, and capturing trains. Sheridan set out to execute 
his orders with the energy and skill for which he was becoming 
famous. He destroyed ten miles of railroad and several trains 
of cars, cut all the telegraph wires, and recaptured four hundred 
prisoners who had been taken in the battle of the Wilderness 
and were on their way to Richmond. As soon as it was known 
which way he had gone, the Confederate cavalry set out to inter¬ 
cept him, and by hard riding got between him and Richmond. 
Sheridan’s troops met them at Yellow Tavern, seven miles north 
of the city, and after a hard fight defeated and dispersed them, 
Gen. J. E. Ik Stuart, the ablest cavalry leader in the Confed¬ 
eracy, being mortally wounded. Sheridan dashed through the 
outer defences of Richmond and took some prisoners, but found 
the inner ones too strong for him. He then crossed the Chicka- 
hominy, and rejoined the army on the 25th. 

As the National army came into position before the intrench- 
ments of Spottsylvania, Hancock's corps had the extreme right 
or western end of the line; then came Warren’s, then Sedg¬ 
wick’s, and on the extreme left Burnside’s. While Sedgwick’s 
men were placing their batteries, they were annoyed by sharp¬ 
shooters, one of whom, apparently posted in a tree, seemed to 
be an unerring marksman. He is said to have destroyed twenty 
lives that day. The men naturally shrank back from their 
work, when General Sedgwick, coming up, expostulated with 
them, remarking that “ they couldn’t hit an elephant at this dis¬ 
tance.” As he stepped forward to the works, a bullet struck 
him in the face, and he fell dead. In his fall the army lost one 
of its best soldiers, and the country one of its purest patriots. 
Sedgwick had been offered higher command than he held, but 
had firmly declined it, from a modest estimate of his own 
powers. Gen. Horatio G. Wright succeeded him in the com¬ 
mand of the Sixth Corps. 

On the evening of the gth Hancock’s corps moved to the right, 
with a view to flanking and attacking the Confederate left, and 
made a reconnoissance at the point where the road from Shady 
Grove church crosses the Po on a wooden bridge. A brigade of 
Barlow’s division laid down bridges and crossed the stream, but 
was confronted by intrenchments manned by a portion of Early’s 
corps. It was now seen that the Confederate left rested on the 
stream at a point above, so that Hancock by crossing would only 
have isolated himself from the rest of the army and invited 
destruction. But before he could withdraw Barlow, the enemy 
sallied out from their intrenchments and attacked that brigade 
in heavy force. The assault was met with steady courage and 
repelled, with considerable loss to Barlow, but with much greater 
loss to the assailants. After a short interval the experiment 
was renewed, with precisely the same result ; and Barlow then 
recrossed, under cover of a supporting column, and took up his 
bridges. 

The weak point in the Confederate line was the salient at the 
northern point of their intrenchment. A salient is weak because 
almost any fire directed against it becomes an enfilading fire for 
one or another part of it. But the National army were not up 
in balloons, looking down upon the earth as a map ; and they 
could only learn the shape of the Confederate intrenchments 
after traversing thick woods, following out by-paths and scram¬ 
bling through dark ravines. As soon as the salient was dis¬ 
covered, preparations were made for assaulting it. The storm¬ 
ing party consisted of twelve regiments of Wright’s corps, com¬ 


manded by Col. Emory Upton, and was to be supported by 
Mott’s division of Hancock’s, while at the same time the re¬ 
mainder of Wright’s and all of Warren’s corps were to advance 
and take advantage of any opportunity that should be made for 
them. While a heavy battery was firing rapidly at the salient 
and enfilading one of its sides, Upton’s men formed under cover 
of the woods, near the enemy’s line, and the instant the battery 
ceased firing, about six o’clock in the evening, burst out with 
a cheer, swept over the works after a short hand-to-hand fight, 
and captured more than a thousand prisoners, and a few guns. 
Mott, forming in open ground, did not move so promptly, 
suffered more from the fire of the enemy, and effected nothing. 
Warren’s corps moved forward, but was driven back with heavy 
loss. In a second assault, they reached the breastworks and 
captured them after fierce fighting, but were not able to hold 
them when strong Confederate reinforcements came up, and 
retired again. Upton, who had broken through a second line 
of intrenchments, seemed to have opened a way for the destruc¬ 
tion of the Confederate army ; but the difficulties of the ground 
and the lateness of the hour made it impracticable to follow up 
the advantage by pouring a whole corps through the gap and 
taking everything in reverse. After dark, Upton’s men with¬ 
drew, bringing the prisoners and the captured battle-flags, but 
leaving the guns behind. For this exploit, in which he was 
severely wounded, Colonel Upton was made a brigadier-general 
on the field. While this was going on, Burnside, at the extreme 
left of the line, had obtained a good position, from which he 
could have assaulted advantageously the Confederate right, 
which he overlapped. But this was not perceived, and as there 
was a dangerous gap between his corps and Wright’s, he was 
drawn back in the night, and the advantage was lost. 

On the nth it rained heavily, and there was no fighting; but 
there were reconnoissances and preparations for a renewal of the 
battle on the next day. Grant determined to make a heavier 
and more persistent assault upon the tempting salient, and 
moved Hancock’s corps by a wood-road, after dark, to a point 
opposite the apex. The morning of the 12th was foggy, but by 
half-past four o’clock it was light enough, and Hancock’s men 
advanced, some of them passing through thickets of dead pines. 
When they were half-way across the open ground in front of the 
salient, they burst into a wild cheer and rushed for the works. 
Here they were met by a brave and determined resistance on 
the part of the half-surprised Confederates, who fought irregu¬ 
larly with clubbed muskets. But nothing could resist the 
impetus of Hancock’s corps, which was over the breastworks in 
a few seconds. Large numbers of Confederates were killed, 
mostly with the bayonet. So sudden was Hancock’s irruption 
into the enemy’s works, that he captured Gen. Edward John¬ 
son’s entire division of nearly four thousand men, with its com¬ 
mander and' also Brigadier-General Steuart. “ How are you, 
Steuart?” said Hancock, recognizing in his prisoner an old army 
friend, and extending his hand. “ I am General Steuart, of the 
Confederate army,” was the reply, “and under the circumstances 
I decline to take your hand.” “ Under any other circum¬ 
stances,” said Hancock quietly, “ I should not have offered it.” 
Hancock's men had also captured twenty guns, with their horses 
and caissons, thousands of small arms, and thirty battle-flags. 
The guns were immediately turned upon the enemy, who was 
followed through the woods toward Spottsylvania Court-House 
till the pursuers ran up against another line of intrenchments, 
which had been constructed in the night across the base of the 
salient. At the same time that Hancock assaulted at the apex, 




FALL OF GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK, AT SPOTTSYLVANI A. 













CAMPFIRE AMD BATTLEFIELD. 


361 




Warren and Burnside had assaulted at the sides, but with less 
success, though their men reached the breastworks. 

Lee understood too well the danger of having his line thus 
ruptured at the centre, and poured his men into the salient with 
a determination to retake it, for which some of his critics have 
censured him. Hancock’s men, when the pressure became too 
great for them, fell back slowly to the outer intrenchments, and 
turning, used them as their own. Five times the Confederates 
attacked these in heavy masses, and five times they were repelled 
with bloody loss. Before, they had been at disadvantage from 
defending a salient, and now they were at equal disadvantage 
in assailing a reentrant angle. To add to the slaughter, Hancock 
had established several batteries on high ground, where they 
could fire over the heads of his own men and strike the enemy 
beyond. Here and along the west face of the angle the fighting 
was kept up all day, and was most desperate and destructive. 
Field guns were run up close to the works and fired into the 
masses of Confederate troops within the salient, creating terrible 
havoc ; but in turn the horses and gunners were certain to be 
shot down. There was hand-to-hand fighting over the breast, 
works, and finally the men of the two armies were crouching on 
either side of them, shooting and stabbing through the crevices 
between the logs. Sometimes one would mount upon the works 
and have loaded muskets passed up to him rapidly, which he 
would fire in quick succession till the certain bullet came that 
was to end his career, and he tumbled into the ditch. In several 
instances men were pulled over the breastworks and made 
prisoners. One doughty but diminutive Georgian officer nearly 
died of mortification when a huge Wisconsin colonel reached 
over, seized him by the collar, and in a twinkling jerked him out 
of the jurisdiction of the Confederacy and into that of the 
United States. The fighting around the “ death-angle,” as the 
soldiers called it, was kept up till past midnight, when the Con¬ 
federates finally withdrew to their interior line. The dead were 
not only literally piled in heaps, but their bodies were terribly 
torn and mangled by the shot. Every tree and bush was cut 
down or killed by the balls, and in one instance the body of an 
oak tree nearly two feet in diameter was completely cut through 

by bullets, and in 
falling injured 
several men of a 
South Carolina 
regiment. Not 
even Sickles’ sali¬ 
ent at Gettysburg 
had been so fatal 
as this. If cour¬ 
age were all that 
a nation required,, 
therewas courage 
enough at Spott- 
s y1v a n i a, on 
either side of the 
intrenchments, to 
have made a na¬ 
tion out of every 
State in the 
Union. 

It was extreme¬ 
ly difficult for 

brigadier-general john m jones, c. s. a. either side to res- 

Killed at the Wilderness. CUe Or Care for any 


of the wounded. 
A note from Col. 
Leander W. Cogs¬ 
well, of the Ninth 
New Hampshire 
Regiment, gives 
a suggestive in¬ 
cident : “ During 
the night of the 
13th, as officer of 
the day, I was 
ordered to take 
a detail of men 
from our brigade, 
and, if possible, 
find the dead 
bodies of mem¬ 
bers of the Ninth 
Regiment. We 
went over the in¬ 
trenchments and 


into that teriible brigadier-general Alexander hays. 

darkness, under Killed at the Wildernes , 

orders ‘ to strike 

not a match, nor speak above a whisper.’ When near the spot 
where they fell, we crawled upon our hands and knees, and felt 
for the dead ones, and in this manner succeeded in finding up¬ 
wards of twenty, and conveyed them within our lines, where, 
with a few others, they were buried the next morning in one 
trench.” 

Thus far we have looked only at what was going on in front. 
A few sentences from the diary of Chaplain Alanson A. Haines, 
of the Fifteenth New Jersey Regiment, will give the reader an 
idea of the rear at Spottsylvania : “With Dr. Hall, our good 
and brave surgeon, I found a place in the rear, a little hollow 
with grass and a spring of water, where we made hasty prepara¬ 
tions to receive the coming wounded. Those that could walk 
soon began to find their way in of themselves, and some few 
were helped in by their comrades as soon as the charge was 
over and a portion withdrawn. It was a terrible thing to lay 
some of our best and truest men in a long row on the blankets, 
waiting their turn for the surgeon’s care. Some came with body 
wounds, and arms shattered, and hands dangling. At ten 
o’clock, with the drum corps, I sought the regiment to take off 
any of our wounded we could find. On my way, met some men 
carrying Orderly-Sergeant Van Gilder, mortally wounded, in a 
blanket. With his hand all blood,he seized mine, saying, ‘Chap¬ 
lain, I am going. Tell my wife I am happy.’ At two o’clock 
A.M. I lay down amid a great throng of poor, bleeding suffer¬ 
ers, whose moans and cries for water kept me awake. At four 
o’clock got up and had coffee made, and, going around among the 
wounded, found a Pennsylvanian who had lain at my feet, dead. 
At noon the regiment moved off to the right. I retained five 
drummers to bury Sergeants Schenck and Rubadeau. A num¬ 
ber of men from several regiments were filling their canteens 
at the spring. I asked them if they could come for a few 
moments around a soldier’s grave. Most of them came, and 
uncovered their heads. Trepeated some passages of Scripture, 
and offered a short prayer. Drum-Sergeant Kline filled up the 
grave, nailing to two posts which he planted a piece of cracker- 
box, on which I cut the names of the dead. While he was doing 
this, with my other men I gathered the muskets and accoutre- 


















362 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



merits left by the wounded. Laying the muskets with the muz¬ 
zle on a stump, one heavy stamp of the foot bent the barrel, 
broke the stock, and made the piece useless. The accoutre¬ 
ments we heaped together and threw on the fire, and with hasty 
steps sought the regiment.” 

The National losses in the fighting around Spottsylvania, from 
the 8th to the 21st of May, were thirteen thousand six hundred 
—killed, wounded, and missing. Somewhat over half of this 
loss occurred on the 12th. There are no exact statistics of the 
Confederate loss; but it appears to have been ten thousand on 
the 12th, and was probably about equal in the aggregate to the 
National loss. The losses were heavy in general officers. In 
the National army, besides Sedgwick, Gens. T. G. Stevenson 
and J. C. Rice were killed, and Gens. H. G. Wright and Alex¬ 
ander S. Webb and Col. Samuel S. Carroll were wounded ; 
the last named being promoted to brigadier-general on the 
field. Of the Confederates, Generals Daniel and Perrin 
were killed ; Gens. R. D. Johnston, McGowan. Ramseur, 
and Walker wounded, and Gens. Edward Johnston and 
Steuart captured. 

General Grant had written to Halleck on the nth: 

“ We have now ended the sixth day of very hard fight¬ 
ing. The result up to this time is much 
in our favor. But our losses have 
been heavy, as well as those of the 
enemy. ... I am now send¬ 
ing back to Belle Plain all my 
wagons for a fresh supply of 
provisions and ammunition, 
and purpose to fight it out 
on this line if it takes all 
summer.” A week was 
spent in manoeuvring to 
find a new point of attack 
that promised success, but 
without avail, and at the 
end of that time it was de¬ 


fifty miles. About 
midway between 
them is Hanover 
Junction, where the 
railroad from Rich¬ 
mond to Fredericks¬ 
burg is crossed by 
the Virginia Central 
road. Grant did not 
wish to conceal his 


movement alto- 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 


_ 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL R. 0. TYLER. 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
GRIFFIN A. STEDMAN, JR. 

termined to move 
again by the left 
flank. The move¬ 
ment was to the 
North Anna 
River; again it 
was a race, and 
this time the Con¬ 
federates had the 
shorter line. 

The distance 
from Spottsyl- 
vaniaCourt House 
to Richmond is a 
little more than 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
WILLIAM DE LACEY. 

getlier. He was anxious to 
induce the enemy to fight 
without the enormous ad¬ 
vantage of intrenchments. So 
he planned to send one corps 
toward Richmond, hoping that 
Lee would be tempted to attack 
it with all his army, whereupon the 
other corps might follow up sharply 
and attack the Confederates before 
they had time to intrench. When the 
movement was begun, Lee, instead of moving at once 
in the same direction, sent Ewell’s corps to attack the 
National right. It happened that six thousand raw 
recruits, under Gen. R. O. Tyler, were on their way to 
reinforce the Army of the Potomac, and had not quite 
reached their place in line when they were struck by 
Ewell’s flank movement. Grant says they maintained their 
position in a manner worthy of veterans, till they were reinforced 
by the divisions of Birney and Crawford, which promptly moved 
up to the right and left, and Ewell was then quickly driven back 
with heavy loss. This was on the 19th of May. 

The corps thrown forward as a bait was Hancock’s, and it 
marched on the night of the 20th, going easterly to Guinea 
Station, and then southerly to Milford. Warren’s corps fol¬ 
lowed twelve hours later, and twelve hours later still the corps 
of Burnside and Wright. Some trifling resistance was met by 
the advance ; but the Confederates had no notion of taking any 
risk. They made a reconnoissance to their left, to be sure that 
Grant had not kept a corps at Spottsylvania to fall upon their 
rear, and then set out by a shorter line than his to interpose 
themselves once more between him and their capital. 

The new position that was taken up after some tentative 
movements was one of the strongest that could have been devised. 
The Confederate left stretched in a straight line, a mile and a 
half long, from Little River to the North Anna at Oxford. 
Here, bending at a right angle, the line followed the North 
Anna down stream for three quarters of a mile, thence continu- 























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


363 




ing in a straight line southeastward, 
to and around Hanover Junction. 

The North Anna here makes a bend 
to the south, and on the most south¬ 
erly point of the bend the Confeder¬ 
ate line touched and held it. If we 
imagine a ring cut in halves, and the 
halves placed back to back, in con¬ 
tact, and call one the line of Confed¬ 
erate intrenchments and the other 
the river, we shall have a fair repre¬ 
sentation of the essential features of 
the situation. It is evident that any 
enemy approaching from the north, 
and attempting to envelop this posi¬ 
tion. would have his own line twice 
divided by the river, so that his army 
would be in three parts. Any rein¬ 
forcements passing from one wing to 
the other would have to cross the 
stream twice, and, long before they 
could reach their destination, the 
army holding the intrenchments 
could strengthen its threatened wing. 

The obvious point to assail in such 
a position would be the apex of the 
salient line where it touched the 
river; and Burnside was ordered to 
force a passage at that point. But the banks 
steep, and the passage was covered by artillery, 
enfilading fire from the north bank was thwarted 
intrenchments at right angles to the main line, 
crossed the river above the Confederate position 
some miles of the Virginia Central Rail¬ 
road ; while Hancock’s crossed below, 
and destroyed a large section of the 
road to Fredericksburg. By this time 
they had learned the effective method 
of not only tearing up the track, but 
piling up the ties and setting them on 
fire, heating the rails, and bending and 
twisting them so that they could not 
be used again. These operations were 
not carried on without frequent sharp 
fighting, which cost each side about 
two thousand men ; but there was no 
general battle on the North Anna. 

Before the next flank movement was 
made by the Army of the Potomac, 

Gen. James H. Wilson’s cavalry divi¬ 
sion was sent to make a demonstra¬ 
tion on the right, to give the enemy 
the impression that this time the turn¬ 
ing movement would be in that direc- 
tion. In the night of May 26, which 
was very dark, the army withdrew to 
the north bank of the North Anna, 
took up its pontoon bridges, destroyed 
all the others, and was put in motion 
again by the left flank. Sheridan’s 
cavalry led the way and guarded the 
crossings of the Pamunkey, which is 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN C. ROBINSON. 


were high and 
Moreover, an 
by traverses— 
Wright’s corps 
, and destroyed 


A?.:- V 




BRIGADIER-GENERAL HARRY T. HAYS, C, S. A 


formed by the junction of the North 
and South Anna Rivers. The Sixth 
Corps was the advance of the infan¬ 
try, followed by the Second, while 
the Fifth and Ninth moved by roads 
farther north. The direction was 
southeast, and the distance about 
thirty miles to a point at which the 
army would cross the Pamunkey and 
move southwest toward Richmond, 
the crossing being about twenty miles 
from that city. But between lie the 
swamps of the Chickahominy. In 
the morning of the 28th the cavalry 
moved out on the most direct road 
to Richmond, and at a cross-roads 
known as Hawes’s Shop encountered 
a strong force of Confederate cavalry, 
which was dismounted and in¬ 
trenched. After a bloody fight of 
some hours’ duration, the divisions 
commanded by Gens. David M. Gregg 
and George A. Custer broke over the 
intrenchments and forced back the 
enemy; the other divisions came up 
promptly, and the position was held. 

A member of the P'irst New Jersey 
cavalry, which participated in this 
action, writes : “ One company being sent on each flank, mounted, 
Captain Robbins with four companies, dismounted, moved for¬ 
ward and occupied a position on the right of the road, opening 
a rapid fire from their carbines on the line of the enemy, which 
was forming for attack. The remainder of the regiment was 

moved to the left of the road, and hav¬ 
ing been dismounted, was ordered to 
the support of the P'irst Pennsylvania, 
which was hotly engaged. Robbins, as 
usual, moved with a rush to the assault, 
and soon cleared his immediate front 
of the rebels, chasing them across the 
open ground beyond the wood in which 
they had taken cover. In this field 
there was a double ditch, lined by fenc¬ 
ing, with another of the same character 
facing it, only forty or fifty paces dis¬ 
tant. As Captain Beekman, heading 
his men. sprang across the first fence 
at charging speed, they were met by a 
desperate volley from the second line 
of the rebels lying in the other cover. 
Instinctively, as they saw the flash, the 
men threw themselves upon the ground, 
and now Beekman, rolling into the 
ditch, called his troops there beside 
him. From the two covers there was 
kept up a tremendous fire—our men 
sometimes charging toward the hostile 
ditch, but in each case falling back, and 
the fight going on, both parties hold¬ 
ing their own, but neither gaining 
ground upon the other. Meanwhile 
Captain Robbins, on the right of the 
















364 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



PONTOON BRIDGE AT DEEP BOTTOM ON THE JAMES RIVER. 


road, was being sorely pressed. Major Janeway was sent with two 
squadrons to his relief, and the fight redoubled in intensity. The 
ammunition of the men giving out, a supply was brought from 
the rear and distributed along the line itself by the officers, sev¬ 
eral of whom fell while engaged in the service. Captain Beekman 
was shot through both hands as he stretched them forth full of 
ammunition. Lieutenant Beilis was almost at the same moment 
mortally wounded, as was also Lieutenant Stewart. Captain 
Robbins was wounded severely in the shoulder, Lieutenant Shaw 
severely in the head, Lieutenant Wynkoop fearfully in the foot. 
Lieutenant Bowne was the only officer of the first battalion on 
the field who was untouched, and he had several narrow escapes. 
Major Janeway also had a narrow escape, a ball passing so close 
to his forehead as to redden the skin. As Lieutenant Brooks 
was manoeuvring the fifth squadron under fire', a ball fired close 
at hand struck him near his belt-clasp, slightly penetrating the 
skin in two places, and, doubling him up, sent him rolling head¬ 
long for thirty feet across the road. As he recovered steadiness, 
he saw his whole squadron hurrying to pick him up, and, in the 
excitement, losing all sensation of pain, he ordered them again 
forward, and walked after them half-way to the front. There he 
was obliged to drop upon the ground, and was carried from the 
field. Lieutenant Craig also, of the same squadron, was badly 


bruised by some missile that struck him in the breast, but, 
though suffering severely from the blow, he did not leave the 
field. Still the men bravely held their own. And now Custer, 
coming up with his Michigan brigade, charged down the road, 
the whole body of the First Jersey skirmishers simultaneously 
springing from their cover and dashing upon the enemy, sweep¬ 
ing him from the field, and pursuing him until the whole mass 
had melted into disordered rout. Meanwhile the fighting on the 
left of the road had been of the severest character. Malsbury 
received a mortal wound; Dye was killed instantly : Cox was 
hit in the back, but remained the only officer with the squadron 
till, toward the close of the action, he received a wound which 
disabled him. The total loss of the nine companies of the First 
New Jersey engaged, in killed and wounded, was sixty-four, 
eleven being officers.” 

Soon after noon of that day three-fourths of the army had 
crossed the Pamunkey, and the remaining corps crossed that 
night. Here were several roads leading to the Confederate 
capital ; but the Confederate army, as soon as it found the 
enemy gone from its front, had moved in the same direction, 
by a somewhat shorter route, and had quickly taken up a strong 
position across all these roads, with flanks on Beaver Dam and 
Totopotomoy creeks. Moreover, at this time it was heavily 
















CAMPFIRE AND BA TTLEFIELD. 


reinforced by troops that were drawn from the defences east of 
Richmond. 

I he next day the opposing forces were in close proximity, 
each trying to find out what the other was about, and all day 
the crack of the skirmisher’s rifle was heard. Near Bethesda 
church there was a small but bloody engagement, where a portion 
of Early’s corps made an attack on the National left and gained 
a brief advantage, but was soon driven back, with a brigade 
commander and two regimental commanders among its killed. 
At dusk, one brigade of Barlow’s division made a sudden rush 
and carried a line of Confederate rifle-pits. But it was ascer¬ 
tained that the position offered no chance of success in a serious 
assault. Furthermore, Grant was expecting reinforcements 
from Butler’s Army of the James, to come by way of White 
House, at the head of navigation on York River, and he feared 
that Lee would move out with a large part of his army to inter¬ 
pose between him and his reinforcements and overwhelm them. 
So he extended his left toward Cold Harbor, sending Sheridan 
with cavalry and artillery to secure that place. Sheridan was 
heavily attacked there on the morning of June 1st, but held his 
ground, and twice drove back the assailants. In the course of 
the day he was relieved by the Sixth corps, to which the ten 
thousand reinforcements under Gen. William F. Smith were 
added. At the same time the Confederate line had been ex¬ 
tended in the same direction, so as still to cover all roads lead¬ 
ing to Richmond. The Army of the Potomac, in its movement 
down the streams, was now at the highest point that it had 
reached in its movement up the peninsula, when led by Mc¬ 
Clellan two years before. 

At six o’clock in the evening, Smith’s and Wright’s corps 
attacked the Confederate intrenchments. Along most of the 
front they were obliged to cross open ground that was swept 
by artillery and musketry ; but they moved forward steadily, in 
spite of their rapid losses, and everywhere carried the first line 
of works, taking some hundreds of prisoners, but were stopped 
by the second. They intrenched and held their advanced 
position ; but it had been dearly bought, since more than two 
thousand of their men were killed or wounded, including many 
officers. 

When the other corps had followed the Sixth, and the entire 
army was in its new position at Cold Harbor, eight or ten miles 
from Richmond, with its enemy but a little distance in front of 
it, an attack was planned for the morning of the 3d. The Con¬ 
federate position was very strong. The line was from three to 
six miles from the outer defences of Richmond, the right rest¬ 
ing on the Chickahominy, and the left protected by the woods 
and swamps about the head-waters of several small streams. 
The Chickahominy was between it and Richmond, but the water 
was low and everywhere fordable. The only chance for attack 
was in front, and it remained to be demonstrated by experiment 
whether anything could be done there. If Lee’s line could be 
disrupted at the centre, and a strong force thrust through, it 
would for the time being disorganize his army, though a large 
part of it would undoubtedly escape across the river and rally 
in the intrenchments nearer the city. 

At half-past four o’clock on the morning of the 3d, the Second, 
Sixth, and Eighteenth (Smith’s) corps began the attack as 
planned. They moved forward as rapidly and regularly as the 
nature of the ground would admit, under a destructive fire of 
artillery and musketry, till they carried the first line of intrench¬ 
ments. Barlow’s division of Hancock’s corps struck a salient, 
and, after a desperate hand-to-hand contest, captured it, taking 


365 

nearly three hundred prisoners and three guns, which were at 
once turned upon the enemy. But every assaulting column, on 
reaching the enemy’s first line, found itself subjected to cross¬ 
fires from the enemy’s skilfully placed artillery, and not one of 
them could go any farther. Most of them fell back speedily, 
leaving large numbers prisoners or bleeding on the ground, and 
took up positions midway between the lines, where they rapidly 
dug trenches and protected themselves. General Grant had 
given orders to General Meade to suspend the attack the 
moment it should appear hopeless, and the heavy fighting did 
not last more than an hour, though firing was kept up all day. 
A counter-attack by Early’s corps was as unsuccessful as those 
of the National troops had been ; and one or two lighter attacks 
by the Confederates, later in the day, were also repelled. 

The Ninety-eighth New York regiment was among the troops 
that were brought up from the Army of the James and joined 
the Army of the Potomac two or three days before the battle of 
Cold Harbor. Its colonel, William Kreutzer, writes a graphic 
account of the regiment’s experience during those first three 
days of June: 

“After ten o’clock, Devens, putting the Ninety-eighth in 
charge of one of his staff, sent it, marching by the right flank, 
through the wood to support one of his regiments. Soon the 
rattling of the men among the brush and trees attracted some 
one’s attention in front, and he poured a volley down along our 
line lengthwise. We stop ; the ground rises before us, and the 
aim of the firing is too high. Staff-officer says : ‘ These are our 
men, there is some mistake; wait awhile, and the firing will 
stop.’ Firing does not stop, and the aim is better. Staff-officer 
goes to report, hastens for orders and instructions, and never 
comes back. Our position is terribly embarrassing, frightfully 
uncomfortable. Our ignorance of the place, the darkness, the 
wood, the uncertainty whether the firing is from friend or foe, 
increase the horrors of that night’s battle. The writer walked 
from the centre to the head of the regiment and asked Colonel 
Wead what the firing meant. Wead replied : ‘ We are the vic¬ 
tims of some one’s blunder.’ We suggested : ‘ Let us withdraw 
the regiment, or fire at the enemy in front. We can’t stay here 
and make no reply. Our men are being killed or wounded fast.’ 
Wead remarked: ‘I have no orders to do either; they may be 
our men in front. I am here by direction of General Devens, 
and one of his staff has gone to report the facts to him. He 
will return in a short time. If we are all killed, I don’t see that 
I can prevent it, or am to blame for it.’ 

“ We asked Colonel Wead to have the men lie down. The 
order, ‘ Lie down,’ was passed along the line, and we returned to 
our position by the colors. Subsequently, Colonel Wead joined 
us there. The firing continued ; the range became lower ; the 
men lying down were wounded fast. We all lay down. Colonel 
Wead was struck a glancing blow on the shoulder-strap by a 
rifle-ball, and, after lying senseless for a moment, said to the 
writer, ‘ I am wounded ; take the command.’ We arose immedi¬ 
ately, walked along the line, and quietly withdrew the men to 
the lower edge of the wood where we had entered. In that 
night’s blunder the regiment lost forty-two men, killed and 
wounded. During the night and early morning, Colonel Wead 
and. the wounded crawled back to the regiment. The more 
severely wounded were carried back half a mile farther to an old 
barn, where their wounds were dressed and whence they were 
taken in ambulances to White House. Nothing could equal the 
horrors of that night’s battle; the blundering march into the 
enemy’s intrenchments, his merciless fire, the cries of our 



INTRENCHMENTS AT KENESAW MOUNTAIN, GA. 





















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


367 



wounded and dying, the irresolute stupidity and want of sagacity 
of the conducting officer, deepen the plot and color the picture. 

“At 4 A.M. of the 3d, the Eighteenth Corps was formed for 
the charge in three lines ; first, a heavy skirmish line ; second, a 
line consisting of regiments deployed; third, a line formed of 
regiments in solid column doubled on the centre. The Ninety- 
eighth was in the third line. The whole army advanced together 
at sunrise. Within twenty minutes after the order to advance 
had been given, one of the most sanguinary battles of the war, 
quick, sharp, and decisive, had taken place. By this battle the 
Army of the Potomac gained nothing, but the Eigh¬ 
teenth Corps captured and held a pro¬ 
jecting portion of the enemy’s 
breastwork in front. The 
Ninety-eighth knew well 
the ground that it helped 
to capture, for there lay its 
dead left on the night of 
the 1st. 


COLONEL SAMUEL S. CARROLL. 
(Afterward Brevet Major-General.) 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EMORY UPTON, 


“ The men at once began the construc¬ 
tion of a breastwork, using their hands, tin 
cups, and bayonets. Later they procured 
picks and shovels. They laid the dead in line 
and covered them over, and to build the breastwork used rails, 
logs, limbs, leaves, and dirt. The enemy’s shells, solid shot and 
rifle-balls all the while showered upon them, and hit every limb 
and twig about or above them. Nothing saved us but a slight 
elevation of the ground in front. A limb cut by a solid shot 
felled General Marston to the ground. Three boyish soldiers, 
thinking to do the State service, picked him up, and were hur¬ 
rying him to the rear, when he recovered his consciousness and 
compelled them to drop himself. In a short time he walked 
slowly back to the front. In this advance and during the day 
our regimental flag received fifty-two bullet-holes, and the regi¬ 
ment lost, killed and wounded, sixty-one. Colonel \\ ead rose to 
his feet an instant on the captured line, when a rifle-ball pierced 
his neck and cut the subclavian vein. He was carried back to 
the barn beside the road, where he died the same day. . . . 


w j . gteVcL 

(f,ne' vja,d 


_Ger,e ta ''I 


But no living thing could face that 
‘rattling shower’ of ball and shell 
which poured from our lines upon 
them. They fell to the ground, 
they crept away, they hushed the 
yell of battle. The horrors of that night 
assault baffle description.” 

The entire loss of the National Army at Cold Harbor in the 
first twelve days of June—including the battles just described 
and the almost constant skirmishing and minor engagements— 
was ten thousand and eighty-eight ; and among the dead and 
wounded were many valuable officers. General Tyler and Col¬ 
onel Brooke were wounded, and Colonels Porter, Morris, Meade, 
and Byrnes were killed.* 


* The lines of the two armies were so close to each other that it was impossible to 
care for the wounded that lay between them, except by a cessation of hostilities. As 
the National forces had been the assailants, most of the wounded were theirs. 
General Grant made an immediate effort to obtain a cessation for this humane pur¬ 
pose, but General Lee delayed it with various trivial excuses for forty-eight hours, 
and at the end of that time all but two of the wounded were dead. See a part 
of the correspondence in Grant’s “Memoirs,” Vol. II., pp. 273 et seq. As to the 
losses here and at Spottsylvania, authorities differ. The figures given above are 
from a statement compiled in the Adjutant-General’s office. 


“On the night of the 4th the Ninety-eighth moved from the 
second line through the approach to the front line, and relieved 
the One Hundred and Eighteenth New York and the Tenth New 
Hampshire. It had barely time to take its position when the 
Confederates made a night attack along our whole front. For 
twenty minutes before, the rain of shells and balls was terrific ; 
the missiles tore and screamed and sang and howled along the 
air. Every branch and leaf was struck ; every inch of the trees 
and breastworks was pierced. Then the firing ceased along his 
line for a few minutes, while the enemy crossed 
his breastworks and formed for the charge, when, 


‘At once there rose so wild a yell. 

As all the fiends from heaven that fell 
Had pealed the banner cry of hell.’ 




















368 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL P. ST. GEORGE COOKE. 


The Confederate 
loss—w h i c h includ¬ 
ed Brigadier-General 
Doles a m ong the 
killed, and Brigadier- 
Generals Kirkland, 
Lane, Law, and Fin¬ 
negan among the 
wounded — is un¬ 
known; but it was 
much smaller than the 
National. The attack 
of June 3d is recog¬ 
nized as the most se¬ 
rious error in Grant’s 
military career. He 
himself says, in 
his “ Memoirs,” that 
he always regretted it 
was ever made. It 
was as useless, and 
almost as costly, as 
Lee’s assault upon 
Meade’s centre at Get¬ 
tysburg. But we do 
not read that any of Grant’s lieutenants protested against it, 
as Longstreet protested against the attack on Cemetery Ridge. 

For some days Grant held his army as close to the enemy as 
possible, to prevent the Confederates from detaching a force to 
operate against Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley. 

General Halleck now proposed that the Army of the Potomac 
should invest Richmond on the north. This might have pre¬ 
vented any possibility of Lee’s launching out toward Washing¬ 
ton, but it could hardly have effected anything else. The Con¬ 
federate lines of supply would have been left untouched, while 
the National troops would have perished between impregnable 
intrenchments on the one side and malarious swamps on the 
other. Grant determined to move once more by the left flank, 
swing his army across the James, and invest the city from the 
south. A direct investment of the Confederate 
capital on that side was out of the 
question, because the south bank of 
the James is lower than the city; and 
the movement would, therefore, resolve 
itself into a struggle for Petersburg, 
thirty miles south of Richmond, which 
was its railroad centre. 

To withdraw an army from so close 
contact with the enemy, march it fifty 
miles, cross two rivers, and bring it into 
a new position, was a very delicate and 
hazardous task, and Grant performed it 
with consummate skill. He sent a part of 
his cavalry to make a demonstration on the 
James above Richmond and destroy por¬ 
tions of Lee’s line of supplies from the Shen¬ 
andoah ; he had a line of intrenchments 
constructed along the north bank of the 
Chickahominy, from his position at Cold Har¬ 
bor down to the point where he expected 
to cross ; and directed General Butler to send 
two vessels loaded with stone to be sunk in the 


channel of the James as far up-stream as possible, so that the 
Confederate gunboats could not comedown and attack the army 


while it was crossing. 


A large number of vessels had been col¬ 


lected at Fort Monroe, to be used as ferry-boats when the army 
should reach the James. The so-called “ bridges ” on the 
Chickahominy were now only names of geographical points, for 
all the bridges had been destroyed ; but each column was to 
carry its pontoon train. 

The march began in the evening of June 12th, and at midday 
of the 13th a pontoon was thrown across at Long Bridge, fifteen 
miles below the Cold Harbor position, and Wilson’s cavalry 
crossed and immediately moved out a short distance on the 
roads toward Richmond, to watch the movements of the enemy 
and prevent a surprise. The Fifth corps followed quickly, and 
took a position covering these roads till the remainder of the 
army could cross. The Second, Sixth, and Ninth corps crossed 
the Chickahominy a few miles farther down ; while the Eigh¬ 
teenth had embarked at White House, to be sent around by 
water. In the evening of the 13th, the Fifth reached Wilcox’s 
Landing on the James, ten miles below Haxall’s, where McClel¬ 
lan had reached the river at the close of his peninsula campaign. 
The other corps reached the landing on the 14th. The river 
there is more than two thousand feet wide; but between four 
o’clock, P.M., and midnight a pontoon was laid, and the crossing 
began. The artillery and trains were sent over first, and the 
infantry followed in a long procession that occupied forty-eight 
hours, the rear guard of the Sixth corps passing over at mid¬ 
night of the 16th. Thus an army of more than one hundred 
thousand men was taken from a line of trenches within a few 
yards of the enemy, marched fifty miles, and, with all its para¬ 
phernalia, carried across two rivers and placed in a position 
threatening that enemy’s capital, without a serious collision or 
disaster. General Ewell said that when the National army got 
across the James River he knew that the Confederate cause 
was lost, and it 
was the duty 
of their authori- 


beavek 


brevet 


BRIGADIER 


.GENERAL JAMES 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ISAAC S. CATLIN. 


I 













CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


369 


the best terms they could while they still had a right to claim 
concessions. 

Most critics of this campaign have persistently proceeded on 
the assumption that Grant’s objective was the city of Richmond, 
and have accordingly condemned his plan of marching overland, 
and with apparent conclusiveness have pointed to his heavy losses 
and to the fact that Richmond was still uncaptured, and then 
asked the question, which has been wearisomely repeated, why 
he might not as well have carried his army by water in the first 
place to a position before Richmond, without loss, as McClellan 
had done two years before, instead of getting there along a 
bloody overland trail at such heavy cost. These critics should 
know, even if Grant himself had not distinctly declared it at the 
outset, that his objective was not the city of Richmond ; that it 
was Lee’s army, which it was his business to follow and fight 
until he destroyed it. The same critics appear to think also 
that he ought to have found a way to accomplish his purpose 
without bloodshed, and that because he did not he was no 
general, but a mere “butcher,” as some of them boldly call him. 
If they were asked to name a general who had won great 
victories without himself losing men by the thousand, they 


would find it difficult to do so, for no such general figures in 
the pages of history. If there ever was a chance to defeat the 
Army of Northern Virginia and destroy the Confederacy by 
anything but hard fighting, it was when McClellan planted his 
army on the peninsula; but McClellan’s timidity was not the 
quality necessary for a bold and brilliant stroke. Nearly the 
whole State of Virginia is admirably adapted for defence against 
an invading army ; and by the time that Grant set out on his 
overland campaign every position where Lee’s army could make 
a stand was thoroughly known, and most of them were fortified ; 
furthermore, the men of his army were now veterans and under¬ 
stood how to use every one of their advantages, while Lee as a 
general had only to move his army over ground that it had 
already traversed several times, and manoeuvre for a constant 
defence. Under these circumstances, nothing but hard and con¬ 
tinuous fighting could have conquered such an army. The same 
criticism that finds fault with General Grant for not transporting 
his army by water to the front of Richmond instead of fighting 
his way thither overland, must also condemn General Lee for 
not surrendering in the Wilderness instead of fighting all the 
way to Appomattox and then surrendering at last. 



NEWSPAPER HEADQUARTERS AT THE FRONT. 
(From a War-time Photograph.) 






COMMANDER ROBERT W. SHUFELDT. 
REAR-ADMIRAL HIRAM PAULDING. 
COMMANDER S. L. BREESE. 


LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER HENRY ERBEN. 
COMMANDER E. T. NICHOLS. 

COMMANDER NAPOLEON COLLINS. 


COMMODORE GEORGE HENRY PREBLE. 
CAPTAIN JOHN FAUNCE. 

REAR-ADMIRAL H. K. HOFF. 


A GROUP OF NAVAL OFFICERS, U. S. N 





































Capt. J. A. Winslow. 


CAPTAIN JOHN A. WINSLOW AND OFFICERS ON THE DECK OF THE “ KEARSARGE.” 

(From a Government photograph.) 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE CONFEDERATE CRUISERS. 

THE “ALABAMA” SUNK BY THE “KEARSARGE”—THE “SUMTER” AND OTHER CRUISERS—PROTEST OF OUR GOVERNMENT TO THE BRITISH 
GOVERNMENT—SECRETARY SEWARD’S DESPATCHES—PRIVATEERING—WHY ENGLAND DID NOT INTERFERE—ARBITRATION AND AMOUNT 
OF DAMAGE OBTAINED FROM THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 

WHILE the Army of the Potomac w r as putting itself in fighting trim after its change of base, a decisive battle of the war took 
place three thousand miles away. A vessel known in the builders’ yard as the “290,” and afterward famous as the Alabama , had 
been built for the Confederate Government in 1862, at Birkenhead, opposite Liverpool. She was of wood, a fast sailer, having 
both steam and canvas, was two hundred and twenty feet long, and rated at one thousand and forty tons. She was thoroughly 
fitted in every respect, and cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The American minister at London notified the British 
Government that such a ship was being built in an English yard, in violation of the neutrality laws, and demanded that she be 
prevented from leaving the Mersey. But, either through design or stupidity, the Government moved too slowly, and the cruiser 
escaped to sea. She went to Fayal, in the Azores, and there took on board her guns and coal, sent out to her in a merchant 
ship from London. Her commander was Raphael Semmes, who had served in the United States navy. Her crew were mainly 
Englishmen. For nearly two years she roamed the seas, traversing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico, and 
captured sixty-nine American merchantmen, most of which were burned at sea. Their crews were sent away on passing vessels, or 
put ashore at some convenient port. Several war-vessels were sent out in search of the Alabama , but they were at constant disad¬ 
vantage from the rule that when two hostile vessels are in a neutral port, the first that leaves must have been gone twenty-four 
hours before the other is permitted to follow. In French, and especially in British ports, the Alabama was always welcome, and 
enjoyed every possible facility, because she was destroying American commerce. 

In June, 1864, she was in the harbor of Cherbourg, France. The United States man-of-war Kearsarge , commanded by John 













372 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


A. Winslow, found her there, and lay off the port, watching her. 
By not going into the harbor, Winslow escaped the twenty-four- 
hour rule. Semmes sent a note to Winslow, asking him not to 
go away, as he was coming out to fight ; but no such challenge 
was called for, as the Kearsarge had come for that purpose, and 
was patiently waiting for her prey. She was almost exactly the 
size of the Alabama, and the armaments were so nearly alike 
as to make a very fair match. But her crew were altogether 
superior in gun-practice, and she had protected her boilers by 
chains, “stoppered” up and down the side amidships, as had 
been done in the fights at New Orleans and elsewhere. On 
Sunday morning, June igth, the Alabama steamed out of the 
harbor amid the plaudits of thousands of English¬ 
men and Frenchmen, who had not a doubt 
that she was going to certain victory. 

The Kearsarge steamed away as she 
approached, and drew her off to a 
distance of seven or eight miles 
from the coast. Winslow then 
turned and closed with his enemy. 

The two vessels steamed around 
on opposite sides of a circle 
half a mile in diameter, firing 
their starboard guns. The 
practice on the Alabama was 
very bad; she began firing 
first, discharged her guns rapid¬ 
ly, and produced little or no 
effect, though a dozen of her 
shots struck • her antagonist. 

But when the Kearsarge began 
firing there was war in earnest. 

Her guns were handled with great 
skill, and every shot told. One of 
them cut the mizzenmast so that 
fell. Another exploded a shell among 
the crew of the Alabama's pivot gun, kill- 
ing half of them and dismounting the piece. 

Balls rolled in at the port-holes and swept away the gunners; 
and several pierced the hull below the water line, making 
the ship tremble from stem to stern, and letting in floods of 
water. The vessels had described seven circles, and the Ala¬ 
bama's deck was strewn with the dead, when at the end of an 
hour she was found to be sinking, her colors were struck, and 
her officers, with a keen sense of chivalry, threw into the sea the 
swords that were no longer their own. The Kearsarge lowered 
boats to take off the crew; but suddenly the stern settled, the 
bow was thrown up into the air, and down went the Alabama to 
the bottom of the British Channel, carrying an unknown number 
of her men. An English yacht picked up Semmes and about 
forty sailors, and steamed away to Southampton with them ; 
others were rescued by the boats of the Kearsarge, and still 
others were drowned. 

In January, 1863, the Alabama had fought the side-wheel 
steamer Hattcras, of the United States Navy, off Galveston, 
Tex., and injured her so that she sank soon after surrendering. 
The remainder of the Alabama's career, till she met the Kcar- 
sarge, had been spent in capturing merchant vessels and either 
burning them or releasing them under bonds. Before Captain 
Semmes received command of the Alabama, he had cruised in 
the Sumter on a similar mission, capturing eighteen vessels, 
when her course was ended in the harbor of Gibraltar, in Feb¬ 



ruary, 1862, where she was blockaded by the United States 
steamers Kearsarge and Tuscarora, and, as there was no proba¬ 
bility that she could escape to sea, her captain and crew aban¬ 
doned her. 

A score of other Confederate cruisers roamed the seas, to 
prey upon United States commerce, but none of them became 
quite so famous as the Sumter and the Alabama. They in¬ 
cluded the Shenandoah, which made thirty-eight captures; the 
Florida, which made thirty-six ; the Tallahassee, which made 
twenty-seven; the Tacony, which made fifteen ; and the Geor¬ 
gia, which made ten. The Florida was captured in the harbor 
of Bahia, Brazil, in October, 1864, by a United States man-of- 
war, in violation of the neutrality of the port. For this the 
United States Government apologized to Brazil, and ordered 
the restoration of the Florida to the harbor where she 
was captured. But in Hampton Roads she met with 
an accident and sank. It was generally believed 
that the apparent accident was contrived with the 
connivance, if not by direct order, of the Govern¬ 
ment. 

Most of these cruisers were built in British 
shipyards ; and whenever they touched at British 
ports, to obtain supplies and land prisoners, their 
commanders were ostentatiously welcomed and 
lionized by the British merchants and officials. 
The English builders were proceeding to 
construct several swift iron¬ 
clad cruisers for the Confed¬ 
erate Government, when the 
United States Government 
protested so vigorously that 
the British Government pre¬ 
vented them from leaving 
port. One or two passages 
from Secretary Seward’s de¬ 
spatches to Charles Francis 
Adams, the American min¬ 
ister at London, contain the 
whole argument that was 
afterward elaborated before 
court of arbitration. 



a high 

and secured a verdict against 
England. 


CAPTAIN JOHN A. WINSLOW. 
(Afterward Rear-Admiral.) 


More than this, 
these passages contain what 
probably was the controlling 
reason that determined Engr- 
land not to try the experi¬ 
ment of intervention. Sec¬ 
retary Seward wrote, under 
date of October 5-6, 1863 : 

“ I have had the honor to receive and submit to the Presi¬ 
dent your despatch of the 17th of September, which relates to 
the iron-clad vessels built at Laird’s shipyards for war against 
the United States, which is accompanied by a very interesting 
correspondence between yourself and Earl Russell. The posi¬ 
tions you have taken in this correspondence are approved. It is 
indeed a cause of profound concern, that, notwithstanding an 
engagement which the President has accepted as final, there still 
remains a doubt whether those vessels will be prevented from 
coming out, according to the original hostile purposes of the 
enemies of the United States residing in Great Britain. 

“ Earl Russell remarks that her Majesty’s Government, having 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


373 


proclaimed neutrality, have in good faith exerted themselves to 
maintain it. 1 have not to say now for the first time, that, how¬ 
ever satisfactory that position may be to the British nation, it 
does not at all relieve the gravity of the question in the United 
States. The proclamation of neutrality was a concession of 
belligerent rights to the insurgents, and was deemed by this 
Government as unnecessary, and in effect as unfriendly, as it has 
since proved injurious, to this country. The successive prepara¬ 
tions of hostile naval expeditions in Great Britain are regarded 
here as fruits of that injurious proclamation. ... It is 
hardly necessary to say that the United States stand upon what 


war broke out, we distinctly confessed that we knew what great 
temptations it offered to foreign intervention and aggression, 
and that in no event could such intervention or aggression be en¬ 
dured. It was apparent that such aggression, if it should come, 
must travel over the seas, and therefore must be met and 
encountered, if at all, by maritime resistance. We addressed 
ourselves to prepare the means of such resistance. We have 
now a navy, not, indeed, as ample as we proposed, but yet one 
which we feel assured is not altogether inadequate to the pur¬ 
poses of self-defence, and it is yet rapidly increasing in men, 
material, and engines of war. Besides this regular naval force. 



OPENING OF THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE •• KEARSARGE " AND THE "ALABAMA." 


they think impregnable ground, when they refuse to be dero¬ 
gated, by any act of British Government, from their position as a 
sovereign nation in amity with Great Britain, and placed upon 
a footing of equality with domestic insurgents who have risen up 
in resistance against their authority. 

“ It does not remain for us even to indicate to Great Britain 
the serious consequences which must ensue if the iron-clads shall 
come forth upon their work of destruction. They have been 
fully revealed to yourself, and you have made them known to 
Earl Russell, within the restraints which an honest and habitual 
respect for the Government and the people of Great Britain 
imposes. It seems to me that her Majesty’s Government might 
be expected to perceive and appreciate them, even if we were 
henceforth silent upon the subject. When our unhappy civil 


the President has asked, and Congress has given him, authority 
to convert the mercantile marine into armed squadrons, by the 
issue of letters of marque and reprisal. All the world might 
see, if it would, that the great arm of naval defence has not 
been thus invigorated for the mere purpose of maintaining a 
blockade, or enforcing our authority against the insurgents ; for 
practically they have never had an open port, or built and armed, 
nor could they from their own resources build and arm, a single 
ship-of-war. 

“ Thus the world is left free to understand that our measures 
of maritime war are intended to resist maritime aggression, 
which is constantly threatened from abroad and even more con¬ 
stantly apprehended at home. That it would be employed for 
that purpose, if such aggression should be attempted, would 





































































































































































374 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


seem certain, unless, indeed, there should be reason to suppose 
that the people do not in this respect approve of the policy and 
sympathize with the sentiments of the executive Government. 
But the resistance of foreign aggression by all the means in our 
power, and at the hazard, if need be, of the National life itself, 
is the one point of policy on which the American people seem 
to be unanimous and in complete harmony with the President. 

“ The United States understand that the Alabama is a pirate 
ship-of-war, roving over the seas, capturing, burning, sinking, 
and destroying American vessels, without any lawful authority 
from the British Government or from any other sovereign 
power, in violation of the law of nations, and contemptuously 
defying all judicial tribunals equally of Great Britain and all 
other states. The United States understand that she was pur¬ 
posely built for war against the United States, by British sub¬ 
jects, in a British port, and prepared there to be armed and 
equipped with a specified armament adapted to her construction 
for the very piratical career which she is now pursuing; that 
her armament and equipment, duly adapted to this ship-of-war 
and no other, were simultaneously prepared by the same British 
subjects, in a British port, to be placed on board to complete 
her preparation for that career; that when she was ready, and 
her armament and equipment were equally ready, she was 
clandestinely and by connivance sent by her British holders, 
and the armament and equipment were at the same time 
clandestinely sent through the same connivance by the British 
subjects who had prepared them, to a common port outside of 
British waters, and there the armament and equipment of the 
Alabama as a ship-of-war were completed, and she was sent 
forth on her work of destruction with a crew chiefly of British 
subjects, enlisted in and proceeding from a British port, in fraud 
of the laws of Great Britain and in violation of the peace and 
sovereignty of the United States. 

“The United States understand that the purpose of the 
building, armament and equipment, and expedition of the 
vessel was one single criminal intent, running equally through 
the building and the equipment and the expedition, and fully 
completed and executed when the Alabama was finally de¬ 
spatched ; and that this intent brought the whole transaction of 
building, armament, and equipment within the lawful jurisdic¬ 
tion of Great Britain, where the main features of the crime were 
executed. The United States understand that they gave suffi¬ 
cient and adequate notice to the British Government that this 
wrongful enterprise was begun and was being carried out to its 
completion ; and that upon receiving this notice her Majesty’s 
Government were bound by treaty obligations and by the law 
of nations to prevent its execution, and that if the diligence 
which was due had been exercised by the British Government 
the expedition of the Alabama would have been prevented, and 
the wrongful enterprise of British subjects would have been 
defeated. The United States confess that some effort was 
made by her Majesty’s Government, but it was put forth too 
late and was too soon abandoned. Upon these principles of 
law and these assumptions of fact, the United States do insist, 
and must continue to insist, that the British Government is 
justly responsible for the damages which the peaceful, law-abid¬ 
ing citizens of the United States sustain by the depredations of 
the Alabama. 

“ Though indulging a confident belief in the correctness of 
our positions in regard to the claims in question, and others, we 
shall be willing at all times hereafter, as well as now, to consider 
the evidence and the arguments which her Majesty’s Govern¬ 


ment may offer, to -show that they are invalid ; and if we shad 
not be convinced, there is no fair and just form of conventional 
arbitrament or reference to which we shall not be willing to 
submit them.” 

In 1856 the great powers of Europe signed at Paris a treaty 
by which they relinquished the right of privateering, and some 
of the lesser powers afterward accepted a general invitation to 
join in it. The United States offered to sign it, on condition 
that a clause be inserted declaring that private property on the 
high seas, if not contraband of war, should be exempt from seiz¬ 
ure by the public armed vessels of an enemy, as well as by private 
ones. The powers that had negotiated the treaty declined to 
make this amendment, and therefore the United States did not 
become a party to it. When the war of secession began, and the 
Confederate authorities proclaimed their readiness to issue letters 
of marque for private vessels to prey upon American commerce, 
the United States Government offered to accept the treaty with¬ 
out amendment; but England and France declined to permit 
our Government to join in the treaty then, if its provisions 
against privateering were to be understood as applying to vessels 
sent out under Confederate authority. There the subject was 
dropped, and while the insurgents were thus left at liberty to do 
whatever damage they could upon the high seas, the United States 
Government was also left free to send not only its own cruisers 
but an unlimited number of orivateers against the commerce of 
any nation with which it might become involved in war. When 
at the beginning of President Lincoln’s administration Mr. 
Adams was sent out as minister at London, he carried instruc¬ 
tions that included this passage: “ If, as the President does not 
at all apprehend, you shall unhappily find her Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment tolerating the application of the so-called seceding States, 
or wavering about it, you will not leave them to suppose for a 
moment that they can grant that application and remain the 
friends of the United States. You may even assure them 
promptly, in that case, that if they determine to recognize, they 
may at the same time prepare to enter into alliance with the 
enemies of this Republic.” 

England had had a costly experience of American privateering 
under sail in the war of 1812-15, and she now saw what priva¬ 
teering could become under steam power. While she was rejoic¬ 
ing at the destruction of American merchantmen, she knew what 
might happen to her own. Let her become involved in war with 
the United States, and not only a hundred war-ships but a vast 
fleet of privateers would at once set sail from American ports, and 
in a few months her commerce would be swept from every sea. 
The fisherman on the coast of Maine would carpet his hut with 
Persian rugs, and the ship-carpenter’s children would play with 
baubles intended to decorate the Court of St. James.* The 
navies of England and France combined could not blockade the 
harbors of New England ; and from those harbors, where every 
material is at hand, might have sailed a fleet whose operations 
would not only have impoverished the merchants of London, 
but called out the wail of famine from her populace. Other con¬ 
siderations were discussed ; but it was doubtless this contingency 
that furnished the controlling reason why the British Govern¬ 
ment resisted the tempting offers of cotton and free trade, re- 


* See lists of goods captured by American privateers in the war of 1S12 : “ Eigh¬ 
teen bales of Turkish carpets, 43 bales of raw silk, 20 boxes of gums, 160 dozen 
swan-skins, 6 tons of ivory, $40,000 in gold dust, $80,000 in specie, $20,000 worth 
of indigo, $60,000 in bullion, $500,000 worth of dry goods, 700 tons of mahogany,” 
etc. In Coggeshall’s “ History of American Privateers.” 



CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


375 


sisted the importunities of Louis Napoleon, resisted the clamor 
of its more reckless subjects, resisted its own prejudice against 
republican institutions, and refused to recognize the Southern 
Confederacy as an independent nation. It may have been this 
consideration also that induced it, after the war was over, to 
agree to exactly that settlement by arbitration which was sug¬ 
gested by Secretary Seward in the despatch quoted above. In 
1872 the international court of arbitration, sitting in Geneva, 
Switzerland, decided that the position taken by the United 
States Government in regard to responsibility for the Confed¬ 
erate cruisers was right; and that the British Government, for 
failing to prevent their escape from its ports, must pay the 
United States fifteen and a half million dollars. So far as set¬ 
tlement of the principle was concerned, the award gave Ameri¬ 
cans all the satisfaction they could desire ; but the sum named 
fell far short of the damage that had been wrought. Charles 
Sumner, speaking in his place in the Senate, had contended with 
great force for the exaction of what were called “ consequential 
damages,” which would have swelled the amount to hundreds of 
millions; but in this he was overruled. 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 

PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS IN THE WEST. 


GENERAL SHERMAN CAPTURES MERIDIAN, MISS.—DESTRUCTION OF 
RAILROADS AND SUPPLIES—GENERAL BANKS ATTEMPTS TO CAP¬ 
TURE SHREVEPORT, LA.—BATTLE OF SABINE CROSS-ROADS— 
TEMPORARY ROUT AND DEFEAT OF THE UNION FORCES—DEFEAT 
OF THE CONFEDERATES AT PLEASANT HILL—INCIDENTS OF 
HEROISM ON BOTH SIDES—BUILDING OF DAMS IN THE RED 
RIVER—SUCCESSFUL PASSAGE OF THE RAPIDS BY GUNBOATS— 
LOSSES AND INCIDENTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 



HE first import¬ 
ant m o v e- 
mcnts at the 
West in 1864 
were for the 
purpose of 
securing the 
Mississi p pi 
River, posses¬ 
sion of which 
had been won 
by the victories of Far- 
ragut at New Orleans and 
Grant at Vicksburg, and set- 
v ting free the large garrisons 
that were required to hold 
the important places on its 
banks. On the 3d of Feb¬ 
ruary Gen. William T. Sherman set out from Y icksburg with 
a force of somewhat more than twenty thousand men, in two 
columns, commanded respectively by Generals McPherson and 
Hurlbut. Their destination was Meridian, over one hundred 
miles east of Vicksburg, where the Mobile and Ohio Railroad 
is crossed by that from Jackson to Selma. The march was 
made in eleven days, without notable incident, except that 
General Sherman narrowly escaped capture at Decatur. He 
had stopped for the night at a log house, Hurlbut’s column had 


passed on to encamp four miles beyond the town, and McPher¬ 
son’s had not yet come up. A few straggling wagons of Hurl¬ 
but’s train were attacked at the cross-roads by a detachment of 
Confederate cavalry, and Sherman ran out of the house to see 
wagons and horsemen mingled in a cloud of dust, with pistol 
bullets flying in every direction. With the few orderlies and 
clerks that belonged to headquarters, he was preparing to barri¬ 
cade a corn-crib where they could defend themselves, when an 
infantry regiment was brought back from Hurlbut’s corps and 
quickly cleared the ground. General Grant had an equally narrow 
escape from capture just before he set out on his Virginia cam¬ 
paign. A special train that was taking him to the front reached 
Warrenton Junction just after a detachment of Confederate 
cavalry, still in sight, had crossed the track at that point. 

General Leonidas Polk, who was in command at Meridian, 
marched out at the approach of Sherman’s columns, and retreated 
into Alabama—perhaps deceived by the report Sherman had 
caused to be spread that the destination of the expedition was 
Mobile. The National troops entered the town on the 14th, and 
at once began a thorough destruction of the arsenal and store¬ 
houses, the machine-shops, the station, and especially the rail¬ 
roads. Miles of the track were torn up, the ties burned, and the 
rails heated and then bent and twisted, or wound around trees. 
These were popularly called “ Jeff Davis’s neckties” and “ Sher¬ 
man’s hairpins.” Wherever the columns passed they destroyed 
the mills and factories and stations, leaving untouched only the 
dwelling-houses. Sherman was determined to disable those rail¬ 
roads so completely that the Confederates could not use them 
again, and in this he succeeded, as he did in everything he 
undertook personally. But another enterprise, intended to be 
carried out at the same time, was not so fortunate. He sent Gen. 
W. Sooy Smith with a cavalry force to destroy Forrest’s Confed¬ 
erate cavalry, which was very audacious in its frequent raids, and 
liable at any time to dash upon the National railroad communi¬ 
cation in middle Tennessee. Smith had about seven thousand 
men, and was to leave Memphis on the 1st of February and go 
straight to Meridian, Sherman telling him he would be sure to 
encounter Forrest on the way, and how he must manage the 
fight. But Smith did not leave Memphis till the 1 ith, and, 
instead of defeating Forrest, allowed I'orrest to defeat him and 
drive him back to Memphis ; so that Sherman waited at Merid¬ 
ian till the 20th, and then returned with his expedition to Vicks¬ 
burg, followed by thousands of negroes of all ages, who could 
not and would not be turned back, but pressed close upon the 
army, in their firm belief that its mission was their deliverance. 

While the gap that had been made in the Confederacy by the 
seizure of the Mississippi was thus widened by destruction of 
railroads east of that river, General Banks, in command at New 
Orleans, attempted to perform a somewhat similar service west 
of it. With about fifteen thousand men he set out in March for 
Shreveport, at the head of steam navigation on Red River, to 
be joined at Alexandria by ten thousand men under Gen. A. J. 
Smith (loaned for the occasion by Sherman from the force at 
Vicksburg) and by Commodore David D. Porter with a fleet of 
gunboats and transports. Smith and Porter arrived promptly 
at the rendezvous, captured Fort de Russey below Alexandria, 
and waited for Banks. After his arrival, the army moved by 
roads parallel with the river, and the gunboats kept even pace 
with them, though with great difficulty because of low water. 
Small bodies of Confederate troops appeared frequently, but 
were easily brushed aside by the army, while the fire from the 
gunboats destroyed a great many who were foolhardy enough 















■ 'V ^ 






r 












LANDING OF FEDERAL FORCES AT INDIAN BEND, LA., APRIL, 1863. 






















CAMPFIRE AND 

to attack them with musketry and field guns. So used had the 

J o 

troops become to this proceeding, that common precautions were 
relaxed, and the army jogged along strung out for twenty miles 
on a single road, with a small cavalry force in the advance, then 
the wagon-trains, and then the infantry. 

As they approached Sabine Cross Roads, April 8, they were 
confronted by a strong Confederate force commanded by Gen. 
Richard Taylor, and suddenly there was a battle, though neither 
commander intended it. Taylor, before camping for the night, 
had sent out troops merely to drive back the advance guard of 
the expedition. But the men on both sides became excited, 
and the Nationals fought persistently to save their trains, while 


BATTLEFIELD. 377 

trains became frightened, broke loose, and dashed wildly through 
the lines of the infantry ; and, amid the increasing confusion, the 
Confederates pressed closer to follow up their advantage. Gen¬ 
eral Banks, General Franklin, and others of the commanders, 
were in the thick of the fray endeavoring to rally the men and 
hold them up to the fight. Two horses were killed under Gen¬ 
eral Franklin, and one member of his staff lost both feet by a 
cannon shot. When the battle had been in progress an hour 
and a half the line suddenly gave way, and the cavalry and 
teamsters rushed back in a disorderly mass, followed closely by 
the victorious enemy. Banks’s personal efforts to rally them 
were useless, and he was borne away by the tide. Three miles 



GENERAL BANKS'S ARMY IN THE ADVANCE ON SHREVEPORT, LA., CROSSING CANE RIVER, MARCH 31, 1864. 


Banks tried to bring forward his infantry, but in vain, because 
his wagons blocked the road. 

When the skirmish line was driven back on the main body, 
the Confederates advanced in heavy force, and for a time there 
was very fierce fighting. Several of the National batteries were 
pushed forward, and fought most gallantly. On the left was 
Nim’s battery, which was doing terrible execution, when the 
enemy prepared to make a charge upon it in great force. Gen¬ 
eral Stone, observing this, ordered that the battery be withdrawn 
to save it from capture ; but it was found that this was impos¬ 
sible, because nearly all the horses had been killed. The gun¬ 
ners continued to fire double charges of grape and canister into 
the advancing enemy, and struck down a great many of them, 
including Gen. Alfred Mouton, who was leading the charge. 
But this did not stop the assailants, who rapidly closed up their 
ranks and pushed on, capturing four of the guns, while the other 
two were hauled off by hand. Many of the horses of the wagon 


in the rear the Nineteenth Corps was drawn up in line, and here 
the rout was stayed. The Confederates attacked this line, but 
could not break it, and at nightfall retired. Banks had lost over 
three thousand men, nineteen guns, and a large amount of stores. 

A participant in this battle, writing an account of it at the time, 
said: “General Banks personally directed the fight. Everything 
that man could do he did. Occupying a position so exposed 
that nearly every horse ridden by his staff was wounded, and 
many killed, he constantly disregarded the entreaties of those 
around, who begged that he would retire to some less exposed 
position. General Stone, his chief of staff, with his sad, earnest 
face, that seemed to wear an unusual expression, was constantly 
at the front, and by his reckless bravery did much to encourage 
the men. And so the fight raged. The enemy were pushing a 
temporary advantage. Our army was merely forming into posi¬ 
tion to make a sure battle. Then came one of those unaccount¬ 
able events that no genius or courage can control. The battle 




































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


37$ 


was progressing vigorously. The musketry firing was loud and 
continuous, and having recovered from the danger experienced 
by Ransom’s division, we felt secure of the position. I was 
slowly riding along the edge of a wood, conversing with a friend 
who had just ridden up about the events and prospects of the 
day. We had drawn into the side of the wood to allow an 
ammunition-wagon to pass, and although many were observed 
going to the rear, some on foot and some on horseback, we re¬ 
garded it as an occurrence familiar to every battle, and it occa¬ 
sioned nothing but a passing remark. Suddenly there was a 
rush, a shout, the crashing of trees, the breaking down of rails, 
’the rush and scamper of men. It was as sudden as though a 
thunder-bolt had fallen among us and set the pines on fire. 
What caused it, or when it commenced, no one knew. I turned 
to my companion to inquire the reason of this extraordinary 
proceeding, but before he had the chance to reply, we found 
ourselves swallowed up, as it were, in a hissing, seething, bub¬ 
bling whirlpool of agitated men. We could not avoid 
the current; we could not stem it; and if 
we hoped to live in that mad company, 
we must ride with the rest of them. Our 
line of battle had given way. General 
Banks took off his hat and implored his 
men to remain ; his staff-officers did the 
same, but it was of no avail. Then the 
general drew his sabre and endeavored to 
rally his men, but 
they would not lis¬ 
ten. Behind him the 
rebels were shout¬ 
ing and advancing. 

Their musket-balls 
filled the air with 
that strange file¬ 
rasping sound that 
war has made famil¬ 
iar to our fighting 
men. The teams 
were abandoned by 
the drivers, the 
traces cut, and the 
animals ridden off 
by the frightened 
men. Bareheaded 
rode with agony 
faces, and for at 
minutes it seemed 
gether. 


sible. The enemy fell 
wagons that were left, 


back, taking with them some of the 
and a number of the guns that were 

abandoned.” 

That night Banks fell back fifteen miles to Pleasant Hill, 
General Emory’s command burying the dead and caring for the 
wounded before following as the rear-guard. Here General 
Smith’s command joined him, making his full force about fifteen 
thousand men, and he formed a strong line of battle and waited 
to be attacked again. The line was stretched across the main 
road, with its left resting on the slight eminence known as Pleas¬ 
ant Hill. The Confederates spent a large part of the day in 
gathering up plunder and slowly advancing with skirmishing 
until about four o’clock in the afternoon. At that hour they 


advanced 

charging 

centre, 



BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL CUVIER GROVER. 


riders 
in their 
least ten 

as if we were going to destruction to- 
It was my fortune to see the first battle of Bull Run, 
and to be among those who made that celebrated midnight 
retreat toward Washington. The retreat of the fourth division 
was as much a rout as that of the first Federal army, with the 
exception that fewer men were engaged, and our men fought 
here with a valor that was not shown on that serious, sad, mock- 
heroic day in July. We rode nearly two miles in this mad¬ 
cap way, until, on the edge of a ravine, which might formerly 
have been a bayou, we found Emory’s division drawn up in line. 
Our retreating men fell beyond this line, and Emory prepared 
to meet the rebels. They came with a rush, and, as the shades 
of night crept over the tree-tops, they encountered our men. 
Emory fired three rounds, and the rebels retreated. This ended 
the fight, leaving the Federals masters. Night, and the paralyz¬ 
ing effect of the stampede upon our army, made pursuit impos- 


their lines in heavy 
columns against the 
which fought stub¬ 
bornly for a while 
and then fell back 
slowly upon the re¬ 
serves. The Confed¬ 
erates then pressed 
upon the right wing, 
when the reserves 
were pushed for¬ 
ward and charged 
them vigorously in 
turn, while the cen¬ 
tre was rallied and 
re-formed and ad¬ 
vanced so as to strike 
them in the flank. 
What took place at 


this time is well described by an eye-wit¬ 
ness: “This fighting was terrific—old 
soldiers say it never was surpassed for 
desperation. Notwithstanding the ter¬ 
rible havoc in their ranks, the enemy 
pressed fiercely on, slowly pushing the 
men of the Nineteenth Corps back, 
up the hill, but not breaking their 
line of battle. A sudden and bold dash 
of the rebels on the right gave them possession of 
Taylor’s battery, and forced our line still further back. Now 
came the grand coup de main. The Nineteenth, on arriving at 
the top of the hill, suddenly filed off over the hill and passed 
through the lines of General Smith. The rebels were now in but 
two lines of battle, the first having been almost annihilated by 
General Emory, what remained being forced back into the second 
line. But these two lines came on exultant and sure of victory. 
The first passed over the knoll, and, all heedless of the long line 
of cannons and crouching forms of as brave men as ever trod 
Mother Earth, pressed on. The second line appeared on the 
crest, and the death-signal was sounded. Words cannot describe 
the awful effect of this discharge. Seven thousand rifles, and 
several batteries of artillery, each gun loaded to the muzzle with 
grape and canister, were fired simultaneously, and the whole 
centre of the rebel line was crushed down as a field of ripe wheat 
through which a tornado had passed. It is estimated that one 
thousand men were hurried into eternity or frightfully mangled 
by this one discharge. No time was given them to recover their 
good order, but General Smith ordered a charge, and his men 
dashed rapidly forward, the boys of the Nineteenth joining in. 















Campfire and battlefield. 


379 


The rebels fought boldly and desperately back to the timber, on 
reaching which, a large portion broke and fled, fully two thousand 
throwing aside their arms.” 

After being thus routed, the Confederates were pursued nearly 
three miles. Their losses this day included Gen. Thomas Green, 
killed. The Confederate general, E. Kirby Smith, who com¬ 
manded that department, says: “Our repulse at Pleasant Hill 
was so complete, and our command was so disorganized, that, 
had Banks followed up his success vigorously, he would have 
met but feeble opposition to his advance on Shreveport. . . . 

Assuming command, I was consulting with General Taylor when 
some stragglers from the battlefield, where our wounded were 
still lying, brought the intelligence that Banks had precipitously 
retreated after the battle, converting a victory which he might 
have claimed into a defeat.” 

General Banks, in his official report, gives the reasons why he 
retreated to Grand Ecore immediately after his brilliant victory 
at Pleasant Hill: “At the close of the engagement the victorious 
party found itself without rations and water. To clear the field 
for the fight, the train had been sent to the rear upon the single 
line of communication through the woods, and could not be 
brought to the front during the night. There was water neither 
for man nor beast, except such as the now exhausted wells had 
afforded during the day, for miles around. Previous to the 
movement of the army from Natchitoches, orders had been given 
to the transport fleet, with a portion of the Sixteenth Corps, 
under the command of Gen. Kilby Smith, to move up the river, 
if it was found practicable, to some point near Springfield Land¬ 
ing, with a view of effecting a junction with the army at that 
point on the river. The surplus ammunition and supplies were 
on board these transports. It was impossible to ascertain 
whether the fleet had been able to reach the point designated. 
The rapidly falling river and the increased difficulties of naviga¬ 
tion made it appear almost certain that it would not be able to 
attain the point proposed. A squadron of cavalry sent down 
to the river, accompanied by Mr. Young, of the Engineer Corps, 
who was thoroughly acquainted with the country, reported, on 
the day of the battle, that no tidings of the fleet could be ob¬ 
tained on the river. These considerations, the absolute depriva¬ 
tion of water for man or beast, the exhaustion of rations, and 
the failure to effect a connection with the fleet on the river, 
made it necessary for the army, although victorious in the ter¬ 
rible struggle through which it had just passed, to retreat to a 
point where it would be certain of communicating with the 
fleet, and where it would have an opportunity of reorganization.” 

Another reason for Banks’s retreat was that he had been 
ordered to return Smith’s borrowed troops immediately. 

The principal hero of this battle was Gen. Andrew Jackson 
Smith, whose prompt arrival with his command Friday night, 
together with his energy and good generalship in the battle of 
the ensuing day, probably saved Banks’s army from a second 
defeat. With him was the gallant Gen. Joseph A. Mower, 
hardly less conspicuous in the fighting. So far as energy and 
valor were concerned, however, every officer there rose to his 
full duty. General Banks was under fire much of the time, and 
a bullet passed through his coat. General Franklin exhibited 
great skill in manoeuvring his troops. A staff officer was riding 
down the line with an order, when a cannon shot took off his 
horse’s head. Col. W. F. Lynch, at the head of a small detach¬ 
ment pursuing the enemy, captured three caissons filled with 
ammunition. As he was attempting to jump his horse over a 
ditch, a bullet whistled past his ear, and turning, he saw that it 


had been fired by a wounded Confederate soldier in the ditch, 
who was just preparing to take a second and more careful shot 
at him. The colonel drew his revolver and prevented any 
further mischief from that quarter. Col. Lewis Benedict was 
wounded early in the fight, but refused to leave the field, and 
remained with his brigade until he fell at its head, of a mortal 
wound. Col. W. T. Shaw, commanding a brigade, observed prep¬ 
arations for a cavalry charge intended to break his line, and 
ordered his men to reserve their fire until the enemy should be 
within thirty yards. This order was obeyed, and as the Confed¬ 
erate horsemen rode up at a gallop, each infantryman selected 
his mark, and when the volley was fired, nearly every one of the 
four hundred saddles was instantly emptied. It was said that 
not more than ten of the cavalrymen escaped. A participant 
says: “ In the very thickest of the fight, on our left and centre, 
rode the patriarchal-looking warrior, Gen. Andrew Jackson Smith, 
whose troops received an increased inspiration of heroism from 
his presence. Wherever he rode, cheer after cheer greeted him.” 
The same writer says : “ There was something more than solemn 
grandeur in the scene at Pleasant Hill, at sunset, on Saturday, 
April gth. Standing on a slight eminence which overlooked the 
left and centre of our line, I could see the terrible struggle 
between our well-disciplined troops and the enemy. The sun 
shone directly in the faces of our men, while the wind blew back 
the smoke of both the enemy’s fire and that of our own gallant 
men into our ranks, rendering it almost impossible at times to 
distinguish the enemy in the dense clouds of smoke. All of a 
sudden, our whole front seemed to gather renewed strength, and 
they swept the rebels before them like chaff.” 

The Forty-ninth Illinois Regiment, led by Major Morgan, 
charged a Confederate battery and captured two guns and a 
hundred prisoners. A brigade, consisting of the Fifty-eighth and 
One Hundred and Nineteenth Illinois, and the Eighty-ninth 
Indiana, being a part of the force that struck the Confederates 
in the flank, retook one of the batteries that had been lost the 
day before, and with it four hundred prisoners. 

It was said that one reason for the recklessness with which 
the Confederates threw away their lives in hopeless charges was 
that they had found a large quantity of whiskey among the cap¬ 
tures of the previous day. The writer last quoted gives a vivid 
description of the appearance of the field after the battle. He 
says : “ On Sunday morning, at daybreak, I took occasion to 
visit the scenes of Saturday’s bloody conflict, and a more ghastly 
spectacle I have not witnessed. Over the field and upon the 
Shreveport road were scattered dead horses, broken muskets, 
and cartridge-boxes stained with blood, while all around, as 
far as the eye could reach, were mingled the inanimate forms 
of patriot and traitor, side by side. Here were a great many 
rebels badly wounded, unable to move, dying for want of water, 
and not a drop within two miles, and no one to get it for them 
Their groans and piteous appeals for ‘ Water! water! water! 
were heart-rending, and sent a shudder to the most stony heart 
I saw one sweet face, that of a young patriot, and upon his icy 
features there lingered a heavenly smile, speaking of calmness 
and resignation. The youth was probably not more than nine¬ 
teen, with a full blue eye beaming, even in death, with meekness. 
The morning wind lifted his auburn locks from off his marble 
face, exposing to view a noble forehead, which was bathed with 
the heavy dew of Saturday night. I dismounted for a moment, 
hoping to be able to find some trace of the hero’s name, but 
the chivalry had stripped his body of every article of value. 
The fatal ball had pierced his heart. Not twenty feet from this 



BAILEY'S DAM, RED RIVER. 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


38 i 




dreary picture lay prostrate the mutilated body 
of an old man. His cap lay by the side of his 
head, in a pool of blood, while his long flowing 
gray beard was dyed with his blood. A shell 
had fearfully lacerated his right leg, while his 
belt was pierced in two places. In front of the 
long belt of woods which skirted the open field, 
and from which the rebels emerged so boldly, 
was a deep ditch, and at this point the slaughter 
among the rebels was terrific. In many places 
the enemy’s dead were piled up in groups, inter¬ 
mixed with our dead.” 

Banks’s loss in the three days, April 7-9, was 
three thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine 
men, of whom about two thousand were prison¬ 
ers. The Confederate loss never was reported ; 
but there is reason to believe that it was even 
larger than Banks’s. 

When the army and the fleet were once more 
together at Grand Ecore, a new difficulty arose. 

There was a rapid in the river about a mile long, and the fleet 
in ascending had been taken over it with great difficulty. The 
water had now fallen, bringing to view many ragged rocks, and 
leaving it impossible to find any channel of sufficient depth for the 
boats to descend. They were in imminent danger of being cap¬ 
tured, and it was seriously proposed to abandon or destroy them. 
Admiral Porter says: “ I saw nothing before me but the destruc¬ 
tion of the best part of the Mis¬ 
sissippi squadron.” But he adds: 

“ There seemed to have been an 
especial Providence looking out 
for us, in providing a man equal 
to the emergency.” This man 
w r as Lieut.-Col. Joseph Bailey, 
engineer of the Nineteenth 
Corps, who had foreseen the 
difficulty and proposed its rem¬ 
edy just before the battle of 
Pleasant Hill. His proposition, 
which was to build a dam or 
dams and raise the water suf¬ 
ficiently to float the boats down 
over the rapid, was ridiculed by 
the regular engineers. But it 
had the sanction of General 
Banks; and with three thousand 
men he set to work. Two regi¬ 
ments of Maine lumbermen be¬ 
gan the felling of trees, while 
three hundred teams were set 
in motion bringing in stone and 
logs, and quarries were opened, 
and flat-boats were hastily con¬ 
structed to bring material down 
the stream. Admiral Porter 
says : “ Every man seemed to 
be working with a vigor I have 
seldom seen equalled, while 
perhaps not one in fifty believed 
in the success of the undertak¬ 
ing.” Bailey first constructed a 
dam three hundred feet long, 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 
RICHARD TAYLOR, C. S. A. 


A LOUISIANA SUGAR PLANTATION. 


reaching from the left bank of the river straight 
out into the stream. It was made of the heavi¬ 
est timbers he could get, cross-tied, and filled 
with stone. Four barges were floated down to 
the end of it, and then filled with brick and stone 
until they sank. From the right bank a similar 
dam was run out until it nearly met the barges. 
At the end of eight days the water had risen 
sufficiently to allow the smaller gunboats to go 
down, and it was expected that in another day 
it would be deep enough for all; but the pressure 
was too much, and two of the barges were swept 
away. This accident threatened to diminish the 
accumulated water so rapidly that none of the 
boats could be saved, when Admiral Porter 
ordered that one of the larger vessels, the Lex¬ 
ington, be brought down to attempt the passage. 
This was done ; and he says: “ She steered 
directly for the opening in the dam, through 
which the water was rushing so furiously that it 
seemed as if nothing but destruction awaited her. Thousands 
of beating hearts looked on, anxious for the result. The silence 
was so great as the Lexington approached the dam, that a pin 
might almost be heard to fall. She entered the gap with a full 
head of steam on, pitched down the roaring torrent, made two 
or three spasmodic rolls, hung for a moment on the rocks below, 
was then swept into deep water by the current, and rounded-to 

safely into the bank. Thirty 
thousand voices rose in one deaf¬ 
ening cheer, and universal joy 
seemed to pervade the face of 
every man present. The Neosho 
followed next; all her hatches 
battened down, and every pre¬ 
caution taken against accident. 
She did not fare as well as the 
Lexington , her pilot having be¬ 
come frightened as he ap¬ 
proached the abyss, and stopped 
her engine when I particularly 
ordered a full head of steam to 
be carried ; the result was that 
for a moment her hull disap¬ 
peared from sight under the 
water. Every one thought she 
was lost. She rose, however, 
swept along over the rocks with 
the current, and fortunately es¬ 
caped with only one hole in her 
bottom, which was stopped in 
the course of an hour.” Two 
more of the boats then passed 
through safely. 

This partial success filled 
everybody with enthusiasm, and 
the-soldiers, who had been work¬ 
ing like beavers for eight days, 
some of them up to their necks 
in water, set to work with a will 
to repair the dams, and in three 
days had done this, and also con¬ 
structed a series of wing dams on 
















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


382 



the upper falls. The six large vessels then passed down safely 
without any serious accident, and a few hours later the whole fleet 
was ready to go down the river with the transports under convoy. 
Admiral Porter says, in his report: “ The highest honors that the 
Government can bestow on Colonel Bailey can never repay him 
for the service he has rendered the country. He has saved to 
the Union a valuable fleet, worth nearly two million dollars, and 
he has deprived the enemy of a triumph which would have em¬ 
boldened them to carry on this war a year or two longer ; for the 
intended departure of the army was a fixed fact, and there was 
nothing left for me to do, in case that occurred, but to destroy 
every part of the vessels, so that the rebels could make nothing 
of them.” 

In this expedition the fleet lost two small gunboats and a 
quartermaster's boat, which they were convoy¬ 
ing with four hundred trooos 
on board. At 
Dunn’s Bayou, 
three hundred 
miles below Alex¬ 
andria, a powerful 
land force, with a 
series of batteries, 
attacked these 
boats, pierced their 
boilers with shot, 
and killed or wound¬ 
ed many of the sol¬ 
diers with rifle-balls. 

The crews fought 
their vessels as long 
as possible, but at 
length were obliged to 
give up the contest, 
and one of the gun¬ 
boats was abandoned 
and burned, while the 
other was surrendered 
because her commander 
would not set fire to her 
when she had so many 
wounded men on her 
decks. 

E. C. Williams, who was 
an ensign in the fleet on this 

expedition, says, in the course of his “ Recollections,” read before 
the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion : “ Our station for coal¬ 
ing was at Port Butler, a small earthwork at the mouth of Bayou 
Lafourche, occupied by a small garrison from Banks’s army. 
The garrison had erected a very tall flag-staff, reaching far above 
the fog-bank that in that latitude usually shut out all view of the 
land in the early fall and spring mornings. Prom our boat it 
was a sight of rare beauty to watch the flag as it was each morn¬ 
ing unfurled over the little fort. Shut out from all view of the 
surrounding country by the impenetrable fog as completely as 
though we had been in mid-ocean, our attention would be first 
attracted to the fort by the shrill notes of the fife and the rattle 
of the drum as they sounded the color salute, when, watching the 
top of the staff, which was usually visible above the bank of fog 
that covered the lowlands from our view, we would see the flae 
rise to the peak ; and as the last shrill note of the fife was 
sounded, accompanied by the roll of the drum, the halyards 


mM 0R-g^ n£RAL 




were cleared, and the flag, full and free, floated out in the 
heavens over us, far above the clouds, and the mists, and the 
gloom with which we were surrounded. Officers, at their own 
request, were repeatedly called from their sleep to see the sight 
which I have so faintly portrayed. 

“ It was part of our duty—at least we made it so—to take on 
board all escaped slaves that sought our protection, and turn 
them over to the nearest army garrison. Many affecting inci¬ 
dents occurred in connection with these poor people seeking the 
freedom vouchsafed them by Uncle Sam under Lincoln’s procla¬ 
mation. I remember one day when we were in a part of the 
river peculiarly infested with marauding bands of the rebel forces, 
a hail from shore was reported. Under cover of our guns, a boat 
was sent off to see what was wanted, and, returning, reported 
that a large number of slaves were near at hand, concealed in 
the dense cotton-wood brush. They had been hiding in the 
woods for several days, fearing re-capture by some of the roving 

bands of the ene¬ 
my, and a scout¬ 
ing party was even 
then hard upon 
them, from which 
they could not 
hope to escape un¬ 
less we gave them 
protection by tak¬ 
ing them on board. 
We at once made 
for the designated 
spot, not far dis¬ 
tant, and, running 
inshore, taking all 
precaution against 
a surprise, threw 
open a gangway, 
and, as the slaves 
showed them¬ 
selves, ran out a 
long plank, and 
called to them to 
hurry on board. 
On they came—a 
great motley 
crowd of them, of 
both sexes and all 
ages, from babies in arms to gray-headed old patriarchs. One of 
the latter—and who was evidently the leader of the party—stood 
at the foot of the plank encouraging the timid and assisting the 
weak as they hurried on board, and, when he had seen all the 
others safely on, stepped on the plank himself; and as he reached 
the guard before coming on board, little heeding our orders to 
hurry, he dropped on his knees, and, reverently uncovering his 
head, pressed his lips fervently to the cold iron casemates, and with 
uplifted eyes, and hands raised to heaven, broke out with, “ Bress 
God and Massa Lincum’s gunboats ! We’s free ! We’s free!’ ” 
There was much speculation as to the real or ulterior object of 
this Red River expedition. Some writers spoke of it flippantly 
as a mere cotton-stealing enterprise, while others imagined they 
discovered a deep design to push our arms as far as possible 
toward the borders of Mexico, because a small French army had 
recently been thrown into that country, and was supposed to be 
a menace to our Republic. 


COLONEL ALBERT L. LEE. 
(Afterward Brigadier-Cieneral.) 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


383 



GENERAL JOHN B. HOOD, C. S. A. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. 

SHERMAN’ AND JOHNSTON—SHERMAN BEGINS THE CAMPAIGN—JOHN¬ 
STON ABANDONS RESACA—FIGHTING AT NEW HOPE CHURCH— 
THE POSITION AT PINE MOUNTAIN—JOHNSTON AT KENESAW— 

FALL OF GENERAL POLK-SHERMAN EMPLOYS NEGROES—BATTLE 

OF KENESAW—CROSSING THE CHATTAHOOCHEE—HOOD SUPER¬ 
SEDES JOHNSTON-ACTION AT PEACH TREE CREEK-BATTLE OF 

ATLANTA—DEATH OF GENERAL McPHERSON—THE LOSSES—CAV¬ 
ALRY EXPEDITIONS—STONEMAN’S RAID—FALL OF ATLANTA. 

The expeditions described in the foregoing chapter were pre¬ 
liminary to the great campaign that General Grant had designed 
for an army under Sherman, simultaneous with that conducted 
by himself in Virginia, and almost equal to it in difficulty and 
importance. The object was to move southward from Chatta¬ 
nooga, cutting into the heart of the Confederacy where as yet 
it had been untouched, and reach and capture Atlanta, which 
was important as a railroad centre and for its manufactures of 
military supplies. This involved conflict with the army under 
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, by some esteemed the ablest general 
in the Confederate service. If lie was not the ablest in all re¬ 
spects, he was certainly equal to the conducting of a defensive 
campaign with great skill. There could be no running over an 
army commanded by him ; it must be approached cautiously 
and fought valiantly. The distance from Chattanooga to At¬ 
lanta, in a straight line, is a hundred miles, through a country 
of hills and streams, with a great many naturally strong defen¬ 
sive positions. Johnston was at Dalton, with an army which he 
sums up at about forty-three thousand, infantry, cavalry, and 
artillery. But this (according to the Confederate method of 
counting) means only the men actually carrying muskets or 
sabres or handling the guns, excluding all officers, musicians, 
teamsters, etc. If counted after the ordinary method, his army 


probably numbered not fewer than fifty-five 
thousand. 

To contend with this force, Sherman had 
about a hundred thousand men, consisting of 
the Army of the Cumberland commanded by 
Gen. George Id. Thomas, the Army of the 
Tennessee commanded by Gen. James B. 
McPherson, and the Army of the Ohio com¬ 
manded by Gen. John M. Schofield. The dis¬ 
crepancy in numbers seems very great, until 
we consider that Sherman was not only to 
take the offensive, but must constantly leave 
detachments to guard his communications ; 
for he drew all his supplies from Nashville, 
over one single-track railroad, and it was liable 
to be broken at any time by guerilla raids. 
Ashe advanced into the enemy’s country, this 
line would become longer, and the danger of 
its being broken still greater. Johnston, on 
the contrary, had nothing to fear in the rear, 
for he was fighting on his own ground, and 
could bring his entire force to the front at 
every emergency. All things considered, it 
was pretty nearly an even match. In one 
respect, however, Sherman had a decided ad¬ 
vantage ; he possessed the confidence of the 
Government that he served, while Johnston did not. At least, 
Johnston complains that Mr. Davis did not trust him as he 
should, and thwarted him in many ways; and in this the gen¬ 
eral appears to be corroborated by the circumstances of the 
campaign. 

When Sherman concentrated his forces at Chattanooga, and 
considered the means of supply, he found that about one hun¬ 
dred and thirty cars loaded with provisions must arrive at that 
point every day. But that railroad had not cars and locomo¬ 
tives enough for such a task, and so he sent orders to Louisville 
for the seizure of trains arriving there from the North, and soon 
had rolling-stock in great abundance and variety. While he thus 
provided liberally for necessary supplies, he excluded all luxu¬ 
ries. Tents were taken only for the sick and wounded. The 
sole exception to this was made in favor of General Thomas, 
who needed a tent and a small wagon-train, which the soldiers 
immediately christened “ Thomas’s Circus.” Sherman had no 
tent or train. Every man, whether officer or private, carried 
provisions for five days. 

Thus equipped and disciplined, the army set out from Chat¬ 
tanooga on the 5th of May (the day on which Grant entered 
the Wilderness), following the line of the railroad south toward 
Atlanta. A direct approach to Dalton was impossible, because 
of Johnston’s fortifications at Tunnel Hill. So Sherman made a 
feint of attacking there, and sent McPherson southward to 
march through the gap in the mountains, strike Resaca, and cut 
the railroad over which Johnston drew all his supplies. Here at 
the very outset was the brilliant opportunity of the campaign, 
not to occur again. McPherson reached Resaca, but found 
fortifications and an opposing force there, and just lacked the 
necessary boldness to attack promptly and vigorously, thrusting 
his army into a position where it would have made the destruc¬ 
tion of Johnston’s almost certain. Instead of this, he fell back 
to the gap, and waited for the remainder of the army to join him 
there. But this enabled Johnston to learn what was going on, 
and when Sherman had passed down to the gap with his entire 











THE BATTLE OF ATLANTA, GA„ J U LY 22, 1864. 





CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


385 


army, he found, of course, that his an¬ 
tagonist had fallen back to Resaca and 
concentrated his forces there in a strong 
position. 

General Sherman says of this error of 
McPherson’s : “ McPherson had startled 
Johnston in his fancied security, but 
had not done the full measure of his 
work. He had in hand twenty-three 
thousand of the best men of the army, 
and could have walked into Resaca 
(then held only by a small brigade), or 
he could have placed his whole force 
astride the railroad above Resaca, and 
there have easily withstood the attack 
of all of Johnston’s army, with the 
knowledge that Thomas and Schofield 
were on his heels. Had he done so, 

I am certain that Johnston would not 
have ventured to attack him in position, 
but would have retreated eastward by 
Spring Place, and we should have cap¬ 
tured half his army and all his artillery 
and wagons at the very beginning of 
the campaign. But at the critical mo¬ 
ment McPherson seems to have been a 
little cautious. Still he was perfectly 
justified by his orders, and fell back and 
assumed an unassailable defensive posi¬ 
tion in Sugar Valley, on the Resaca 
side of Snake Creek Gap. As soon as 
informed of this, I determined to pass the whole army through 
Snake Creek Gap, and to move on Resaca with the main army.” 

On the 14th of May, Sherman’s army was in position around 
Resaca on the north and west, and on that and the next day 
there was continual skirmishing and artillery firing, though 
nothing like a great battle. Neither general was willing to fight 
at disadvantage; Sherman would not attack the intrenchments, 
and Johnston would not come out of them. McPherson, on the 
right, advanced his line of battle till he gained an elevated posi¬ 
tion from which his guns could destroy the railroad bridge over 
the Oostenaula in the Confederate rear, and all attempts to drive 
him out of this position ended only in bloody repulse. On the 
left of the line, Hooker exhibited something of his usual dash 
by capturing a small portion of the enemy’s intrenchments, with 
four guns and some prisoners. Meanwhile, Sherman had thrown 
two pontoon bridges across the river three miles below the town, 
so that he could send over a detachment to break the railroad, 
and had also sent a division of cavalry down the river, to cross 
at some lower point for the same purpose. Johnston, therefore, 
seeing his communications threatened so seriously, and having 
no good roads by which he could retreat eastward, did not wait 
to be cooped up in Resaca, but in the night of the 15th retired 
southward across the river, following the railroad, and burned 
the bridges behind him. Sherman thus came into possession of 
Resaca; but Resaca was not what he wanted, and without the 
slightest delay he started his entire army in pursuit of the 
enemy. Hooker crossed the river by fords and ferries above 
the town; Thomas and Schofield repaired the half-burned 
bridges and used them ; McPherson crossed by the pontoons. 

The enemy was found, on the 19th, in position at Cassville, 
just east of Kingston, and apparently ready to fight ; but when 


Sherman’s columns converged on the 
place the Confederates, after some sharp 
skirmishing, retreated again in the night 
of the 20th, and crossed Etowah River. 
Johnston had really intended to fight 
here, and he explains his refusal to do 
so by saying that Hood and Polk told 
him their corps could not hold their 
positions, as a portion of each was 
enfiladed by the National artillery. 
Hood’s version of the mysterious re¬ 
treat is to the effect that he wanted 
to assume the offensive, marching out 
with his own corps and a part of Polk’s 
to overwhelm Schofield, who was sep¬ 
arated from the remainder of the Na¬ 
tional army. 

Here Sherman halted for a few days, 
to get his army well together, re-pro¬ 
vision it, and repair the railroad in his 
rear. Twenty years before, when he 
was a young lieutenant, he had ridden 
through the country from Charleston, 
S. C., to northwestern Georgia, and he 
still retained a good recollection of the 
topography. Knowing that Allatoona 
Pass, through which runs the railroad 
south of Kingston, was very strong and 
would probably be held by Johnston, 
he diverged from the railroad at Kings¬ 
ton, passing considerably west of it, and 
directed his columns toward Dallas ; his purpose being to 
threaten Marietta and Atlanta so as to cause Johnston to with¬ 
draw from Allatoona and release his hold on the railroad, which 
became more and more necessary to the invading army as it 
advanced into the country. Johnston understood this ma¬ 
noeuvre, and moved westward to meet it. The armies, in an 
irregular way—for each was somewhat scattered and uncertain 
of the other’s exact position—came into collision at the cross¬ 
roads by New Hope Church. Around this place for six days 
there was continuous fighting, sometimes mere skirmishing, and 
sometimes an attack by a heavy detachment of one party or the 
other; but all such attacks, on either side, were costly and fruit¬ 
less. The general advantage, however, was with Sherman ; for 
as he gradually got his lines into proper order, he strengthened 
his right, and then reached out with his left toward the rail¬ 
road, secured all the wagon-roads from Allatoona, and sent out 
a strong force of cavalry to occupy that pass and repair the rail¬ 
road. Johnston then left his position at New Hope Church, 
and took up a new one. 

Thus ended the month of May in this campaign, where each 
commander exercised the utmost skill, neither was guilty of 
anything rash, and the results were such as would naturally 
follow from the military conditions with which it began. The 
losses on each side, thus far, were fewer than ten thousand men 
—killed, wounded, and missing ; but strong positions had been 
successively taken up, turned, abandoned; and Sherman was 
steadily drawing nearer to his goal. 

Johnston’s new position was on the slopes of Kenesaw, Pine, 
and Lost Mountains, thus crossing the railroad above Marietta. 
It had the advantage of a height from which everything done 
by Sherman’s approaching army could be seen ; but it had the 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD. 








386 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




disadvantage of a line ten miles long, and so disposed that one 
part could not readily reinforce another. Though heavy rains 
were falling, ths National army kept close to its antagonist, and 
intrenched at every advance. The railroad was repaired behind 
it, and the trains that brought its supplies ran up.almost to its 
front. In one instance, an engineer detached his locomotive and 
ran forward to a tank, where he quietly took in the necessary 
supply of water, while a Confederate battery on the mountain 
fired several shots, but none of them quite hit the locomotive, 
which woke the echoes with its shrill whistling as it ran back 
out of range. 

When the rain was over, Sherman occupied a strongly in¬ 
trenched line that fol¬ 
lowed the contour of 
Johnston’s, and was at 


The next day Sherman advanced his lines, intending to attack 
between Kenesaw and Pine Mountain, but found that Johnston 
had withdrawn from Pine Mountain, taking up a shorter line, 
from Kenesaw to Lost Mountain. Sherman promptly occupied 
the ground, and gathered in a large number of prisoners, includ¬ 
ing the Fourteenth Alabama Regiment entire. The next day 
he pressed forward again, only to find that the enemy had still 
further contracted his lines, abandoning Lost Mountain, but 
still occupying Kenesaw, and covering Marietta and the roads 
to Atlanta with the extension of his left wing. The successive 
positions to which Johnston’s army had fallen back wero pre¬ 
pared beforehand by gangs of slaves impressed for the purpose, 
so that his soldiers had little digging to do, and could save their 
strength for 
fighting. After .^ 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
J. S. ROBINSON. 

nearly all points 
close to it. Both 
sides maintained 
skirmish lines that 
were almost as 
strong as lines of bat¬ 
tle, and occupied rifle- 

pits. From these the \\ roar of 

musketry was almost unceasing, and 

there was a steady loss of men. On June 14, 

while General Sherman was reconnoitring the enemy’s 

position, he observed a battery on the crest of Pine Mountain, 
and near it a group of officers with field-glasses. Ordering a 
battery to fire two or three volleys at them, he rode on. A few 
hours later, his signal officer told him that the Confederates had 
signalled from Pine Mountain to Marietta, “ Send an ambulance 
for General Polk’s body.” The group on the mountain had con¬ 
sisted of Generals Johnston, Hardee, and Polk, and a few soldiers 
that had gathered around them. One of the cannon-balls had 
struck General Polk in the chest and cut him in two. He was 
fifty-eight years old at the time of his death, had been educated 
at West Point, but afterward studied theology, and at the out¬ 
break of the war had been for twenty years the Protestant Epis¬ 
copal Bishop of Louisiana. 


W» 


' 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL W. Q. GRESHAM. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
W. F. BARTLETT. 


a time Sherman 
adopted a simi¬ 
lar policy, by 

setting at work the crowds of negroes that flocked to his camp, 
feeding them from the army supplies, and promising them ten 
dollars a month, as he was authorized to do by an act of Con¬ 
gress. The fortifications consisted of a sort of framework of 
rails and logs, covered with earth thrown up from a ditch on 
each side. When there was opportunity, they were finished 
with a heavy head-log laid along the top, which rested in notches 
cut in other logs that extended back at right angles and formed 
an inclined plane down which the head-log could roll harmlessly 
if knocked out of place by a cannon-shot. Miles of such works 
were often constructed in a single night; and they were abso¬ 
lutely necessary, when veteran armies were facing each other 
with weapons of precision in their hands. 

Sherman was now facing a little south of east, and kept pressing 
his lines closer up to Johnston’s, with rifle and artillery firing 
going on all the time. On the 21st the divisions of Generals 
Wood and Stanley gained new positions, on the southern flank 
of Kenesaw, where several determined assaults failed to dislodge 
them; and the next day the troops of Hooker and Schofield 

















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


3 87 


pressed forward to within three miles of Marietta, and withstood 
an attack by Hood’s corps, inflicting upon him a loss of a thou¬ 
sand men. As the National line was now lengthened quite as 
far as seemed prudent, and still the Confederate communications 
were not severed, Sherman determined upon the hazardous ex¬ 
periment of attacking the enemy in his intrenchments. He chose 
two points for assault, about a mile apart, and on the morning 
of the 27th launched heavy columns against them, while firing 
was at the same time kept up all along the line. He expected 
to break the centre, and with half of his army take half of John¬ 
ston’s in reverse, while with the remainder of his troops he held 
the other half so close that it could not go to the rescue. But 
his columns wasted away before the fire from the intrenchments, 
and as in Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg, and Grant’s assault at 
Cold Harbor, only a remnant reached the enemy’s works, there 
to be killed or captured. Among those sacrificed were Brig.- 
Gens. Daniel McCook and Charles G. Harker, both of whom 
died of their wounds. This experiment cost Sherman over two 
thousand five hundred men, while Johnston’s loss was but little 
over eight hundred. 

It was evident that any repetition would be useless, and the 
approved principles of warfare seemed to supply no alternative. 
What General Sherman therefore did was to disregard the maxim 
that an army must alwavs hold fast to its communications ; and 
by doing the same thing on a grander scale six months later he 
won his largest fame. He determined to let go of the railroad 
north of Kenesaw, take ten days’ provisions in wagons, and 
move his whole army southward to seize the road below Mari¬ 
etta. This would compel Johnston either to fall back farther 
toward Atlanta, or come out and fight him in his intrench¬ 
ments—which, as both commanders well knew, was almost cer¬ 
tain destruction to the assaulting party. In the night of July 2, 
McPherson’s troops, who had the left or north of the line, drew 
out of their works and marched southward, passing behind the 
lines held by Thomas and Schofield. This was the same ma¬ 
noeuvre as that by which Grant had carried his army to its suc¬ 
cessive positions between the Wilderness and the James River, 
except that he moved by the left flank and Sherman by the 
right, and Grant never had to let go of his communications, being 
supplied by lines of wagons from various points on the Potomac. 

When Johnston saw what Sherman was doing he promptly 
abandoned his strong position at Kenesaw, and fell back to the 
Chattahoochee ; but he did not, as Sherman hoped, attempt to 
cross the stream at once. Intrenchments had been prepared for 
him on the north bank, and here he stopped. Sherman, expect¬ 
ing to catch his enemy in the confusion of crossing a stream, 
pressed on rapidly with his whole army, and ran up against what 
he says was one of the strongest pieces of field fortification he 
had ever seen. A thousand slaves had been at work on it for a 
month. And yet, like many other things in the costly business 
of war, it was an enormous outlay to serve a very brief purpose. 
For Sherman not only occupied ground that overlooked it, but 
held the river for miles above and below, and was thus able to 
cross over and turn the position. Johnston must have known 
this when the fortifications were in process of construction, and 
their only use was to protect his army from assault while it was 
crossing the river. On the 9th of July, Schofield’s army crossed 
above the Confederate position, laying two pontoon bridges, and 
intrenched itself in a strong position on the left bank. John¬ 
ston, thus compelled to surrender the stream, crossed that night 
with his entire army, and burned the railroad and other bridges 
behind him. Sherman was almost as cautious in the pursuit, 


wherever there was any serious danger, as Johnston was in the 
retreat; and he not only chose an upper crossing, farther from 
Atlanta, but spent a week in preparations to prevent disaster, 
before he threw over his entire army. This he did on the 17th, 
and the next day moved it by a grand right wheel toward the 
city of Atlanta. 

The Chattahoochee was the last great obstruction before the 
fortifications of the Gate City were reached, and on the day 
that Sherman crossed it something else took place, which, in the 
opinion of many military critics, was even more disastrous to 
the fortunes of the Confederacy. This was the supersession of 
the careful and skilful Johnston by Gen. John B. Hood, an im¬ 
petuous and sometimes reckless fighter, but no strategist. The 
controversy over the wisdom of this action on the part of the 
Confederate Government will probably never be satisfactorily 
closed. The merits of it can be sufficiently indicated by two 
brief extracts. The telegram conveying the orders of the War 
Department said: “As you have failed to arrest the advance 
of the enemy to the vicinity of Atlanta, far in the interior of 
Georgia, and express no confidence that you can defeat or repel 
him, you are hereby relieved from the command of the Army 
and Department of Tennessee, which you will immediately turn 
over to General Hood.” General Johnston said in his reply: 
“As to the alleged cause of my removal, I assert that Sherman’s 
army is much stronger compared with that of Tennessee than 
Grant’s compared with that of Northern Virginia. Yet the 
enemy has been compelled to advance much more slowly to the 
vicinity of Atlanta than to that of Richmond and Petersburg, 
and penetrated much deeper into Virginia than into Georgia. 
Confident language by a military commander is not usually 
regarded as evidence of competence.” 

Within twenty-four hours the National army learned that its 
antagonist had a new commander, and there was eager inquiry 
as to Hood’s character as a soldier. Schofield and McPherson 
had been his classmates at West Point, and from their testimony 
and the career of Hood as a corps commander it was easily 
inferred that a new policy might be looked for, very different 
from Johnston’s. Sherman warned his army to be constantly 
prepared for sallies of the enemy, and his prediction did not 
wait long for fulfilment. On the 20th, at noonday, as his army 
was slowly closing in upon the city, the Confederates left the 
intrenchments that Johnston had prepared for them along the 
line of Peach Tree Creek, where he would have awaited attack, 
and made a heavy assault upon Thomas, who held the right of 
the National line. The weight of the blow fell mainly upon 
Hooker’s corps, and the attack was so furious and reckless that 
in many places friend and foe were intermingled, fighting hand 
to hand. A heavy column of Confederates attempted to fall 
upon an exposed flank of the Fourth Corps; but Thomas 
promptly brought several batteries to play upon it, and at the 
end of two hours the enemy was driven back to his intrench¬ 
ments, leaving hundreds of dead on the field. Hooker also lost 
heavily, because his men fought without intrenchments or cover 
of any kind. 

The Confederates now abandoned the line of works along 
Peach Tree Creek, and fell back to the immediate defences of the 
city. It was seen that one point in their line was an eminence— 
then called Bald Hill, but since known as Leggett’s Hill—from 
which, if it could be occupied, the city could be shelled. After 
a consultation between Generals Blair and McPherson on the 
afternoon of the 20th, it was agreed that this hill ought to be 
captured, and the task was assigned to Gen. Mortimer D. Leg- 



FALL OF GENERAL JAMES B. McPHERSON, NEAR ATLANTA, 







f 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


3^9 



Accordingly, 
mish line cautiously 
near as 


gett’s division. Leggett accordingly said to Gen. M. F. Force, 
who commanded his first brigade : “ I want you to carry that 
hill. Move as soon as it is light enough to move. I will sup¬ 
port your left and rear with the rest of the division, and the 
fourth division will make a demonstration as you go up to dis¬ 
tract the attention of the enemy in their front.” 
at daylight, Leggett’s skir- 
went forward, and got as 
possible to the Confeder¬ 
ate works without alarm¬ 
ing the enemy. After 
some little delay, caused 
by waiting for the fourth 
division, General Force 
gave the order for the 
assault. What then 
followed is told by 
Col. Gilbert D. Mun¬ 
son, of the Seventy- 
eighth Ohio Regi¬ 
ment : “The skir¬ 
mish line sprang 
forward ; the bri¬ 
gade debouched 
from its conceal- 
ment in the 
wood. In the 
front line on came 
the Twelfth and Six¬ 
teenth Wisconsin, 
close supported by 
the Twentieth, 

Thirtieth, and 
Thirty-first Illinois 
—the second line of 
battle ; flags flying, 
bayonets fixed ; arms 
right shoulder shift 
and unloaded ; Force 
and his aid, Adams, 
just in rear of the 
Wisconsin regi¬ 
ments, and his adju¬ 
tant-general, Capt. J. 

Bryant Walker, and 
another aid, Evans, 
with the Illinois boys 
—mounted ; all regi¬ 
mental officers on 
foot. The skirmish¬ 
ers, for a moment, 
distracted the enemy 
by their rapid ad¬ 
vance and firing; 

then the brigade received and enveloped them as it reached the 
crest of the hill, and exposed its full front to the steady fire of 
Cleburne’s rifles. Our men fell in bunches; still came the 
charging column on ; faster and faster it pressed forward. ‘ Close 
up ! close up ! ’ the command, and each regiment closed on its 
colors, and over the barricades went the first line, handsomely, 
eagerly, and well aligned. Then began our firing and our fun. 
Into the gray-coats the Sixteenth Wisconsin poured a rattling 


to 


fire, as they scattered and ran along the level ground, down the 
slope of the hill, and on toward Atlanta. I joined General 
Force after the skirmish line was merged in his line of battle, 
and was with him when it came to and went over the barricades. 
‘ Our orders are to carry this hill, General ; the Sixteenth are 
away beyond, where, I understand, we are to go.’ Force said 
something about being able to take the next hill, too, but im¬ 
mediately sent Captain Walker after Colonel Fairchild, and his 
about, march,’ brought the regiment back. Captain 
Walker then reported the capture of the hill to General Leg¬ 
gett, who was with the rest of the division. Walker said to 
me, on his return, that, having a message for Gen. Giles A. Smith, 
the fourth division, he told him the hill was won and 
held by Force, but Smith would hardly believe him: he thought 

It seemed doubtful to him that such an 
point had been won so quickly.” 

The fourth division, on the right of 
Force’s brigade, met with a stubborn 
resistance, but finally overcame it, 
and other troops were brought up, 
and after a little the place was 
firmly held. This hill was the 
key-point of the line, and its cap¬ 
ture was what caused Hood to 
come out and give battle the 
next day. He found that 
Sherman’s left flank, which 
crossed the line of railroad 
Augusta, was without 
proper protection, and 
consequently he moved 
to the attack at that 
point. Hemarchedby 
a road parallel with 
the railroad, and the 
contour of the 
ground and the 
forests hid him 
until his m e n 
burst in upon the rear 
Sherman’s extreme left, 
battery that 


of 

seized a 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD M. McCOOK. 


was moving 

through the woods, and took possession 
of some of the camps. But McPherson’s vet¬ 
erans were probably in expectation of such a move¬ 
ment, and under the direction of Generals Logan, Charles R. 
Wood, and Morgan L. Smith, quickly fcrmed to meet it. 
That flank of the army was “ refused ”—turned back at a 
ri<ffit anele with the main line—and met the onsets of the 
Confederates with steady courage from noon till night. 
Seven heavy assaults were made, resulting in seven bloody 
repulses, guns were taken and retaken, and finally a counter 
attack was made on the Confederate flank by Wood’s divi¬ 
sion, assisted by twenty guns that fired over the heads of 
Wood’s men as they advanced, which drove back the enemy, 
who retired slowly to their defences, carrying with them some 
of the captured guns. It had been intended that Wheeler’s 
Confederate cavalry should capture McPherson’s supply-trains, 
which were at Decatur ; but the troopers were fought off till 
the trains,could be drawn back to a place of safety, and Wheeler 
only secured a very few wagons. The National loss in this 
battle was thirty-five hundred and twenty-one men killed, 










390 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


wounded, and missing, and ten guns. The total Confederate 
loss is unknown, but it was very heavy; General Logan re¬ 
ported thirty-two hundred and twenty dead in front of his lines, 
and two thousand prisoners, half of whom were wounded. The 
most grievous loss to Sherman was General McPherson, who 
rode off into the woods at the first sounds of battle, almost 
alone. His horse soon came back, bleeding and riderless, and 
an hour later the general’s dead body was brought to head¬ 
quarters. McPherson was a favorite in the army. He was 
but thirty-four years old, and with the exception of his error at 
the outset of the campaign, by which Johnston was allowed to 
escape from Dalton, he had a brilliant military record. Gen. 
Oliver O. Howard, who had lost an arm at Fair Oaks and was 
now in command of the Fourth Corps, was promoted to Mc¬ 
Pherson’s place in command of the Army of the Tennessee; 
whereupon General Hooker, commanding the Twentieth Corps, 
who believed that the promotion properly belonged to him, 
asked to be relieved, and left the army. His corps was given 
to Gen. Henry W. Slocum. 

Sherman now repeated his former manoeuvre, of moving by 
the right flank to strike the enemy’s communications and com¬ 
pel him either to retreat again or fight at a disadvantage. The 
Army of the Tennessee was withdrawn from the left on the 27th, 
and marched behind the Army of the Cumberland to the ex¬ 
treme right, with the intention of extending the flank far enough 
to cross the railroad south of Atlanta. The movement was but 
partially performed when Hood made a heavy attack on that 
flank, and for four or five hours on the 28th there was bloody 
fighting. Logan’s men hastily threw up a slight breastwork, from 
which they repelled six charges in quick succession, and later in 
the day several other charges by the Confederates broke against 
the immovable lines of the Fifteenth Corps. Meanwhile Sher¬ 
man sent Gen. Jefferson C. Davis’s division to make a detour, 
and come up into position where it could strike the Confederate 
flank in turn ; but Davis lost his way and failed to appear in 
time. In this battle Logan’s corps lost five hundred and sev¬ 
enty-two men ; while they captured five bat¬ 
tle-flags and buried about six hundred of the 
enemy’s dead. The total Confederate losses 
during July, in killed and wounded, were re¬ 
ported by the surgeon-general at eighty-eight 
hundred and forty-one, to which Sherman 
adds two thousand prisoners. Sherman re¬ 
ports his own losses during that month— 
killed, wounded, and missing—at ninety-seven 
hundred and nineteen ; but this does not in¬ 
clude the cavalry. Johnston’s estimate of 
Sherman’s losses is so enormous that if it 
had been correct his government would have 
been clearly justified when it censured him 
for not driving the National army out of the 
State. 

Sherman had sent out several cavalry ex¬ 
peditions to break the railroads south of At¬ 
lanta, but with no satisfactory results. They 
tore up a few miles of track each time, but 
the damage was quickly repaired. The mar¬ 
vellous facility with which both sides mended 
broken railroads and replaced burned bridges 


is illustrated by many anecdotes. Sherman had duplicates of the 
important bridges on the road that brought his supplies, and 
whenever the guerillas destroyed one, he had only to order the 
duplicate to be set up. On the 26th Gen. George Stoneman 
had set out with a cavalry force to break up the railroad at 
Jonesboro’, with the intention of pushing on rapidly to Macon 
and Andersonville, and releasing a large number of prisoners 
that were confined there in stockades; while at the same time 
another cavalry force, under McCook, was sent around by the 
right to join Stoneman at Jonesboro’. They destroyed two miles 
of track, burned two trains of cars and five hundred wagons, 
killed eight hundred mules, and took three or four hundred 
prisoners. But McCook was surrounded by the enemy at New- 
nan, and only escaped with a loss of six hundred men; while 
Stoneman destroyed seventeen locomotives and a hundred cars, 
and threw a few shells into Macon, but was surrounded at Clif¬ 
ton, where he allowed himself and seven hundred of his men to 
be captured in order to facilitate the escape of the remainder of 
his command. 

Perhaps it was quite as well that he did not reach Anderson¬ 
ville, for General Winder, in command there, had issued this 
order on July 27th: “The officers on duty and in charge of 
battery of Florida artillery will, on receiving notice that the 
enemy has approached within seven miles of this post, open fire 
on the stockade with grape-shot, without reference to the situa¬ 
tion beyond this line of defence.” The conduct of those on 
guard duty at the prison leaves little doubt that this order would 
have been obeyed with alacrity. 

Two or three weeks later, Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry 
passed to the rear of Sherman’s army, captured a large drove of 
cattle, and broke up two miles of railroad; and about the same 
time Kilpatrick’s cavalry rode entirely round Atlanta, fought 
and defeated a combined cavalry and infantry force, and inflicted 
upon the railroad such damage as he thought it would take ten 
days to repair; but within twenty-four hours trains were again 
running into the city. 

Finding that cavalry raids could effect 
nothing, Sherman posted Slocum’s corps at 
the railroad bridge over the Chattahoochee, 
and, moving again by the right, rapidly but 
cautiously, concealing the movement as far as 
possible, he swung all the remainder of his 
army into position south of Atlanta, where 
they tore up the railroads, burning the ties 
and twisting the rails, and then advanced to¬ 
ward the city. There was some fighting, and 
Govan’s Confederate brigade was captured 
entire, with ten guns; but the greater part 
of Hood’s forces escaped eastward in the 
night of September 1st. They destroyed 
a large part of the Government property 
that night, and the sound of the explosions 
caused Slocum to move down from the 
bridge, when he soon found that he had 
nothing to do but walk into Atlanta. A few 
days later Sherman made his headquarters 
there, disposed his army in and around the 
city, and prepared for permanent posses¬ 
sion. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY. 

DEFENCES — ADMIRAL FARRAGUT’s PREPARATIONS — PASSING THE 
FORTS—LOSS OF THE “ TECUMSEH ”—FIGHT WITH THE RAM 
“TENNESSEE”—COST OF THE VICTORY—CRAVEN’S CHIVALRY— 
OFFICIAL REPORT OF ADMIRAL FARRAGUT—POETIC DESCRIPTION 
OF THE BATTLE BY A POET WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE CONFLICT. 

The capture of Mobile had long been desired, both because of 
its importance as a base of operations, whence expeditions could 
move inland, and communication be maintained with the fleet, 
and because blockade-running at that port could not be entirely- 
prevented by the vessels outside. Grant and Sherman had 

planned to have the city 
taken by forces moving 
east from New Orleans and 
Port Hudson; but every¬ 
thing had gone wrong in 
that quarter. 

The principal defences 
of Mobile Bay were Fort 
Morgan on Mobile Point, 
and Fort Gaines, three 
miles northwest of it, on 
the extremity of Dauphin 
Island. The passage be¬ 
tween these two works was 
obstructed by innumerable 
piles for two miles out 
from Fort Gaines, and from 
that point nearly to Fort 
Morgan by a line of tor¬ 
pedoes. The eastern end 
of this line was marked by 
a red buoy, and from that 
point to Fort Morgan the channel was open, to admit blockade- 
runners. 

Farragut’s fleet had been for a long time preparing to pass 
these forts, fight the Confederate fleet inside (which included a 
powerful iron-clad ram), and take possession of the bay. But he 
wanted the cooperation of a military force to capture the forts. 
This was at last furnished, under Gen. Gordon Granger, and 
landed on Dauphin Island, August 4th. Farragut had made 
careful preparations, and, as at New Orleans, had given minute 
instructions to his captains. The attacking column consisted of 
four iron-clad monitors and seven wooden sloops-of-war. To 
each sloop was lashed a gunboat on the port (or left) side, to ■ 
help her out in case she were disabled. The heaviest fire was 
expected from Fort Morgan, on the right, or starboard, side. 
Before six o’clock in the morning of the 5th all were under way, 
the monitors forming a line abreast of the wooden ships and to 
the right of them. The Brooklyn headed the line of the wooden 
vessels, because she had an apparatus for picking up torpedoes. 
They steamed along in beautiful style, coming up into close 
order as they neared the fort, so that there were spaces of but a 
few yards from the stern of one vessel to the bow of the next. 
The forts and the Confederate fleet, which lay just inside of the 
line of torpedoes, opened fire upon them half an hour before 


39 1 

they could bring their guns to answer. They made the Hart¬ 
ford, Farragut’s flagship, their especial target, lodged a hundred- 
and-twenty-pound ball in her mainmast, sent great splinters 
flying across her deck, more dangerous than shot, and killed or 
wounded many of her crew. One ball from a Confederate gun¬ 
boat killed ten men and wounded five. The other wooden ves¬ 
sels suffered in like manner as they approached ; but when they 
came abreast of the fort they poured in rapid broadsides of 
grape-shot, shrapnel, and shells, which quickly cleared the bas¬ 
tions and silenced the batteries. 

The captains had been warned to pass to the east of the red 
buoy; but Captain T. A. M. Craven, of the monitor Tecumseh , 
eager to engage the Confederate ram Tennessee , which was behind 
the line of torpedoes, made straight for her. The consequence 
was that his vessel struck a torpedo, which exploded, and she 
went down in a few seconds, carrying with her the captain and 
most of the crew. The Brooklyn stopped when she found torpe¬ 
does, and began to back. This threatened to throw the whole 
line into confusion while under fire, and defeat the project; but 
Farragut instantlv ordered more steam on his own vessel and 
her consort, drew ahead of the Brooklyn, and led the line to vic¬ 
tory. All this time he was in the rigging of the Hartford, and 
a quartermaster had gone up and tied him to one of the shrouds, 
so that if wounded he should not fall to the deck. As the fleet 
passed into the bay, several of the larger vessels were attacked 
by the ram Tennessee and considerably damaged, while their shot 
seemed to have little effect on her heavv iron mail. At length 
she withdrew to her anchorage, and the order was given from the 
flagship, “Gunboats chase enemy’s gunboats,” whereupon the 
lashings were cut and the National gunboats were off in a flash. 
In a little while they had destroyed or captured all the Confed¬ 
erate vessels save one, which escaped up the bay, where the 
water was too shallow for them to follow her. 

But as the fleet was coming to anchor, in the belief that the 
fight was over, the Tennessee left her anchorage and steamed 
boldly into the midst of her enemies, firing in every direction 
and attempting to ram them. The wooden vessels stood to the 
fight in the most gallant manner, throwing useless broadsides 
against the monster, avoiding her blows by skilful manoeuvring, 
and trying to run her down till some of them hammered their 
bows to splinters. The three monitors pounded at her to more 
purpose. They fired one fifteen-inch solid shot that penetrated 
her armor; they jammed some of her shutters so that the port¬ 
holes could not be opened ; they shot away her steering-gear, and 
knocked off her smoke-stack, so that life on board of her became 
intolerable, and she surrendered. Her commander, Franklin 
Buchanan, formerly of the United States navy, had been seri¬ 
ously wounded. 

This victory cost Farragut’s fleet fifty-two men killed and one 
hundred and seventy wounded, besides one hundred and thirteen 
that went down in the Tecumseh. Knowles, the same old quar¬ 
termaster that had tied Farragut in the rigging, says he saw the 
admiral coming on deck as the twenty-five dead sailors of the 
Hartford were being laid out, “ and it was the only time I ever 
saw the old gentleman cry, but the tears came into his eyes like 
a little child.” The Confederate fleet lost ten men killed, six¬ 
teen wounded, and two hundred and eighty prisoners. The loss 
in the forts is unknown. They were surrendered soon afterward 
to the land forces, with a thousand men. 

Of the four iron-clads that went into this fight, two—the 
Tecumseh and the Manhattan —had come from the Atlantic 
coast, while the Chickasaw and the Winnebago , which had been 



REAR-ADMIRAL DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 






392 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


built at St. Louis by James B. Eads, came down the Missis¬ 
sippi. Much doubt had been expressed as to the ability of 
these two river-built monitors to stand the rough weather of the 
Gulf, and Captain Eads had visited the Navy Department, and 
offered to bear all the expenses in case they failed. It is agreed 
by all authorities, that in the fight with the ram Tennessee , which 
was a much more serious affair than passing the forts, the best 
work was done by the monitor Chickasaw. The commander of 
this vessel, George H. Perkins, and his lieutenant, William Ham¬ 
ilton, had received leave of absence and were about to go North, 
when they learned that the battle was soon to take place, and 
volunteered to remain and take part in it. They were then at 
New Orleans and were assigned to the Chickasaw. As this ves¬ 
sel passed thence down the Mississippi on her way to Mobile, 
she took a pilot for the navigation of the river. It often hap¬ 
pened that the National vessels were obliged to take Southern 
men as pilots in the Southern waters, and they were not always 
to be trusted. In this instance, Captain Perkins, being called 
away from the pilot-house for a few minutes, observed that his 
vessel’s course was at once changed and she was heading for a 
wreck. Rushing back to 
the pilot-house, he seized 
the wheel and gave her 
the proper direction, after 
which he drew his pistol 
and told the pilot that if 
the ship touched ground 
or ran into anything, he 
would instantly blow out 
his brains. The pilot 
muttered something about 
the bottom of the river 
being lumpy, and the best 
pilots not always being 
able to avoid the lumps. 

But Captain Perkins told 
him he could not consider 
any such excuse, and if he 
touched a single lump he 
would instantly lose his 
life. There was no more 
trouble about the piloting. 

The Chickasaw was a 
double-turreted monitor, 
carrying two eleven-inch 

guns in each turret, and she was the only iron-clad that re¬ 
mained in perfect condition throughout the fight. This, per¬ 
haps, was owing to the fact that Captain Perkins, who was 
young, enthusiastic, and ambitious, personally inspected every¬ 
thing on the ship while she was in preparation and before she 
went into action. The place of the ships in line was determined 
by the rank of their commanders, and the Chickasaw came last 
of the monitors. In the fight with the Tennessee, she fired solid 
shot, most of them striking her about the stern. The pilot of 
the Tennessee said after the battle : “ The Chickasaw hung close 
under our stern ; move where we would, she was always there, 
firing the two eleven-inch guns in her forward turret like pocket 
pistols, so that she soon had the plates flying in the air.” Captain 
Perkins himself says: “When the Tennessee passed my ship first, 
it was on my port side. After that she steered toward Fort 
Morgan. Some of our vessels anchored, others kept under way, 
and when the Tennessee approached the fleet again, she was at 



BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL W. P. BENTON. 


once attacked by the wooden vessels, but they made no impres¬ 
sion upon her. An order was now brought from Admiral 
Farragut to the iron-clads, by Dr. Palmer, directing them to 
attack the Tennessee ; but when they approached her, she moved 
off toward the fort again. I followed straight after her with 
the Chickasaw, and, overtaking her, I poured solid shot into her 
as fast as I could, and after a short engagement forced her to 
surrender, having shot away her smoke-stack, destroyed her 
steering-gear, and jammed her after-ports, rendering her guns 
useless, while one of my shots wounded Admiral Buchanan. I 
followed her close, my guns and turrets continuing in perfect 
order in spite of the strain upon them. When Johnston came 
on the roof of the Tennessee, and showed the white flag as 

signal of surrender, no 
vessel of our fleet, except 
the Chickasaw, was within 
a quarter of a mile. But 
the Ossipce was approach¬ 
ing, and her captain was 
much older than myself. 

I was wet with perspira¬ 
tion, begrimed with pow¬ 
der, and exhausted with 
constant and violent exer¬ 
tion ; so I drew back and 
allowed Captain LeRoy to 
receive the surrender, 
though my first lieuten¬ 
ant, Mr. Hamilton, said at 
the time, ‘ Captain Per¬ 
kins, you are making a 
mistake.’ ” 

Admiral Farragut says 
in his official report: “As I had an elevated position in the 
main rigging near the top, I was able to overlook not only 
the deck of the Hartford, but the other vessels of the fleet. 

I witnessed the terrible effects of the enemy’s shot, and the 
good conduct of the men at their guns; and although no 
doubt their hearts sickened, as mine did, when their ship¬ 
mates were struck down beside them, yet there was not a 
moment’s hesitation to lay their comrades aside, and spring 
again to their deadly work. ... I must not omit to call 
the attention of the department to the conduct of Acting 
Ensign Henry C. Nields, of the Metacomet, who had charge of 
the boat sent from that vessel, when the Tecumseh sunk. He 
took her under one of the most galling fires I ever saw, and 
succeeded in rescuing from death ten of her crew within six hun¬ 
dred yards of the fort.” Commodore Foxhall A. Parker, in his 
very accurate account of this battle, describes more particularly 
the exploit of Ensign Nields: “ Starting from the port quarter 
of the Mctacomet, and steering the boat himself, this mere boy 
pulled directly under the battery of the Hartford, and around 
the Brooklyn, to within a few hundred yards of the fort, exposed 
to the fire of both friends and foes. After he had gone a little 
distance from his vessel, he seemed suddenly to reflect that he 
had no flag flying, when he dropped the yoke-ropes, picked up 
a small ensign from the bottom of the boat, and unfurling it 
from its staff, which he shipped in a socket made for it in the 
stern-sheets, he threw it full to the breeze, amid the loud cheers 
of his men. ‘ I can hardly describe,’ says an officer of the Ten¬ 
nessee, ‘how I felt at witnessing this most gallant act. The 
muzzle of our gun was slowly raised, and the bolt intended for 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL F M. COCKRELL, C. S. A. 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


393 



the Tecumseh flew harmlessly over the heads of that glorious 
boat’s crew, far down in the line of our foes.’ After saving 
Ensign Zelitch, eight men, and the pilot, Nields turned, and, 
pulling for the fleet, succeeded in reaching the Oneida, where 
he remained until the close of the action.” 

In a memorandum discovered among Admiral Farragut’s 
papers he said: ‘‘General orders required the vessels to pass 
inside the buoys next to Fort Morgan. When the 
Tecumseh reached that point, it looked so close that 
poor Craven said to the pilot, ‘ The admiral ordered 
me to go inside that buoy, but it must be a mistake.’ 

He ran just his breadth of beam too far westward, 
struck a torpedo, and 
went down in two 
minutes. Alden saw 
the buoys ahead, and 
stopped his ship. This 
liked to have proved 
fatal to all of us. I 
saw the difficulty, and 
ordered the Hartford 
ahead, and the fleet to 
follow. Allowing the 
Brooklyn to go ahead 
was a great error. It 
lost not only the Te- 
cu ms eh , b u t m an y val u - 
able lives, by keeping 
us under the fire of the 
forts for thirty min¬ 
utes ; whereas, had I 
led, as I intended to 
do, I would have gone 
inside the buoys, and 
all would have fol¬ 
lowed me. The offi¬ 
cers and crews of all 
the ships did their 
duty like men. There 
was but one man who 
showed fear, and he 
was allowed to resign. 

This was the most des¬ 
perate battle I ever 
fought since the days of the old Essex." 

The thorough discipline and devotion of the crews 
is illustrated by an incident on the Oneida. A shot 
penetrated her starboard boiler, and the escaping steam 
scalded thirteen men. At this one gun’s-crew shrank back 
for a moment, but when Captain Mullany shouted, “ Back 
to your quarters, men! ” they instantly returned to their 
guns. Soon afterward, Captain Mullany lost an arm and re¬ 
ceived six other wounds. Craven’s chief engineer in the Te¬ 
cumseh, C. Farron, was an invalid in the hospital at Pensa¬ 
cola when the orders were given to sail for Mobile, but he 
insisted on leaving his bed and going with his ship, with which 
he was lost. 

A Confederate officer who was in the water battery at Fort 
Morgan expressed unbounded admiration at the manoeuvring of 
the vessels when the Brooklyn stopped and the Hartford drew 
ahead and took the lead. “At first,” he says, “they appeared 
to be in inextricable confusion, and at the mercy of our guns; 


dravton 


p£R CWAU 


capt*' n 


CAPTAIN TUNIS A. M. CRAVEN 


but when the Hartford dashed forward, we realized that the 
grand tactical movement had been accomplished.” 

An officer of the Hartford wrote in his private journal: “The 
order was, to go ‘slowly, slowly,’ and receive the fire of Fort 
Morgan. At six minutes past seven the fort opened, having 
allowed us to get into such short range that we apprehended 

some snare; in fact, I heard the order 
passed for our guns to be elevated for 
fourteen hundred yards some time 
before one was fired. The calmness 
of the scene was sublime. No im¬ 
patience, no irritation, no anxiety, 
except for the fort to open ; and, 
after it did open, full five minutes 
elapsed before we answered. In 
the mean time the guns were 
trained as if at a target, and all 
the sounds I could hear were, 
‘Steady, boys, steady! Left 
tackle a little—so! so!’ Then 
the roar of a broadside, and an 
eager cheer as the enemy were 
driven from their water bat¬ 
tery. Don’t imagine they were 
frightened; no man could 
stand under that iron shower; 
and the brave fellows returned 
to their guns as soon as it 
lulled, only to be driven 
away again.” 

Farragut, who was a man of deep 
religious convictions, fully real¬ 
ized the perils of the enterprise 
upon which he was entering, 
and did not half expect to 
survive it. In a letter to 
his wife, written the even¬ 
ing before the battle, he 
said: “ I am going into 
Mobile Bay in the morn¬ 
ing, if God is my leader, 
as I hope he is, and in 
him I place my trust. If 
he think it is the proper 
place for me to die, I am 
ready to submit to his 
will in that as in all other 
things.” In spite of the 
universal sailor superstition, 
he fought this battle on Friday. 
One incident of this battle 
suggests the thought that many of 
the famous deeds of Old-World chivalry 
have been paralleled in American his¬ 
tory. When the Tecumseh was going 
down, Captain Craven and his pilot met 
at the foot of the ladder that afforded the only escape, and the 
pilot stepped aside. “ After you, pilot,” said Craven, drawing 
back, for he knew it was by his own fault, not the pilot’s, that the 
vessel was struck. “ There was nothing after me,” said the pilot, 
in telling the story; “ for the moment I reached the deck the 
vessel seemed to drop from under me, and went to the bottom.” 


REAR-ADMIRAL 
THORNTON A. JENKINS. 












ON BOARD THE “HARTFORD,” BATTLE OF MOBILE BAY. 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


395 


In all the literature of our language there is but one instance 
of the poetical description of a battle by a genuine poet who 
was a participator in the conflict. This instance is Brownell’s 
“Bay bight. Draytons fine “ Ballad of Agincourt ” has long 
been famous, but that battle was fought a century and a half 
before Drayton was born. Campbell witnessed the battle of 
Hohenlinden, famous through his familiar poem, but only from 
the distant tower of a convent. Byron’s description of the battle 
of Waterloo is justly admired, but Byron was not at Waterloo. 
Tennyson’s “ Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava,” which 
every schoolboy knows, is another hearsay poem, for Tennyson 
was never within a thousand miles of Balaklava* Henry Howard 
Brownell, a native of Providence, R. I., when a young man taught 
a school in Mobile, Ala. Afterward he practised law in Hart¬ 
ford, Conn., but left it for literature, and at the age of twenty- 
seven published a volume of poems that attracted no attention. 
During the war he made numerous poetical contributions to 
periodicals, some of which were widely copied. One of these, a 
poetical version of Farragut’s General Orders at New Orleans, 
attracted the admiral’s attention and led to a correspondence. 
Brownell wrote that he had always wanted to witness a sea-fight, 
and Farragut, answering that he would give him an opportunity. 


procured his appointment as acting ensign on board the Hart¬ 
ford. During the battle of Mobile, Brownell was on deck attend¬ 
ing to his duties, for which he was honorably mentioned in the 
admiral’s report, and at the same time taking notes of the pic¬ 
turesque incidents. The outcome was his unique and powerful 
poem entitled “The Bay Fight.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, in an 
article in the Atlantic Monthly , said: “New modes of warfare 
thundered their demand for a new poet to describe them ; and 
Nature has answered in the voice of our battle laureate, Henry 
Howard Brownell.” From Mr. Brownell’s poem we take the 
following stanzas: 

“Three days through sapphire seas we sailed; 

The steady trade blew strong and free, 

The northern light his banners paled, 

The ocean stream our channels wet. 

We rounded low Canaveral’s lee, 

And passed the isles of emerald set 
In blue Bahama’s turquoise sea. 

By reef and shoal obscurely mapped, 

And hauntings of the gray sea-wolf. 

The palmy Western Key lay lapped 
In the warm washing of the gulf. 



GUN PRACTICE ON A NATIONAL WAR-SHIP. 
(From a War-time Photograph.) 










39 6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


But weary to the hearts of all 
The burning glare, the barren reach 
Of Santa Rosa’s withered beach, 

And Pensacola's ruined wall. 

And weary was the long patrol, 

The thousand miles of shapeless strand. 
From Brazos to San Bias, that roll 
Their drifting dunes of desert sand. 

Yet, coast-wise as we cruised or lay, 

The land-breeze still at nightfall bore, 

By beach and fortress-guarded bay, 

Sweet odors from the enemy’s shore, 

Fresh from the forest solitudes, 
Unchallenged of his sentry lines— 

The bursting of his cypress buds, 

And the warm fragrance of his pines. 

Our lofty spars were down, 

To bide the battle’s frown, 

(Wont of old renown)— 

But every ship was drest 
In her bravest and her best, 

As if for a July day. 

Sixty flags and three, 

As we floated up the bay; 

Every peak and mast-head flew 
The brave red, white, and blue— 

We were eighteen ships that day. 

On, in the whirling shade 

Of the cannon’s sulphury breath, 

We drew to the line of death 
That our devilish foe had laid— 

Meshed in a horrible net, 

And baited villanous well, 

Right in our path were set 
Three hundred traps of hell! 

And there, O sight forlorn ! 

There, while the cannon 
Hurtled and thundered— 

(Ah ! what ill raven 
Flapped o’er the ship that morn !)— 
Caught by the under-death, 

In the drawing of a breath, 

Down went dauntless Craven, 

He and his hundred ! 

A moment we saw her turret, 

A little heel she gave, 

And a thin white spray went o’er it, 

Like the crest of a breaking wave. 

In that great iron coffin, 

The channel for their grave, 

The fort their monument, 

(Seen afar in the offing), 

Ten fathom deep lie Craven, 

And the bravest of our brave. 

Trust me, our berth was hot ; 

Ah, wickedly well they shot! 

How their death-bolts howled and stung! 
And their water batteries played 
With their deadly cannonade 
Till the air around us rung. 

So the battle raged and roared— 

Ah! had you been aboard 
To have seen the fight we made ! 


Never a nerve that failed, 

Never a cheek that paled, 

Not a tinge of gloom or pallor. 

There was bold Kentucky’s grit. 

And the old Virginian valor, 

And the daring Yankee wit. 

There were blue eyes from turfy Shannon, 
There were black orbs from palmy Niger; 
But there, alongside the cannon, 

Each man fought like a tiger. 

And now, as we looked ahead, 

All for’ard, the long white deck 
Was growing a strange dull red ; 

But soon, as once and again 
Fore and aft we sped 

(The firing to guide or check), 

You could hardly choose but tread 
On the ghastly human wreck, 

(Dreadful gobbet and shred 
That a minute ago were men)! 

Red, from main-mast to bitts ! 

Red, on bulwark and wale— 

Red, by combing and hatch— 

Red, o’er netting and rail! 

And ever, with steady con, 

The ship forged slowly by ; 

And ever the crew fought on, 

And their cheers rang loud and high. 

Fear? A forgotten form! 

Death ? A dream of the eyes ! 

We were atoms in God’s great storm 
That roared through the angry skies. 

A league from the fort we lay, 

And deemed that the end must lag ; 

When lo ! looking down the bay, 

There flaunted the rebel rag— 

The ram is again under way 
And heading dead for the flag ! 

Steering up with the stream, 

Boldly his course he lay, 

Though the fleet all answered his fire, 

And, as he still drew nigher, 

Ever on bow and beam 

Our monitors pounded away— 

How the Chickasaw hammered away ! 

Quickly breasting the wave, 

Eager the prize to win, 

First of us all the brave 
Monongahela went in, 

Under full head of steam— 

Twice she struck him abeam, 

Till her stem was a sorry work. 

(She might have run on a crag!) 

The Lackawanna hit fair— 

He flung her aside like cork, 

And still he held for the flag. 

Heading square at the hulk, 

Full on his beam we bore ; 

But the spine of the huge sea-hog 
Lay on the tide like a log— 

He vomited flame no more. 


By this he had found it hot. 

Half the fleet, in an angry ring, 

Closed round the hideous thing, 
Hammering with solid shot, 

And bearing down, bow on bow— 

He has but a minute to choose; 

Life or renown ?—which now 
Will the rebel admiral lose? 

Cruel, haughty, and cold, 

He ever was strong and bold— 

Shall he shrink from a wooden stem ? 

He will think of that brave band 
He sank in the Cumberland — 

Ay, he will sink like them ! 

Nothing left but to fight 
Boldly his last sea-fight! 

Can he strike ? By Heaven, ’tis true ! 
Down comes the traitor blue, 

And up goes the captive white ! 

Ended the mighty noise. 

Thunder of forts and ships, 

Down we went to the hold— 

Oh, our dear dying boys ! 

How we pressed their poor brave lips 
(Ah, so pallid and cold !) 

And held their hands to the last 
(Those that had hands to hold) ! 

O motherland, this weary life 

We led, we lead, is 'long of thee ! 

Thine the strong agony of strife, 

And thine the lonely sea. 

Thine the long decks all slaughter-sprent, 

The weary rows of cots that lie 
With wrecks of strong men, marred and rent, 
’Neath Pensacola’s sky. 

And thine the iron caves and dens 
Wherein the flame our war-fleet drives— 
The fiery vaults, whose breath is men’s 
Most dear and precious lives. 

Ah, ever when with storm sublime 
Dread Nature clears our murky air, 

Thus in the crash of falling crime 
Some lesser guilt must share ! 

To-day the Dahlgren and the drum 
Are dread apostles of His name ; 

His kingdom here can only come 
By chrism of blood and flame. 

Be strong ! already slants the gold 
Athwart these wild and stormy skies ; 

From out this blackened waste behold 
What happy homes shall rise ! 

And never fear a victor foe— 

Thy children’s hearts are strong and high ; 
Nor mourn too fondly—well they know 
On deck or field to die. 

Nor shalt thou want one willing breath, 
Though, ever smiling round the brave, 

The blue sea bear us on to death, 

The green were one wide grave. 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


397 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 


THE ADVANCE ON PETERSBURG. 


ADVANCE ON PETERSBURG—GENERAL BUTLER'S MOVEMENT—BEAU¬ 
REGARD’S COUNTER-MOVEMENT—ADVANCE FORCES UNDER GEN¬ 
ERAL smith — hancock’s attack—cutting off the railroads 

-THE FIGHT AT WELDON ROAD—BURNSIDE’S MINE—EXPLOSION 

AND THE SLAUGHTER AT THE CRATER—FIGHTING AT DEEP 
BOTTOM—THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN ARMY RAILROAD—SIEGE 
OF PETERSBURG BEGUN. 


It had been a part of Grant's plan, in opening the campaign 
of 1864, that Gen. B. F. Butler, with a force that was called the 
Army of the James, should march against Richmond and Peters¬ 
burg. He moved promptly, at the same time with the armies 
led by Grant and Sherman, embarking his forces on transports 
at Fort Monroe, and first making a feint of steaming up York 
River. In the night the vessel turned back and steamed up the 
James. Early the next day, May 6th, the troops were landed at 
City Point, at the junction of the James and the Appomattox, 
and intrenchments were thrown up. Detachments were sent 
out to cut the railroads south of Petersburg, and between that 
city and Richmond ; but no effective work was done. General 
Butler was ordered to secure a position as far up the James as 
possible, and advanced to Drury’s Bluff, where he was attacked 
by a force under General Beauregard and driven back to Bermuda 
Hundred. At the point where the curves of the James and the 
Appomattox bring those two streams within less than three 
miles of each other, Butler threw up a line of intrenchments, 
with his right resting on the James at Dutcli 
Gap. and his left on the Appomattox at Point 
of Rocks. The position was very strong, 
and it would be hopeless for the Confederates 
to assault it. The disadvantage was, that 
Beauregard had only to throw up a parallel 
line of intrenchments across the same neck of 
land, and Butler could not advance a step. 

What he had secured, however, was after¬ 
ward valuable as a protection for City Point, 
when Grant swung the Army of the Potomac 
across the James, which became thenceforth 
the landing-place for supplies. 

Grant had reinforced Butler with troops 
under Gen. William F. Smith, and planned to 
have an immediate advance on Petersburg 
while the Army of the Potomac was crossing 
the James (June 14, 1864). The work was 
intrusted to Smith, who was to get close to 
the Confederate intrenchments in the night, 
and carry them at daybreak. He unexpect¬ 
edly came upon the enemy fortified between 
City Point and Petersburg, and had a fight 
in which he was successful, but it caused a 
loss of precious time. Grant hurried Han¬ 
cock’s troops over the river, to follow Smith. 

But this corps was delayed several hours 
waiting for rations, and finally went on with¬ 
out them. It appears that Hancock’s instruc¬ 
tions were defective, and he did not know that 


he was expected to take Petersburg till he received a note from 
Smith urging him to hurry forward. Smith spent nearly the 
whole of the 15th in reconnoitring the defences of Petersburg, 
which were but lightly manned, and in the evening carried a 
portion of them by assault, the work being done by colored 
troops under Gen. Edward W. Hincks. In the morning of the 
16th Hancock’s men captured a small additional portion of 
the works ; but here that general had to be relieved for ten 
days, because of the breaking out of the grievous w r ound that he 
had received at Gettysburg. Gen. David B. Birney succeeded 
him in the command of the corps. General Meade came upon 
the ground, ordered another assault, and carried another portion. 
But by this time Beauregard had thrown more men into the 
fortifications, and the fighting was stubborn and bloody. It was 
continued through the 17th, with no apparent result, except that 
at night the Confederates fell back to an inner line, and in the 
morning the National line was correspondingly advanced. In 
these preliminary operations against Petersburg, the National 
loss was nearly ten thousand men. There is no official state¬ 
ment of the Confederate loss, but the indications were that it 
was about the same. 

When Lee found where Grant was going, he moved east and 


CITY POINT—A FEDERAL SUPPLY STATION. 


south of Rich¬ 
mond, crossing the James at Drury’s Bluff, and pres¬ 
ently confronting his enemy in the trenches east and 





































398 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



south of Petersburg. The country is well adapted for defence, 
and the works were extensive and very strong. Seeing that the 
city itself could not be immediately captured, Grant endeavored 
to sever its important communications. The Norfolk Railroad 
was easily cut off ; and the Army of the Potomac, which for 
some time had hardly known any difference between day and 
night, was allowed a few days of rest and comparative quiet. 
But the most important line was the Weldon Railroad, which 
brought up Confederate supplies from the South, and Grant and 
Meade made an early attempt to seize it. On the 2ist and 22d 
Birney’s corps was pushed to the left, extending south 

of the city, while Wright’s wa 
route further south to strike di 
rectly at the railroad. Wright 
came into a position nearly at 
right angles with Birney, facin 
west toward the railroad, while 
Birney faced north toward 
the city. They were not in 
connection, however, and 
did not sufficiently guard 
their flanks. A heavy Con¬ 
federate force under Gen. 

A. P. Hill, coming out to 
meet the movement, 
drove straight into the 
gap, turned the left 
flank of the Second 
Corps, threw it into 
confusion, and cap¬ 
tured seventeen hun¬ 
dred men and four 
guns. The fighting was 
not severe ; but the movement 
against the railroad was arrested. 

Hill withdrew to his intrenchmcnts in the 
evening, the Second Corps reestablished 
its line, and the Sixth intrenched 
itself in a position facing the rail¬ 
road and about a mile and a 
half from it. On this flank, 
affairs remained substantially 
in this condition till the middle 
of August. 

But meanwhile something 
promised great results was going on 
near the centre of the line, 
in front of Burnside’s corps. 

A regiment composed large¬ 
ly of Pennsylvania miners 
dug a tunnel under the near¬ 
est point of the Confederate 
works. These works con¬ 
sisted of forts or redans at 
intervals, with connecting 
lines of rifle-pits, and the 
tunnel was directed under one of the 
forts. The digging was begun in a 
ravine, to be out of sight of the 

enemy, and the earth was carried out in barrows made of 
cracker-boxes, and hidden under brushwood. The Confederates 
learned what was being done, and the location of the tunnel, 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL LYSANDER CUTLER. 


JOf) ~G£ N 
BA ^Le T r RAL 


but did not succeed in 
striking it by countermin¬ 
ing. They came to have 
vague and exaggerated 
fears of it, and many 
people in Petersburg be¬ 
lieved that the whole city 
was undermined. The 
work occupied nearly a 
month, and when finished 
it consisted of a straight 
tunnel five hundred feet 
long, ending in a cross¬ 
gallery seventy feet long. 
In this gallery was placed 
eight thousand pounds 
of powder, with slow- 
matches. The day fixed 
for the explosion was the 
30th of July. To distract 
attention from it, and di¬ 
minish if possible the 
force that held the lines 
immediately around Petersburg, Hancock was sent across the 
James at Deep Bottom, where an intrenched camp was held by 
a force under Gen. John G. Foster, to make a feint against the 
works north of the river. This had the desired effect, as Lee, 
anxious for the safety of Richmond, hurried a 
large part of his army across at Drury’s 
Bluff to confront Hancock. With 
this exception, the arrangements 
for the enterprise were all 
bad. The explosion of the 
mine alone would do 

little or no good ; but 
it was expected to 
make such a breach 
in the enemy’s line 
that a strong col¬ 
umn could be 

thrust through 
and take the 
works in reverse. 
For such a task the 
best of troops 
are required ; 
but Burn¬ 
side’s corps 
was by no 
* means the 

best in the 

army, and 
the choice 
of a divi- 




that 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL RUFUS INGALLS. 


V 
























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


399 



Piping Tree T x \ 


'aPr. 


vWUite 

is- nouse^y 

&■> C 

(V*. 0 / St 


Shtrlty'^i ’ 
XppfsJlsktL. 


,rriso n 


L(r*rr 
Brandon • 


E J Church 


f ac)cwaf 


w *!&.r 








*• 


MAJOR-GENERAL W. H. F. LEE, C. S. A. 

sion to lead, being determined by 
lot, fell upon Gen. James H. Led- 
lie's, which was probably the worst, 
and certainly the worst command¬ 
ed. Furthermore, the obstructions 
were not properly cleared away to 
permit the rapid deployment of a 
large force between the lines. 

A few minutes before five o’clock 
in the morning, the mine was ex¬ 
ploded. A vast mass of earth, 
surrounded by smoke, with the 
flames of burning powder playing 
through it, rose two hundred feet 
into the air, seemed to poise there 
for a moment, and then fell. The 
fort with its guns and garrison— 
about three hundred men of a 
South Carolina regiment—-was 
completely destroyed, and in place 
of it was a crater about thirty feet 
deep and nearly two hundred feet 
long. At the same moment the 
heavy batteries in the National 
line opened upon the enemy, to 
protect the assaulting column from 
artillery fire. Ledlie’s division 
pushed forward into the crater, 
and there stopped. General Led- 
lie himself did not accompany the 
men, and there seemed to be no 
one to direct them. Thirty golden 
minutes passed, during which the 

Confederates, who had run away in terror from the neighboring 
intrenchments, made no effort to drive out the assailants. At 
the end of that they began to rally to their guns, and presently 
directed a heavy fire upon the men in the crater. Burnside tried 
to remedy the difficulty by pushing out more troops, and at 














4 L s 

l 

•it 






H £r 




BRIGADIER-GENERAL 


COLSTON, 


£Ci. 


Emmaus C 7 t. 


CTiailes City 
C.H. 


PETERSBURG, R.CHMOND, AND VICINITY. 


length sent his black division, which 
the crater and up 
the slope beyond, but was there met 
by a fire before which it recoiled; 
for the Confederates had constructed 
an inner line of breastworks com¬ 
manding the front along which the 
explosion had been expected. Final¬ 
ly, both musketry and artillery were 
concentrated upon the disorganized 
mass of troops huddled in the crater, 
while shells were lighted and rolled 
down its sloping sides, till those who 
were left alive scrambled out and 
got away as best they could. This 
affair cost the National army about 
four thousand men—many of them 
prisoners — while the Confederate 
loss was hardly a thousand. Soon 
after this General Burnside was re¬ 
lieved, at his own request, and the 
command of his corps was given to 
Gen. John G. Parke. General Grant 
had never had much faith in the 
success of the mine, and had given 
only a reluctant consent to the ex¬ 
periment. Perhaps this was because 
he had witnessed two similar ones 
at Vicksburg, both of which were 
failures. He could hardly escape 
the criticism, however, that it was his duty either to forbid it 
altogether or to give it every element of success, including 
especially a competent leader for the assault. 

On the 13th of August, Hancock made another and more 
serious demonstration from Deep Bottom toward Richmond. 







































400 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 



He assaulted the defences of the city, and fighting was kept up 
for several days. He gained nothing, for Lee threw a strong 
force into the intrenchments and repelled his attacks. But 
there was great gain at the other end of the line ; for Grant took 
advantage of the weakening of Lee’s right to seize the Weldon 
Railroad. Warren’s corps was moved out to the road on the 
18th, took a position across it at a point about four 
miles from Petersburg, and intrenched. On the 19th, 
and again on the 21st, Lee made determined attacks on 
this position, but was repelled with heavy loss. Warren 
clung to his line, and made such dispositions as at length 
enabled him to meet any assault with but little 
loss to himself. A day or two later, ' 

Hancock returned from the north 
side of the James, and was rapidly 
marched to the ex¬ 
treme left, to pass 
beyond Warren and 
destroy some miles 
of the Weldon Rail¬ 
road. He tore up 
the track and com¬ 
pletely disabled it to 
a point three miles 
south of Reams Sta¬ 
tion, and on the 25th 
sent out Gibbon’s 
division to the work 
some miles farther. 

But the approach of 
a heavy Confederate 
force under Gen. A. 

P. Hill caused it to 
fall back to Reams 
Station, where with 
Miles’s division (six 
thousand men in all) 
and two thousand 
cavalry it held a line 
of intrenchments. 

Three assaults upon 
this line were re¬ 
pelled, with bloody 
loss to the Confed¬ 
erates. General Hill 
then ordered Heth’s 
division to make 
another assault and 
carry the works at 
found a place from 




> CA 


EXPLOSION OF THE MINE BEFORE 
PETERSBURG. 


the National line could be enfiladed by artillery*, and after a 
brisk bombardment assaulted, carried the works, and captured 
three batteries. Miles’s men were rallied, retook a part of 

the line and one of the batteries, 
y and formed a new line, which they 

1 -■* &NL- A; A-'■ held, assisted by the dis¬ 

mounted cavalry, who poured 
an effective fire into 
the flank of the 
advancing Confeder¬ 
ates. At night both 
sides withdrew from 
the field. Hancock 
had lost twenty-four 
hundred men, seven¬ 
teen hundred of 
whom were prison- 
*■*'**' P" ' ers Tile Confeder¬ 

ate loss is unknown, 
but it was severe. 

From that time 
Grant held posses¬ 
sion of the Weldon 
Railroad, and what¬ 
ever supplies came 
to the Confederate 
army by that route 
had to be hauled thirty 
miles in wagons. The 
National army constructed for 
its own use a railroad in the 
rear of and parallel with its long 
line of intrenchments, running from City 
Point to the extreme left flank. This road 
was not particular about grades and curves, 
but simply followed the natural contour of 
the ground. Then began what is called the 
siege of Petersburg, which was not a siege 
in the proper sense of the word, because 
the Confederate communications were open; 
but the military preparations and processes 
were identical with those known as siege 
operations, and every possible appliance, me¬ 
chanical or military, that could 
sist in the work 
was brought 
here. 


all hazards. Heth 
which a part of 


GLOBE TAVERN, GENERAL WARREN'S HEADQUARTERS AT PETERSBURG. 




















MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN G. FOSTER. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL H. H. HEATH 


GENERAL DAVID B. BIRNEY. 


MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT B. POTTER AND STAFF. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL ORLANDO B. WILCOX. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM HAYS. 


(Afterward Major-General.) 


BRiGADiER-GENERAL SIMON G GRIFFIN. 



















































402 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 


CONFEDERATE FORCES THREATEN THE NA¬ 
TIONAL CAPITAL - GENERAL GRANT 

SENDS TROOPS TO ITS DEFENCE—BAT¬ 
TERIES AND ENTRENCHMENTS AROUND 
WASHINGTON—CONFEDERATE FORCES IN 

SIGHT OF THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL- 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN EXPOSED TO THE 
FIRE OF CONFEDERATE SHARP-SHOOT¬ 
ERS—GENERAL EARLY’S RETREAT UP 
THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY. 

PARTLY to check the movements of 
General Hunter in the Shenandoah Val¬ 
ley, and partly with the hope that an 
attack on Washington would cause Grant 
to withdraw from before Richmond and 

Petersburg, Lee sent Early’s corps into the valley. Hunter, being 
out of ammunition, was obliged to retire before the Confeder¬ 
ates, and Early marched down the Potomac unopposed, and 
threatened the National capital. Serious fears were entertained 
that he would actually enter the city, and all sorts of hurried 
preparations were made to prevent him, department clerks being 
under arms, and every available man pressed into the service. 

The defences of Washington, which had been in course of 

consisted of sixty-eight 


ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 


INTERIOR OF A FORT—PART OF THE DEFENCES OF VMSHINGTON. 

(From a Government photograph.) 

Gen. Lew Wallace, in command at Baltimore, 
gathered a body of recruits and went out to meet 
Early, not with the hope of defeating him, but only 
of delaying him till a sufficient force could be sent 
from the Army of the Potomac. Ricketts’s divi¬ 
sion of the Sixth Corps had already set out for 
Baltimore, and on arriving there immediately fol¬ 
lowed Wallace. They met the enemy at the 
Monocacy, thirty-five miles from Washington, 
July 9, and took up a position on the left 
the stream, covering the roads to the 
six field guns and a small force of cav- 
line so as to hold the bridges and fords 
The Confederates attacked at first in 
front, with a strong skirmish line and sixteen guns, and there 
was bloody fighting at one of the bridges, 
their tactics, marched a heavy force down 


bank of 
capital. Wallace had 
airy, and disposed his 
as long as possible. 


guns, 

Then they changed 
stream, crossed at a 

ford out of range of the National artillery, and then marched up 
stream again to strike Wallace’s left flank. That part of the 
line was held by Ricketts, who changed front to meet the attack, 
and was promptly reinforced from Wallace’s scanty resources. 
Two assaults in line of battle were repelled, after some destruc- 
average four miles from the centre of the city. These mounted tive fighting, and Wallace determined still to hold his ground, 


construction 


ever since the war began, 


enclosed forts or batteries, connected by lines of intrenchments, 
forming a circle about that city and Alexandria, and being on an 


about eight hundred guns and one hundred mortars, and, with 
their connecting works, were calculated to give fighting room for 
thirty-five thousand men. But at this time they were manned 
by not more than thirteen thousand. Some of these were mem¬ 
bers of the invalid corps, which was formed of soldiers who had 
been wounded so as to be unfit for the hard duty at the front ; 
others were hundred-day men. There was great excitement in 
Washington, and serious fears that the Confederates might suc¬ 
ceed in marching into the capital. 


as he was hourly expecting three additional regiments. But the 
afternoon wore away without any appearance of assistance, and 
when he saw preparations for another and heavier assault he 
determined to retreat. While the left was being withdrawn, the 
right, under General Tyler, was ordered to prevent the remain¬ 
ing Confederate force from crossing at the bridges. The wooden 
bridge was burned, and the stone bridge was held to the last 
possible moment, when Tyler also retreated. The missing regi¬ 
ments were met on the road, and there was no pursuit. This 





















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


403 



action was not important from its magnitude; but in that it 
probably saved the city of Washington from pillage and destruc¬ 
tion, it was of the first importance. Wallace has received high 
praise for his promptness and energy in fighting a battle of great 
strategic value when he knew that the immediate result must be 
the defeat of his own force. He lost about fourteen hundred 
men, half of whom were prisoners. The Confederates 
admitted a loss of six hundred. 

Early now marched on Washington, and on the 
12th was within a few miles of it, where some 
heavy skirmishing took place with a force sent 
out by Gen. Christopher C. Augur. His 
nearest approach was at Fort Stevens, di¬ 
rectly north of the city. General Early 
says in his memoir: “ I rode ahead of the 
infantry and arrived in sight of Fort Stev¬ 
ens a short time after noon, when I discov¬ 
ered that the works were but feebly 
manned. Rodes, whose division was in 
front, was 
immediately 
ordered to 
bring it into 
line as rapid¬ 
ly as possi- 
b 1 e, and 
move into 
the works if 
he could.” 

This is sup- 
posed to 
have been 
Early’s 
golden op¬ 
portunity, 
w h i c h h e 
somehow 
missed, for 
the capture 
of Washing- 
ton. His 
own expla- 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL ANDREW PORTER. 


BRIGADiER-GENERAL 


nation is 

this: “ My whole column was then moving 
by flank, which was the only practicable 
mode of marching on the road we were on ; 
and before Rodes’s division could be brought 
up we saw a cloud of dust in the rear of the 
works toward Washington, and soon a column 
of the enemy filed into them on the right 
left, and skirmishers were thrown out in front, \v 
an artillery fire was opened on us from a number of 
batteries. This defeated our hopes of getting posses¬ 
sion of the works by surprise, and it became necessary to recon¬ 
noitre. Rodes’s skirmishers were thrown to the front, driving 
those of the enemy to the cover of the works, and we proceeded to 
examine the fortifications in order to ascertain if it was practica¬ 
ble to carry them by assault. They were found to be exceed- 
in^lv strong. The timber had been felled within cannon range 
all round, and left on the ground, making a formidable obstacle, 
and every possible approach was raked by artillery. On the 
rmht was Rock Creek, running through a deep ravine, which 


an 


le 


had been rendered impassable by the felling of the timber on 
each side, and beyond were the works on the Georgetown pike, 
which had been reported to be the strongest of all. On the left, 
as far as the eye could reach, the works appeared to be of the 
same impregnable character. This reconnoissance consumed the 
balance of the day. The rapid marching, which had broken a 
number of the men who were weakened by pre¬ 
vious exposure, and had been left in the valley 
and directed to be collected at Winchester, 
and the losses in killed and wounded at 
Harper’s Ferry, Maryland Heights, and 
Monocacy, had reduced my infantry to 
about eight thousand muskets. Of 
those remaining, a very large number 
were greatly exhausted by the last two 
days’ marching, some having fallen by 

sunstroke; 
and I was 
satis fi’e d , 
when we ar¬ 
rived in front 
of the fortifi¬ 
cations, that 
not more 
than one- 
third of my 
force could 
have been 
carried into 
action. After 
dark on the 
nth, I held 
a consulta- 
t i o n w i t h 
Major - Gen¬ 
erals Breck- 
enridge, 
Rodes, Gor- 
d o n , and 
Ramseur, in 

which I stated to them the danger of 
remaining where we were, and the ne¬ 
cessity of doing something immediately, 
as the probability was that the passes 
of the South Mountain and the fords of 
the upper Potomac would soon be closed 
against us. After interchanging views 
with them, being very reluctant to abandon 
the project of capturing Washington, I de¬ 
termined to make an assault at daylight next 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
THEO. RUNYON. 


the night a despatch was 
received from Gen. Bradley Johnson, from near 


During 


HASKIN. 

Baltimore, informing me that two corps had ar¬ 
rived from General Grant’s army, and that his whole army was 
probably in motion. As soon as it was light enough to see, I 
rode to the front and found the parapets lined with troops. I 
had, therefore, reluctantly to give up all hopes of capturing 
Washington, after I had arrived in sight of the dome of the 
Capitol.” 

Early’s information was correct, as Grant had sent to Wash¬ 
ington the remainder of the Sixth Corps, and also the Nineteenth 
Corps, which had just arrived from Louisiana. 



























404 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




the President had been struck 

down by a shot from the enemy. Even then, Mr. Lincoln per¬ 
sisted in looking over the parapet to see what was going on, 
and when finally the Sixth Corps men drove back the enemy 
he was as excited and jubilant in the cheering as any of those 
around him. 

Early retreated up the valley, carrying with him considerable 
plunder, and was followed some distance until the pursuing force 
was withdrawn. The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps were ordered 
to rejoin Grant’s army, and were on their way to it when it was 
learned that Early was again advancing. Grant now determined 
to finish him and clear the valley, and accordingly sent General 
Sheridan to command in that quarter, in August. Meanwhile, a 
part of Early’s force had been struck at Winchester by a force 
under General Averell, who defeated it and captured four 
guns and about four hundred men. Three days later, Early 
defeated a force under Gen. George Crook, and drove it across 
the Potomac, after which he sent his cavalry, under Generals 
McCausland and Bradley T. Johnson, to make a raid into 
Pennsylvania. McCausland, in the course of his raid, burned 
Chambersburgh, the particulars of which have been given in 
another chapter. 

This raid created a panic among the inhabitants of western 
Maryland and southern Pennsylvania, many of whom fled from 
their homes, driving off their cattle and carrying whatever they 
could. 


AN EARNEST REQUEST FOR A FURLOUGH. 


JOHN CABIN BRIDGE NEAR WASHINGTON. 

During the fighting at Fort Stevens, Presi¬ 
dent Lincoln was in the fort, and was exposed 
to the fire of the Confederate sharp-shooters. General Wright 
had the greatest difficulty in persuading him to leave his danger¬ 
ous position, and could not do so until an officer standing near 



























































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


405 


CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE VALLEY—HUNTER ASKS TO EE RELIEVED— 
SHERIDAN S CAREER—GRANT'S INSTRUCTIONS—INTERFERENCE 
AT WASHINGTON—LINCOLN GIVES GRANT A HINT—SHERIDAN 
MARCHES ON WINCHESTER—MINOR ENGAGEMENTS—SHERIDAN’S 
OPPORTUNITY—BATTLE OF THE OPEQUAN—EARLY GOES WHIRL¬ 
ING THROUGH WINCHESTER —BATTLE OF FISHER’S HILL- 

DESTRUCTION IN THE VALLEY-ACTION AT TOM’S BROOK- 

BATTLE OF CEDAR CREEK. 

It had become plainly evident that something must be done 
to cancel the whole Shenandoah Valley from the map of the 
theatre of war. The mountains that flanked it made it a secure 
lane down which a Confederate force could be sent at almost 
any time to the very door of Washington ; while the 
crops that were harvested in its fertile fields were a 
constant temptation 
to those who had to 
provide for the neces¬ 
sities of an army. 

General Grant took 
the matter in hand in 
earnest after Early’s 
raid and the burning 
of Chambersburg. 

His first care was to 
have the separate 
military departments 
in that section con¬ 
solidated, his next to 
find a suitable com¬ 
mander, and finally to 
send an adequate 
force. He would have 
been satisfied with 
General Hunter, who 
was already the rank¬ 
ing officer there; but 
Hunter had been 
badly hampered in 
his movements by 
constant interference 
from Washington, and knowing that he had not the confidence 
of General Halleck, he asked to be relieved, since he did not 
wish to embarrass the cause. In this, Grant says, Hunter 
“ showed a patriotism that was none too common in the army. 
There were not many major-generals who would voluntarily 
have asked to have the command of a department taken 
from them on the supposition that for some particular reason, 
or for any reason, the service would be better performed.” 
Grant accepted his offer, and telegraphed for General Sheridan 
to come and take command of the new department. Sheridan 
was on hand promptly, and was placed at the head of about 
thirty thousand troops, including eight thousand cavalry, who 
were named the Army of the Shenandoah. 

Sheridan was now in his thirty-fourth year; and Secretary 
Stanton, with a wise caution, made some objection, on the 


ground that he was very young for a command so important. 
He had not stood remarkably high at West Point, being ranked 
thirty-fourth in his class when the whole number was fifty-two; 
but he had already made a brilliant record in the war, winning 
his brigadier-generalship by a victory at Booneville, Mo., and 
conspicuous for his gallantry and skill at Perryville, Murfrees¬ 
boro’, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge, and for his bold 
riding around Lee’s army in the spring campaign of 1864. Under 
him and Custer, Crook, Merritt, and Kilpatrick, the cavalry arm 
of the National service, weak and inefficient at the opening of 
the war, had become a swift and sure weapon against the now 
declining but still defiant Confederacy. It had been noted by 
everybody that Grant exhibited an almost unerring judgment in 
the choice of his lieutenants. 

In his instructions, which were at first written out for Hunter 
and afterward transferred to Sheridan, Grant said : “ In pushing 
up the Shenandoah Valley, where it is expected you will have 
to go first or last, it is desirable that nothing should 

be left to invite the enemy 
to return. Take all pro¬ 
visions, forage, and stock 
wanted for the use of your 
command. Such as cannot 
be consumed, destroy. It 
is not desirable that the 
buildings should be de¬ 
stroyed—they should 
rather be protected ; but 
the people should be in¬ 
formed that so long as an 
army can subsist among 
them recurrences of 
these raids must be ex¬ 
pected ; and we are de¬ 
termined to stop them 
at all hazards.” 

The condition of 
things at Washing¬ 
ton—where Halleck 
always, and Stanton 
sometimes, interfered 
with orders passing 
that way—is vividly 
suggested by a despatch sent in 
cipher to Grant at this time, August 3. Mr. Lincoln 
wrote “ I have seen your despatch, in which you say, ‘ I want 
Sheridan put in command of all the troops in the field, with 
instructions to put himself south of the enemy and follow him 
to the death. Wherever the enemy goes, let our troops go also.’ 
This I think is exactly right, as to how our forces should move. 
But please look over the despatches you may have received from 
here, even since you made that order, and discover, if you can, 
that there is any idea in the head of any one here of ‘ putting 
our army south of the enemy,’ or of ‘ following him to the 
death ’ in any direction. I repeat to you, it will neither be 
done nor attempted unless you watch it every day and hour, 
and force it.” This caused Grant to go at once to Maryland and 
put things in train for the vigorous campaign that he had planned 
in the valley of the Shenandoah. Perhaps Mr. Lincoln had found 
a way to give Halleck also an impressive hint ; for the very next 
day that general telegraphed to Grant : “ I await your orders, and 
shall strictly carry them out, whatever they may be.” 



MAJOR-GENERAL H G WRIGHT. 


















40 6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



Grant, who had all confidence in Sheridan, wrote to him : “ Do 
not hesitate to give command to officers in whom you repose 
confidence, without regard to claims of others on account of 
rank. If you deem Torbert the best man to command the cav¬ 
alry, place him in command, and give Averell some other com¬ 
mand, or relieve him from the expedition and order him to 
report to General Hunter. What we want is prompt and active 
movements after the enemy, in accordance with the instructions 
you have already had. I feel every confidence that you will do 
the very best, and will leave you, as far as possible, to act on 
your judgment, and not embarrass you with orders and instruc¬ 
tions.” In accordance with this, Torbert was made Sheridan’s 
chief of cavalry, and Merritt was 
mand of Torbert’s division. When 
Grant visited Sheridan, before the 
battle of the Opequan, he carried a 
plan of battle in his pocket; but 
he says he found Sheridan so 
thoroughly ready to move, with 
so perfect a plan, and so con¬ 
fident of success, that he did not 
even show him his plan or give 
him any orders, except author¬ 
ity to move. 

Early, whose main force was 
on the south bank of the Poto¬ 
mac, above Harper’s Ferry, 
still had a large part of his 
cavalry in Maryland, where 
they were loading their 
wagons with wheat on the 
battlefield of Antietam, 
and seizing all the cattle 
that the farmers had not 
driven off beyond their 
reach. But these were Br ' Ga dier 

now recalled. As soon as Sheridan AL L oui$ H 

could get his force well in hand, he moved it 
skilfully southward toward Winchester, in order to threaten 
Early’s communications and draw him into a battle. Early at 
once moved his army into a position to cover Winchester, but 
was unwilling to fight without the reinforcements that were on 
the way to him from Lee’s army; so he retreated as far as 
Fisher’s Hill to meet them, and was followed by Sheridan, who 
was about to attack there when warned by Grant to be cautious, 
as the enemy was too strong for him. He therefore withdrew to 
his former position on Opequan Creek, facing west toward Win¬ 
chester and covering Snicker’s Gap, through which reinforce¬ 
ments were to come to him. Here he was attacked, August 21, 
and after a fight in which two hundred and sixty men on the 
National side were killed or wounded, he drew back to a 
stronger position at Halltown. He had complained, in a letter 
to Grant, that there was not a good military position in the 
whole valley south of the Potomac. In his retrograde move¬ 
ment, as he reported, he “ destroyed everything eatable south 
of Winchester.” 

Early reconnoitred the position at Halltown and found it too 
strong to be attacked, but for three or four weeks remained with 
his whole force at the lower end of the valley, threatening raids 
into Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, breaking the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake Canal, keep¬ 
ing the authorities at Washington in a constant state of anxiety, 


and all the time inviting attack from Sheridan. There were fre¬ 
quent minor engagements, mainly by cavalry, with varying 
results. In one, Custer’s division only escaped capture by cross¬ 
ing the Potomac in great haste. In another, a force under 
Gen. John B. McIntosh captured the Eighth South Carolina 
infantry entire—though that regiment now consisted of but one 
hundred and six men. It had probably consisted of a thousand 


men at the outset, and 
of constant war- 


tion 


opo 


G 


given com 


in 


the 


th 


DUS) 


in 




P ^0U 




the wear and tear of three years 
fare had reduced it, like many 
either side, to these meagre 


ant and Sheridan were 
perfect accord as to 
best policy, and they 
rsued it steadily, in 
piteof the uneasiness 
at Washington, the 
complaints of the 
Maryland farmers, 
and the criticisms 
of the news¬ 
papers. They 
knew that 
with the Army of 
Potomac constantly 
front, feeling out for 
new positions beyond 
Petersburg, or massing 
north of the James in 
close proximity to 
Richmond, or threat¬ 
ening to break through 
his centre, the time 
must come when Lee 
would recall a part of 
the forces that he had 
sent to the valley, and 
that would be the 
moment for Sheridan 
to spring upon Early. 
The opportunity 
arrived on the 19th 
of September, when 
Lee had recalled the 
command of R. H. 
Anderson, with which 
he had reinforced 
Early in August, and 
Early, as if to double 
his danger, had sent 
a large part of his remaining troops to Martinsburg, twenty miles 
away. Grant’s order to Sheridan at this juncture was “Go in,” 
and Sheridan promptly went in. 

The various movements of the two armies had brought them 
around to substantially the same positions that they held in the 
engagement of August 21—Early east of and covering Winches¬ 
ter, Sheridan along the line of Opequan Creek, which is about 
five miles east of the city. Sheridan’s plan was to march 
straight on Winchester with his whole force, and crush Early’s 
right before the left could be withdrawn from Martinsburg to 
assist it. He set his troops in motion at three o’clock in the 
morning, to converge toward the Berryville pike, a macadamized 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL W. H. PENROSE. 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


407 


road crossing the Opequan, 
passing through a ravine, 
and leading into Win¬ 
chester. Wilson’s cavalry 
secured the crossing of the 
stream, and cleared the way 
through the ravine for the 
infantry; but there was, as 
usual, some difficulty in 
moving so many troops by 
a single road, and it was 
midday before the battle 
began. This delay gave 
Early an opportunity to 
bring back his troops from 
Martinsburg and unite his 
whole force in front of Win¬ 
chester. Sheridan’s infan¬ 
try deployed under a heavy 
artillery fire from Early’s 
right wing, and advanced to 
the attack, when the battle 
began almost simultaneous¬ 
ly along the whole line, 
and was kept up till dark. 

There were no field-works, 
the only shelter beiim such 
as was afforded by patches 
of woodland and rolling 
ground, and the fighting 
was obstinate and bloody. 

The usual difficulty of pre¬ 
serving the line intact while 
advancing over broken 
ground was met, and wher¬ 
ever a gap appeared it was 
promptly taken advantage 
of. In one instance, a Con¬ 
federate force led by Gen. 

Robert E. Rodes drove in 
between the Sixth and 
Nineteenth Corps, crumbled 
their flanks, and turned to take the Nineteenth in reverse; but 
at this juncture a division of the Sixth Corps under Gen. David 
A. Russell, coming forward to fill the gap, struck the flank of 
the intruding Confederate force in turn, enfiladed it with a rapid 
fire of canister from the Fifth Maine battery, and sent it back- 
in confusion, capturing a large number of prisoners. In this 
movement Generals Rodes and Russell were both killed. On the 
National right the fighting was at first in favor of the Confeder¬ 
ates, and that wing was temporarily borne back some distance. 

Sheridan now brought up his reserves, which he had intended 
to move south of Winchester to cut off retreat, and sent them 
into the fight on his right flank, while the cavalry divisions of 
Merritt and Averell, under Torbert, came in by a detour and 
struck Early’s left, pushing back his cavalry and getting into the 
rear of a portion of his infantry. From this time Sheridan 
drove everything before him. The Confederates found some 
shelter in a line of field-works near the town, but were soon 
driven out, and fled through the streets in complete rout and 
confusion. But darkness favored them, and most of them 
escaped up the valley. Their severely wounded were left in 


Winchester. The National 
loss was nearly five thousand 
men. The Confederates 
lost about four thousand 
—including two generals, 
Rodes and Godwin—with 
five guns and nine battle- 
flags. Early established a 
strong rear guard, and 
managed to save his trains. 

This battle, which in pro¬ 
portion to the numbers 
engaged was one of the most 
destructive of the war, had 
its many curious and valor¬ 
ous incidents. Near its 
close General Russell re¬ 
ceived a bullet in his breast, 
but did not mention it even 
to his staff officer, and con¬ 
tinued urging forward and 
encouraging the troops. A 
little later, in the very mo¬ 
ment of victory, a fragment 
of shell tore through his 
heart. Lieut. Morton L. 
Hawkins, of the Thirty- 
fourth Ohio Regiment, 
writes : “ Here fell badly 

wounded our gallant divi¬ 
sion commander, Gen. I. H. 
Duval; and while crossing 
a cornfield, and just before 
reaching the edge of the 
sanguinary Red Bud, the 
chivalrous and manly Car¬ 
ter, at the head of Company 
D, my old regiment, fell 
dead at my feet, struck in 
the forehead with a musket 
ball; but never faltering, 
with our eyes fixed on the 
enemy, who at that time were advancing to the opposite side of 
the Red Bud, we pushed on, amid a shower of musketry that was 
simply murderous. Emerging on the opposite bank, we ascended 
the elevation and met them face to face. Then ensued a hand- 
to-hand contest. The ranks of Union and Confederate regi¬ 
ments mingled indiscriminately, the colors of both floating in 
the breeze together, the blue .and the gray, man to man. Duval 
had been carried to the rear with a musket ball in his thigh, but 
Col. R. B. Hayes, since President of the United States, assumed 
the command of the division, and by his presence in the battle 
wreck encouraged his men to deeds of daring. Cool and vigilant, 
he sat upon his horse amid that leaden rain, while scores of 
veterans on either side went down around him. Finally the 
tide turned in our favor. Down the hill, hotly pressed by the 
Union men, went that valiant band of rebels. The day was 
won. The flag of the old Thirty-fourth never looked so beau¬ 
tiful, nor was borne so proudly, as on that glorious day, when in 
the thickest of the fight its shadow fell on its brave defenders.” 

In contrast with this is the entry in the journal of a Confed¬ 
erate officer who was wounded and captured : “ I never saw our 



THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY 




















MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN AND STAFF. 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


409 



troops in such confusion before. Night found Sheridan’s hosts 
in full and exultant possession of much-abused, beloved Win¬ 
chester. The hotel hospital was full of desperately wounded 
and dying Confederates. The entire building was shrouded in 
darkness during the dreadful night, and sleep was impossible, 
as the groans, sighs, shrieks, prayers, and oaths of the wretched 
sufferers, combined with my own severe pain, banished all 
thought of rest. Our scattered troops, closely followed by the 
large army of pursuers, retreated rapidly and in dis¬ 
order through the city. It was a sad, humili¬ 
ating sight.” 

General Early attributes his defeat largely 
to the fact that his cavalry was inferior in both 
numbers and 
equipments to 
the National cav¬ 
alry that opposed 
it. 

The news of 
this battle was 
received with un¬ 
measured enthu¬ 
siasm in the 
Army of the Po¬ 
tomac, in Wash¬ 
ington, and at 
the North, where 
every newspaper 
repeated in its 
bold head-lines 
Sheridan’s ex¬ 
pression that he 
had “ sent Early 


once began 


whirling through 


frM- 


6 r^°' eR 






airy 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
N. P. CHIPMAN. 


Winchester. 

President Lin¬ 
coln telegraphed 

to General Sheridan : “ Have just heard of 
your great victory. God bless you all, 
officers and men. Strongly inclined to 
come up and see you. ’ General Grant 
telegraphed: “ I congratulate you and the 
army serving under you for the great vic¬ 
tory just achieved. It has been most op¬ 
portune in point of time and effect. It will 
open again to the Government and to the 
public the very important line from Baltimore 
to the Ohio, and also the Chesapeake Canal 
Better still, it wipes out much of the stain upon 
our arms by previous disasters in that locality. 

May your good work continue, is now the prayer of 
all loyal men.” 

For this brilliant success, Sheridan was advanced 
to the grade of brigadier-general in the regular army. 

When Early retreated southward after this battle of the 
Opequan (or battle of Winchester as the Confederates called it), 
he took up a position at Fisher’s Hill, where the valley is but 
four miles wide. As Sheridan had said, there was no really good 
military position in the valley, unless for a much larger army 
than either he or Early commanded. At Fisher’s Hill, the Con¬ 
federate right rested on the North Fork of the Shenandoah, and 
was sufficiently protected by it; but for the left there was no 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
NICHOLAS DAY. 


natural protection. Early’s men set to work vigorously con¬ 
structing intrenchments and preparing abatis. Sheridan followed 
promptly, his advance guard skirmishing with the Confederate 
pickets and driving them through Strasburg. There was an 
eminence overlooking the Confederate intrenchments, and after 
a sharp fight this was gained by the National troops, who at 

to cut down the trees and plant batteries. 
When Sheridan had thoroughly recon¬ 
noitred the position, he planned to send 
the greater part of his cavalry through 
the Luray Valley to get into the rear 
of the Confederates and cutoff retreat; 
then to attack in front with the Sixth 
and Nineteenth Corps, while Crook, 
with the Eighth Corps, should make 
a detour and come in on the enemy’s 
left flank. The ground was so 
broken that the manoeuvres were 
necessarily slow, and it was almost 
sunset when Crook reached Early’s 
flank. But the little daylight 
that remained was used to the 
utmost advantage. Crook came 
out of the woods so suddenly 
and silently that the Confed¬ 
erates at that end of the line 
were simply astounded. 
Their works were taken in 
reverse, and their dismounted cav- 
was literally overrun. The forward 
movement of the troops in front was prompt, the 
right of the Sixth Corps joining properly with 
the left of Crook’s, and everywhere Sheridan 
and his lieutenants were with the men, re¬ 
peating the command to push forward 
constantly, without stopping for anything. 
The result was a complete rout of the 
Confederates, who fled in confusion once 
more up the valley, leaving sixteen of 
their guns behind. But Sheridan’s plan 
for their capture was foiled because his 
cavalry, meeting a stout resistance from 
Early’s cavalry, failed to get through to 
their rear. Pursuit was made in the night, 
but to no purpose. In this battle, which 
was fought on the 22d of September, the 
National loss was about four hundred ; the 
Confederate, about fourteen hundred. 

For the next three days the retreat was 
continued, Sheridan’s whole force following rapidly, 
and often being near enough to engage the skirmish¬ 
ers or exchange shots with the artillery. Early went 
to Port Republic to meet reinforcements that were 
on the way to him from Lee’s army, and there stopped. 
Sheridan halted his infantry at Harrisonburg, but sent his cavalry 
still farther up the valley. The column under Torbert reached 
Staunton, where it destroyed a large quantity of arms, ammuni¬ 
tion, and provisions, and then tore up the track of the Virginia 
Central Railroad eastward to Waynesboro’, and pulled down the 
iron bridge over the stream at that point. Here it was attacked 
in force, and retired. Grant wanted the movement continued 
to Charlottesville; but Sheridan found serious difficulties in his 
















410 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


lack of supplies and transportation so far from his base. He 
adopted the alternative of rendering the valley untenable for 
any army that could not bring its provisions with it, and Grant 
had repeated his early instructions, saying, “ Leave nothing for 
the subsistence of an army on any ground you abandon to the 
enemy.” On the 5th of October the march down the valley 
was begun. The infantry went first, and the cavalry followed, 
being stretched entirely across the valley, burning and destroy¬ 
ing, as it went, everything except the dwellings. Sheridan said 
in his report: “I have destroyed over two thousand barns filled 
with wheat, hay, and farming implements; over seventy mills 
filled with flour and wheat; have driven in front of the army 
over four thousand head of stock, and have killed and issued to 
the troops not less than three thousand sheep.” 

Early, being reinforced, now turned and pursued Sheridan. 
At Tom's Brook, on the 7th, the National cavalry under Torbert, 
Merritt, and Custer engaged the Confederate cavalry under 
Rosser and Lamont. After a spirited engagement Rosser 
was driven back twenty-five miles, and Torbert captured over 
three hundred prisoners, eleven guns, and a large number of 
wagons—or, as was said in the report, “ everything they had on 
wheels.” 

Sheridan halted at Cedar Creek, north of Strasburg, and put 
his army into camp there, while he was summoned to Washing¬ 
ton for conference as to the continuation of the campaign, leaving 
General Wright in command. Early, finding nothing in the val¬ 
ley for his men and horses to eat, was obliged to do one thing or 
another without delay—advance and capture provisions from the 
stores of his enemy, or retreat and give up the ground. He chose 
to assume the offensive, and in the night of the 18th moved 
silently around the left of the National line, taking the precaution 


to leave behind even the soldiers’ canteens, which might have made 
a clatter. In the misty dawn of the 19th the Confederates burst 
upon the flank held by Crook’s corps, with such suddenness and 
vehemence that it was at once thrown into confusion and routed. 
They were among the tents before anybody knew they were 
coming, and many of Crook’s men were shot or stabbed before 
they could fairly awake from their sleep. The Nineteenth Corps 
was also routed, but the Sixth stood firm, and the Confederates 
themselves became somewhat broken and demoralized by the 
eagerness of the men to plunder the camps. Wright’s Sixth 
Corps covered the retreat ; and when Sheridan, hearing of the 
battle and riding with all speed from Winchester, met the stream 
of fugitives, he deployed some cavalry to stop them, and inspired 
his men with a short and oft-repeated oration, which is reported 
as, “Face the other way, boys! We are going back to our 
camps! We are going to lick them out of their boots!” This 
actually turned the tide; a new line was quickly formed and 
intrenched, and when Early attacked it he met with a costly 
repulse. In the afternoon Sheridan advanced to attack in turn, 
sending- his irresistible cavalry around both flanks, and after 
some fighting the whole Confederate line was broken up and 
driven in confusion, with the cavalry close upon its heels. All 
the guns lost in the morning were retaken, and twenty-four be¬ 
sides. In this double battle the Confederate loss was about 
thirty-one hundred; the National, fifty-seven hundred and sixty- 
four, of whom seventeen hundred were prisoners taken in the 
morning and hurried away toward Richmond. Among the 
losses in this battle on the National side were Brig.-Gens. 
Daniel D. Bidwell, Charles R. Lowell, J. H. Hitching, and 
George D. Welles, and Col. Joseph Thoburn, all killed; on the 
Confederate side, Major-Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur, killed. 



A VIEW ON GOOSE CREEK, VIRGINIA. 
(.From a War-time Photograph.) 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


4 H 




BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
BRADLEY T. JOHNSON, C. S. A. 


The explanation of Early’s well-planned attack upon the camp 
is found in the fact that the Confederates had a signal station 
on Massanutten Mountain from which everything in Sheridan’s 
army could be seen. On the day before the battle Gen. John B. 
Gordon climbed to that signal station, where with his field-glass 
he says, “ I could distinctly see the red cuffs of the 
artillerymen. In front of the Belle Grove mansion 
I could see members of Sheridan’s staff coming and 
going. I could not imagine 
a better opportunity for 
making out an enemy’s po¬ 
sition and strength. I 
could even count the men 
who were there. I marked 
the position of the guns, 
and the pickets walking to 
and fro, and observed 
where the cavalry was 
placed.” The explanation 
of the surprise is, that the 
Confederates by careful 
approach captured a picket 
and obtained the counter¬ 
sign. They then pro¬ 
ceeded to capture more of 
the pickets, exchanged 
clothes with them and put 
their own men on guard. 

This, of course, enabled 
them to open the door of 
the camp, so to speak, in 
perfect silence for their approaching army. 

The story of Sheridan’s return, and how he changed the defeat 
into a victory, as here told, is that which is generally received. 
But some of his soldiers say it is more dramatic than strictly 
truthful. They say that when he ar¬ 
rived General Wright already had i 
restored order, and had the Sixth Corps 
in perfect condition for an advance 
movement. Still there is no doubt that 
the presence of Sheridan brought with 
it an inspiration, and gave vigor to the 
movement when it was made. Col. 

Moses M. Granger, of the One Hundred 
and Twenty-second Ohio Regiment, 
which was in the Sixth Corps, says: 

“ When Sheridan arrived, the line in 
position consisted of the cavalry, with 
its right on the pike ; the second di¬ 
vision, Sixth Corps, with its left on 
the pike ; then Hayes, with part of the 
Army of West Virginia ; and next to 
him our Second Brigade, third division, 

Sixth Corps. I had no watch with 
me, but at the time, I supposed that 
we connected with Getty not far from 
ten o'clock in the forenoon. As our 
breakfast had been very early and 
hasty, we 'now advanced the dinner 
hour, made coffee, and soon felt re¬ 
freshed-ready for anything. While 
we were in this state of good feeling, 






\e< 




t\es 






General Sheridan, attended by Major A. J. Smith, came riding 
along the line. Just in my rear, as I was sitting on a stump, he 
drew rein, returned our salute, gave a quick look at the men, 
and said: ‘You look all right, boys! We’ll whip 

’em like-before night! ’ At this, 

hearty cheers broke out, and he rode 
on, passing from the rear to the front 
of our line, through the right wing of 
my regiment, and thence westward, 
followed ever by cheers. Instantly 
all thought of merely defeating an 
attack upon us ended. In its 
stead was a conviction that we 
were to attack and defeat them 
that very afternoon. . . . Thus 
before Sheridan arrived Wright 
had given orders for the estab¬ 
lishment of a strong and well- 
manned line, and made it cer¬ 
tain that the rebel advance 
must there stop. What 
W right might or would have 
done if Sheridan had re¬ 
mained at Winchester, I 
cannot tell. Called from his bed 
to fight an enemy already on his flank and 
rear and partly within his lines, his promptness and 
decision enabled him to withdraw from Early’s grasp almost 
all that was not in his hands before Wright’s eager haste brought 
him from bed to battle. When his black horse brought Sheri¬ 
dan to our lines on that October forenoon, Wright turned over 
to him an army ready, eager, and competent to win success that 
afternoon.” 

Sheridan’s campaign in the Valley of the Shenandoah was now 
practically ended, and the people of the loyal North were no 

longer obliged to call it the Valley of 
Humiliation. 

An incident of this campaign inspired 
one of the most vigorous and popular 
of the war poems, entitled “ Sheridan’s 
Ride.” We quote two stanzas: 


“ But there is a road from Winchester town, 
A good broad highway leading down ; 

And there, through the flash of the morning 
light, 

A steed as black as the steeds of night 
Was seen to pass, as with eagle flight, 

As if he knew the terrible need ; 

He stretched away with the utmost speed ; 
Hills rose and fell—but his heart was 

& a y. 

With Sheridan fifteen miles away. 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID A. RUSSELL. 
Killed at Winchester, Va, 


“ Hurrah ! hurrah for Sheridan ! 

Hurrah ! hurrah for horse and man ! 

And when their statues are placed on 
high, 

Under the dome of the Union sky, 

The American soldier’s Temple of Fame, 
There, with the glorious general’s name, 

Be it said, in letters both bold and bright: 

* Here is the steed that saved the day 
By carrying Sheridan into the fight 
From Winchester—twenty miles away! 













411 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 

EFFORTS TOWARD PEACE—THE FREMONT CONVENTION—THE REPUB¬ 
LICAN CONVENTION—NOMINATION OF LINCOLN AND JOHNSON— 
THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION—ITS DENUNCIATION OF THE 
WAR—NOMINATION OF McCLELLAN AND PENDLETON—FREMONT 
WITHDRAWS—CHARACTER OF THE CANVASS—THE HOPE OF THE 
CONFEDERATES—THE ISSUE AS POPULARLY UNDERSTOOD—ELEC¬ 
TION OF LINCOLN—MARYLAND ABOLISHES SLAVERY—THE HIGH¬ 
EST ACHIEVEMENT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 

The length of time that the war had continued, the drain 
upon the resources of both belligerents, and especially the 
rapidity and destructiveness of the battles in the summer of 
1864, had naturally suggested the question whether there were 
not some possibility of a satisfactory peace without further 
fighting. In each section there was a party, or at least there 
were people, who believed that such a peace was possible ; and 
the loud expression of this opinion led to several efforts at nego¬ 
tiation, as it also shaped the policy of a great political party. 
In July Col. James F. Jacques, of the Seventy-third Illinois Regi¬ 
ment, accompanied by James R. Gillmore (known in literature 
by his delineations of Southern life just before the war, under 
the pen-name of “ Edmund Kirke ”), went to Richmond under 
flag of truce, where they were admitted to a long interview with 
the chief officers of the Confederate Government. They had 
gone with Mr. Lincoln’s informal sanction, but had no definite 
terms to offer ; and if they had, Mr. Davis’s remarks show that 
it would have been in vain. At the close he said : “ Say to Mr. 
Lincoln, from me, that I shall at any time be pleased to receive 
proposals for peace on the basis of our independence. It will 
be useless to approach me with any other.” In that same month 
of July, three Southerners of some note created a great sensation 
by a conference at Niagara Lalls, with Horace Greeley, on the 
subject of peace ; but the affair came to nothing. 

The first Presidential convention of the year met at Cleveland, 
O., on the last day of May, in response to a call addressed 
“to the radical men of the nation.” The platform declared, 
among other things, “that the rebellion must be suppressed by 
force of arms, and without compromise; that the rebellion has 
destroyed slavery, and the Federal Constitution should be 
amended to prohibit its reestablishment ; that the question of 
the reconstruction of the rebellious States belongs to the people, 
through their representatives in Congress, and not to the Execu¬ 
tive ; and that confiscation of the lands of the rebels, and their 
distribution among the soldiers and actual settlers, is a measure 
of justice.” Gen. John C. Frbmont was nominated for the 
Presidency, and Gen. John Cochrane for the Vice-Presidency. 
Though this was the least of the. conventions, yet in all the 
points here quoted from its platform, with the exception of 
the last, it indicated the policy that was ultimately pursued by 
the nation ; and it is a singular fact that the exceptional plank 
(confiscation) was objected to by both candidates in their letters 
of acceptance. 

The Republican National Convention met in Baltimore on the 
7th of June. It dropped the word “ Republican” for the time 
being, and simply called itself a Union Convention, to accommo¬ 
date the war Democrats, who were now acting with the Repub¬ 


lican party. Not only the free States were represented, but 
some that had been claimed by the Confederacy and had been 
partially or wholly recovered from it, including Tennessee, Lou¬ 
isiana, and Arkansas. The platform, reported by Henry J. Ray¬ 
mond, one of the ablest of American journalists, was probably 
written largely, if not entirely, by him. Its most significant 
passages were these: 

“ That we approve the determination of the Government of 
the United States not to compromise with the rebels, nor to 
offer them any terms of peace except such as maybe based upon 
an unconditional surrender of their hostility and a return to their 
full allegiance to the Constitution and the laws of the United 
States. 

“ That as slavery was the cause and now constitutes the 
strength of this rebellion, and as it must be always and every¬ 
where hostile to the principles of republican government, justice 
and the national safety demand its utter and complete extirpa¬ 
tion from the soil of the Republic. . . . VVe are in favor, 

furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be 
made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall 
terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within 
the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States. 

“That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the 
unselfish patriotism, and unswerving fidelity to the Constitution 
and the principles of American liberty, with which Abraham 
Lincoln has discharged, under circumstances of unparalleled 
difficulty, the great duties and responsibilities of the presidential 
office ; that we approve and indorse, as demanded by the emer¬ 
gency and essential to the preservation of the nation, and as 
within the Constitution, the measures and acts which he has 
adopted to defend the nation against its open and secret foes ; 
that we approve especially the Proclamation of Emancipation, 
and the employment as Union soldiers of men heretofore held 
in slavery. 

“ That the National faith, pledged for the redemption of the 
public debt, must be kept inviolate ; that it is the duty of every 
loyal State to sustain the credit and promote the use of the 
National currency.” 

On the first ballot, all the delegations voted for Mr. Lincoln, 
except that from Missouri, whose vote was given to General 
Grant. According to the official report of the proceedings, the 
first ballot for a candidate for Vice-President resulted in two 
hundred votes for Andrew Johnson, one hundred and eight for 
Daniel S. Dickinson (a war Democrat), one hundred and fifty 
for Hannibal Hamlin (who then held the office), and fifty-nine 
scattering; several delegations changed their votes to Johnson, 
and he was almost unanimously nominated. But according to 
the testimony of one who was on the floor as a delegate, the 
nomination of Mr. Lincoln was immediately followed by an out¬ 
burst of cheering, yelling, and the wildest excitement, and in the 
confusion and uproar it was declared that Mr. Johnson had 
somehow been nominated. He had been a poor white in the 
South, and a life-long Democrat, but had done some brave things 
in withstanding secession, and some bitter things in thwarting 
the slave-holders. Mr. Lincoln had appointed him military 
governor of Tennessee in March, 1862, and he was still acting in 
that capacity. Whatever may have been the wisdom of nomi¬ 
nating a war Democrat when the war was so near its close, the 
Republican party found reason in the next four years to repent 
its choice of Andrew Johnson as bitterly as its predecessor, the 
Whig party, had repented the choice of John Tyler, a life-long 
Democrat, in 1840. But the nominating conventions that have 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


413 


sufficiently considered the contingent importance of the Vice- 
Presidency have been exceedingly few. 

The Democratic National Convention, called to meet in Chi¬ 
cago, did not convene till nearly three months after the Repub¬ 
lican, August 29. In the meantime, the hard fighting around 
Richmond, and on Sherman's road to Atlanta, the fruits of which 
were not yet evident, the appearance of Confederate forces at 
the gates of Washington, and the delay of Sheridan’s movements 
in the Shenandoah Valley, had produced a more gloomy feeling 
than had been experienced before since the war began ; and this 
feeling, as was to be expected, operated in favor of whatever 
opposed the National administration. The suffering and the 
discontented are always prone to cry out for a change, without 
defining what sort of change they want, or considering what 
any change is likely to bring. Seizing upon this advantage, the 
Democratic convention made a very clear and bold issue with 
the Republican. It was presided over by Horatio Seymour, 
then governor of New York, while Clement L. Vallandigham 
was a member of the committee on resolutions, and is supposed 
to have written the most significant of them. The platform pre¬ 
sented these propositions: 

“ That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of 
the American people, that, after four years of failure to restore 
the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the 
pretence of military necessity of a war power higher than the 
Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in 
every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden 
down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially 
impaired—justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare 
demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostil¬ 
ities, with a view to an ultimate convention of all the States, or 
other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practi¬ 
cable moment, peace maybe restored on the basis of the Federal 
Union of the States. 

“ That the aim and object of the Democratic party is to pre¬ 
serve the Federal Union and the rights of the States unim¬ 
paired.” 

On the first ballot, Gen. George B. McClellan was nominated 
for President, receiving two hundred and two and a half votes, 
against twenty-three and a half for Thomas H. Seymour, of Con- 
necticut. George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, an ultra-peace man, 
was nominated for Vice-President. General McClellan, in his 
letter of acceptance, virtually set aside a portion of the platform, 
and said : “ The reestablishment of the Union, in all its integrity, 
is and must continue to be the indispensable condition in any 
settlement. . . . No peace can be permanent without Union.” 

The declaration that the war had been a failure received a 
crushing comment the day after the convention adjourned; for 
on that day Sherman’s army marched into Atlanta. And this 
success was followed by others—notably Sheridan’s brilliant 
movements in the valley—all of which, when heralded in the 
Republican journals, were accompanied by the quotation from 
the Democratic platform declaring the war a failure. General 
Fremont withdrew from the contest in September, saying in his 
published letter: 

“ The policy of the Democratic party signifies either separa¬ 
tion or reestablishment with slavery. The Chicago platform is 
simply separation ; General McClellan’s letter of acceptance is 
reestablishment with slavery. The Republican candidate is, on 
the contrary, pledged to the reestablishment of the Union with¬ 
out slavery; and, however hesitating his policy may be, the press¬ 
ure of his party will, we may hope, force him to it. Between 


these issues, I think no man of the Liberal party can remain in * 
doubt; and I believe I am consistent with my antecedents and 
my principles in withdrawing—not to aid in the triumph of 
Mr. Lincoln, but to do my part toward preventing the election 
of the Democratic candidate.” 

The canvass was exceedingly bitter, especially in the abuse 
heaped upon Mr. Lincoln. The undignified and disgraceful 
epithets that were applied to him by journals of high standing 
were not such as would make any American proud of his coun¬ 
try. This course had its culmination in the publication of cer¬ 
tain ghastly pictures of returned prisoners, to show what Lincoln 
—the usurper, despot, and tyrant, as they freely called him— 
was doing by not disregarding “ nigger soldiers” and continuing 
the exchange of whites. They constantly repeated the assertion 
with which they had greeted the Emancipation Proclamation, 
that the war had been wickedly changed from one for the preser¬ 
vation of the Union into one for the abolition of slavery. On 
the other hand, the Republican press freely accused the Demo¬ 
cratic party of desiring the success of secession—which was not 
true. Aside from all patriotic considerations, that party had the 
strongest reasons for wishing to perpetuate the Union, because 
without the Southern vote it was in a minority. There were 
many members of that party, however, who, while they by no 
means desired the destruction of the Union, believed it was in¬ 
evitable, and thought the sooner the necessity was acknowledged 
the better. 

One of the most effective arguments of the canvass was fur¬ 
nished in a condensed form by one of Mr. Lincoln’s famous little 
stories, and in that form was repeated thousands of times. An¬ 
swering the address of a delegation of the Union League, a day 
or two after his nomination, he said : “ I have not permitted 
myself to conclude that I am the best man in the country ; but 
I am reminded in this connection of the story of an old Dutch 
farmer, who once remarked to a companion that ‘ it was not best 
to swap horses when crossing streams.’ ” There was singing in 
the canvass, too, and some of the songs rendered by glee-clubs 
every evening before large political meetings were very effective. 
One of the most notable had been written in response to the 
President’s call for three hundred thousand volunteers, and bore 
the refrain, 

“ We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more !” 

Much of the popular parlor music of the time consisted of songs 
relating to the great struggle, prominent among which were 
“Tenting on the Old Camp-Ground ” and “When this Cruel War 
is over.” At the South, as at the North, there had been an out¬ 
burst of lyric enthusiasm at the beginning of the war, which 
found expression in “ My Maryland,” the “ Bonnie Blue Flag,” 
and “ Dixie;” but the spirit that inspires such poems seems to 
have died out there after the war had been in progress two or 
three years, when its terrible privations were increasing every 
day. 

The Confederates were now looking eagerly for the result of 
the Presidential election as a possible solution of the great ques¬ 
tion in their favor. John B. Jones, who was a clerk in the Con¬ 
federate War Department, recorded in his published diary that 
Mr. Vallandigham, when banished to the South, had assured the 
officers of the Government at Richmond that “ if we [the Con¬ 
federates] can only hold out this year, the peace party of the North 
would sweep the Lincoln dynasty out of political existence.” 
This was now their strongest hope; and it was common talk 




BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE D RAMSAY, 


BRIGADIER.GENERAL 


HENRY A, BARNUM 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM A, HAMMOND, 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL J. K. BARNES. 



BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL AMOS B. EATON. 


MAJOR-GENERAL MORTIMER LEGGETT AND STAFF. 
















































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


4i$ 


across the lines, between the pickets, that in the event of McClel¬ 
lan’s election the Confederates expected a speedy cessation of 
hostilities and ultimately their independence. And such is the 
unaccountable elasticity of the human mind, in dealing with facts 
and principles, that a large number of the bravest and most 
devoted soldiers in the National service, knowing this, were pre¬ 
paring to cast their ballots in a way to give the utmost assistance 
and encouragement to the very enemy into the muzzles of whose 
guns they were looking. 

Whether General Fremont's arraignment of the Administra¬ 
tion as “politically, militarily, and financially a failure” was just 
or unjust, whether it was true or not that the triumph of General 
McClellan and his party would result in a final disruption of the 
country, before the canvass was over the land had settled down 
to the belief that the only way to secure the continuance of the 
war to a successful termination was to reelect Mr. Lincoln, 
while a vote for General McClellan meant something else— 
nobody knew exactly what. The solemnity of the occasion 
appeared to be universally appreciated, and though a heavy 
vote was polled the election was the quietest that had ever been 
held. The citizens were dealing with a question that, in most 
of its aspects at least, they by this time thoroughly understood. 
When they sprang to arms in 1861, they did not know what war 
was; but now they had had three years of constant schooling to 
its burdens and its horrors. They had seen regiment after regi¬ 
ment march away to the music of drum and fife, with a thousand 
men in the ranks, and come back at the end of two years’ service 
with perhaps two hundred bronzed veterans to be mustered out. 
They had read in their newspapers, after every great battle, the 
long lists of killed and wounded, which the telegraph was quick 
to report. Every city had its fair for the relief of the widows 
and orphans, every hamlet its two or three crippled soldiers 
hobbling about in their faded blue overcoats, almost every house 
its incurable sorrow. They had seen the wheel turning in the 
provost-marshal’s office, in places where volunteering was not 
sufficiently rapid, and knew that their own names might be the 
next to be drawn for service at the front. They knew how many 
graves there were at Gettysburg, how many at Shiloh, how 
many at Stone River; they knew what was to be seen in the 
hospitals of every Northern city, and something of the unspeak¬ 
able horrors of captivity. They saw the price of gold go beyond 
two hundred, while the Government was spending between two 
and three millions of dollars a day, piling up a national debt in 
undreamed-of proportions, for which they were already heavily 
taxed, and which must some day be paid in solid coin. 

Seeing and understanding all this, and having the privilege of 
a secret and unquestioned ballot, they quietly walked up to the 
polls and voted for a vigorous prosecution of the war, reelecting 
Mr. Lincoln by a popular majority of more than four hundred 
thousand, and giving him the votes of all the States excepting 
Delaware, New Jersey, and Kentucky—two hundred and twelve 
auainst twenty-one. The vote of the soldiers in the field, so far 
as it could be counted separately (for in some States it was sent 
home sealed, and mingled with the other ballots in the boxes), 
showed about one hundred and nineteen thousand for Lincoln, 
and about thirty-four thousand for McClellan. The soldiers 
confined in some of the Confederate prisons held an election at 
the suggestion of their keepers, who were exceedingly curious 
to see how the prisoners would vote. Sergeant Robert H. Kel- 
1 o<tct tells us that in the stockade at Florence, S. C., where he was 

oo 

confined, two empty bags were hung up, and the prisoners were 
furnished with black and white beans and marched past in single 


file, each depositing a black bean for Lincoln, or a white one 
for McClellan. The result was in the proportion of two and a 
half for Lincoln to one for McClellan. In the prison at Millcn, 
Ga., Sergeant W. Goodyear tells us, the vote was three thou¬ 
sand and fourteen for Lincoln, and one thousand and fifty for 
McClellan. In Congress, the number of Republican members 
was increased from one hundred and six to one hundred and 
forty-three, and the number of Democratic members reduced 
from seventy-seven to forty-one. 

Meanwhile, in October, Maryland had adopted a new consti¬ 
tution, in which slavery was prohibited. In answer to serenades 
after the election, Mr. Lincoln made some of his best impromptu 
speeches, saying in one: “While I am duly sensible to the high 
compliment of a reelection, and duly grateful, as I trust, to 
Almighty God for having directed my countrymen to a right 
conclusion, as I think, for their good, it adds nothing to my 
satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed by the 
result. May I ask those who have not differed with me to join 
with me in this same spirit toward those who have ? ” 

If there is any one act of the American people that above all 
others, in the sober pages of history, reflects credit upon them for 
correct judgment, determined purpose, courage in present difficul¬ 
ties, and care for future interests, that act, it seems to me, was 
the reelection of President Lincoln. 


CHAPTER XL. 

THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 

AN EMPTY TREASURY—BORROWING MONEY AT TWELVE PER CENT.- 

SALMON P. CHASE MADE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY-THE 

DIRECT-TAX BILL—ISSUE OF DEMAND NOTES—CHASE’S COURAGE 
—THE BANKS FORM SYNDICATE—ISSUE OF BONDS—AMOUNT OF 
COIN IN CIRCULATION —SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS—PAY 
OF SOLDIERS—GREENBACKS—CHASE’S PLAN FOR A NATIONAL 
BANKING SYSTEM—THE FRACTIONAL CURRENCY—FLUCTUATIONS 
OF GOLD-THE COST OF THE WAR. 

WHEN President Lincoln came into office he found the treas¬ 
ury empty, and the public debt somewhat over seventy-six mil¬ 
lion dollars. In the last days of President Buchanan’s adminis¬ 
tration the Government had been borrowing money at twelve 
per cent, per annum. In December, i860, Congress passed a 
bill for the issue of ten million dollars in one-year treasury notes. 
Half of this amount was advertised, and offers were received for 
a small portion, at rates of discount varying from twelve to 
thirty-six per cent. The twelve per cent, offers were accepted, 
and subsequently a syndicate of bankers took the remainder of 
the five millions at that figure. The other five millions were 
taken a month later at eleven per cent, discount. In February, 
1861, Congress authorized a loan of twenty-five millions, to bear 
interest at six per cent., and to be paid in not less than ten nor 
more than twenty years. The Secretary succeeded in negotiat¬ 
ing one-third of the amount at rates from ninety to ninety-six. 

In Mr. Lincoln’s cabinet, Salmon P. Chase (formerly governor 
of Ohio, and then United States senator) was made Secretary 
of the Treasury. Under the existing acts he borrowed eight 
millions in March at ninety-four and upward—rejecting all offers 
under ninety-four—and early in April issued at par nearly five 
millions in two-year treasury notes, receivable for public dues 
and also convertible into six-per-cent, stocks. On the 12th of 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


416 

that month the war was begun by the firing on Fort Sumter. 
In May seven millions more of the six-per-cent, loan were issued 
at rates from eighty-five to ninety-three, and two and a half 
millions in treasury notes at par. These transactions were 
looked upon as remarkably successful, for many considered it 
questionable whether the Government would survive the blow 
that was aimed at its life, and be able to redeem any of its secur¬ 
ities. The existing tariff, which was low, produced an annual 
income of not more than thirty millions. 

Congress met, at the call of the President, on the 4th of July, 
1861, and on the 17th passed a bill (with but five dissenting votes 
in the House of Representatives) for the issue of bonds and 
treasury notes to the amount of two hundred and fifty millions. 
It also increased the duties on many articles, passed an act for 
the confiscation of the property of rebels, and levied a direct 
tax of twenty millions, apportioned among the States and Ter¬ 
ritories. The States that were in rebellion of course did not 
pay. All the others paid except Delaware, Colorado, Utah, 
Oregon, and the District of Columbia. The law provided for 
collection by United States officers in such States as should not 
formally assume and pay the tax themselves. In some of the 
seceding States, lands worth about seven hundred thousand dol¬ 
lars were seized and sold for non-payment. 

In August the first demand notes were issued as currency, 
being paid to clerks in the departments for their salaries. 
Though these were convertible into gold, there was at first great 
reluctance to receive them, but after a little time they became 
popular, and in five months about thirty-three millions were 
issued. 

In August also Mr. Chase held a conference with the principal 
bankers of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, to negotiate a 
national loan on the basis of the recent acts of Congress. Most 
of them expressed their desire to sustain the Government, but 
they made some objections to the terms and rates of interest. 
When it looked as if the negotiation might fail, the Secretary 
assured the bankers that if they were not able to take the loan 
on his terms, he would return to Washington and issue notes for 
circulation, “ for it is certain that the war must go on until the 
rebellion is put down, if we have to put out paper until it takes 
a thousand dollars to buy a breakfast.” The banks agreed to 
form a syndicate to lend the Government fifty million dollars in 
coin, to pay which the Secretary was to issue three-year notes 
bearing seven and three-tenths per cent, interest, convertible into 
six-per-cent, twenty-year bonds. These were popularly known 
as “ seven-thirties.” The peculiar rate of interest was made 
both as a special inducement and for ease of calculation, the 
interest being two cents a day on each hundred dollars. They 
were issued in denominations as low as fifty dollars, so that 
people of limited means could take them, and were very popular. 
The coupon and registered bonds that were to run not less than 
five years nor more than twenty were popularly known as “ five- 
twenties.” Subscription-books were opened in every city, and 
the people responded so promptly that the Government was 
soon enabled to repay the banks and make another loan on simi¬ 
lar terms. But a third loan was refused, and Secretary Chase 
then issued fifty millions in “ five-twenties,” bearing interest at 
six per cent., but sold at such a discount as to make a seven-per¬ 
cent. investment. Of all the agents employed to dispose of 
these bonds, Jay Cooke, of Philadelphia, was the most success¬ 
ful. They were paid one-fifth of one per cent, for the first hun¬ 
dred thousand dollars, and one-eighth of one per cent, for all in 
excess of that sum. 


The amount of coin in circulation in the United States at 
this time was estimated at about two hundred and ten million 
dollars. Before the war had been in progress one year, the 
operations of the Government had become so vast that this did 
not furnish a sufficient volume of currency for the transactions. 
On December 30, 1861, the banks suspended specie payments, 
and the Government was then obliged to do likewise. There 
were now over half a million men in the field, and the navy had 
been increased from forty-two vessels to two hundred and sixty- 
four. The pay of a private soldier was thirteen dollars a month, 
with food and clothing. The total cost to the Government for 
each soldier maintained in the field was about a thousand dollars 
a year—two and a half times the cost of a British soldier, and 
twelve times the cost of a French soldier. 

Early in 1862 even the smallest coins disappeared from circu¬ 
lation, and some kinds of business were almost paralyzed for want 
of change. Tokens and fractional notes were issued by private 
firms, and various expedients were resorted to, a favorite one 
being the enclosure of specified amounts of postage-stamps in 
small envelopes properly labelled. Thaddeus Stevens, member 
of Congress from Pennsylvania, proposed that the Government 
should issue notes for circulation, to any amount that might be 
required, and make them legal tender for all debts, public and 
private. Secretary Chase opposed this, and proposed instead a 
national banking system, which should embrace an issue of notes 
bearing a common impression and a common authority, the 
redemption of these notes by the institutions to which the Gov¬ 
ernment should deliver them for issue, and a pledge of United 
States stocks as security for such redemption. This scheme was 
opposed by the State banks, and Mr. Chase gave a reluctant 
consent to the legal-tender measure, which was then carried 
through Congress, and the “greenbacks” became payable for 
everything except duties on imports. Subsequently Mr. 
Chase’s plan for a national banking system was also adopted, 
substantially as we have it now. In the loyal States the green¬ 
backs were popular from the first, and the large amount in circu¬ 
lation led to general extravagance in expenditures. In the 
insurrectionary States they were at first refused with scorn. But 
when the secessionists found that these notes had a purchasing 
power vastly superior to those of their own Government, they 
soon became reconciled to them. When soldiers of the National 
army were made prisoners of war, they were almost immediately 
requested by their captors to exchange any greenbacks they 
might have for Confederate money, and some show of fairness 
was made by the allowance of a heavy discount, seldom less 
than seven for one. The Confederate currency was redeemable 
“ six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace with 
the United States.” The Government supplemented the green¬ 
backs with fractional paper currency in denominations of fifty, 
twenty-five, ten, and five cents; and in this money the war 
bills were paid and all business transacted, except at the custom¬ 
houses. 

The daily quotations of gold were looked to as an indication 
of the prospects of the war. Gold itself did not materially 
change in value, but the premium on it represented the depre¬ 
ciation of the greenbacks with which it was purchased. At the 
beginning of 1862 there was a premium of about two per cent, 
on gold. This fluctuated from day to day, but the general tend¬ 
ency was upward, till at the end of that year the premium was 
thirty-three. By the end of 1863 gold had risen to one hundred 
and fifty-one; and on June 21, 1864, just after the Army of the 
Potomac crossed the James, it touched two hundred. In other 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


4 i 7 


words, the United States paper dollar was then worth half a dol¬ 
lar. On the Ilth of July, 1864, gold reached its highest point, 
two hundred and eighty-five. Confederate paper money had 
been at par until November, 1861 ; but from that time its value 
diminished steadily and rapidly, until, at the close of 1864, five 
hundred paper dollars were worth but one dollar in gold, and 
three months later six hundred. 

Most of the funded debt of the United States was represented 
by five-twenty bonds. An act was passed authorizing the issue 
of ten-forties, but they were not popular, and comparatively few 
were taken. The total assessed value of all the property in the 
United States, real and personal, by the census of i860, was 
somewhat over sixteen thousand million dollars. The cost of 


the war to the Government has been nearly, if not quite, half 
that amount—or about equal to the value in i860 of all the real 
estate in the loyal States. The amount of the Confederate debt 
is unknown. If that and the incidental losses could be ascer¬ 
tained, the cost of the war would probably make a grand total 
almost equivalent to a wiping out of all values in the country as 
they were estimated in the year of its beginning. The four¬ 
teenth amendment to the Constitution—proposed in 1866, and 
declared in force in 1868—provides, on the one hand, that the 
validity of the public debt shall not be questioned, and, on the 
other, that neither the United States nor any State shall ever 
pay any debt or obligation that has been incurred in aid of insur¬ 
rection against the United States. 



z/zzzi fzez/Zs 


" ^ of Co/u//v 

The Confederate States of America 

Xtsio// ns//CIOOB' Two YEARS.AFTER.THE RATIFICATION OFA TREATY OF PEACE WITH THE UNITED STATES 

.--_—— - p&JtzkUdmJ 


zzzzzzzzz/yzM yzz'z/z/t . NOUfz 

lUtts 

CV/C.. / ////> ///J/ /-/Z ZZZ/D 


z/zcz/zz/, 


Eng 4 "by- 0? n p'onn. V C'"R:: hm o n d -Va 


FAC-SIMILE OF A CONFEDERATE BOND. 




















































BRIGADIER-GENERAL W E. STRONG, GENERAL McPHERSON'S INSPECTOR-GENERAL, ORDERING A COLONEL TO PLACE HIS COMMAND IN ACTION. 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


419 


CHAPTER XLI. 

THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 

SHERMAN MAKES ATLANTA A MILITARY DEPOT—HIS PECULIAR POSI¬ 
TION—DISAFFECTION IN THE CONFEDERACY—HOOD ATTACKS 
THE COMMUNICATIONS—DEFENCE OF ALLATOONA—THOMAS OR¬ 
GANIZES AN ARMY—SHERMAN DETERMINES TO GO DOWN TO 
THE SEA—DESTRUCTION IN ATLANTA—THE ORDER OF MARCH— 

sherman’s instructions—the route—incidents—destruc¬ 
tion OF THE RAILROAD—KILLING THE BLOODHOUNDS—THE 
BUMMERS—CAPTURE OF FORT McALLISTER—HARDEE EVACUATES 
SAVANNAH, AND SHERMAN OFFERS IT AS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT 
TO THE PRESIDENT — BATTLE OF FRANKLIN — BATTLE OF NASH¬ 
VILLE—HOOD’S ARMY DESTROYED. 

BEFORE Sherman’s army had been a week in Atlanta he 
determined to send away all the inhabitants of the city, giving 
each the choice whether to go South or North, and furnishing 
transportation for a certain distance. His reason for this meas¬ 
ure is given briefly in his own words : “ I was resolved to make 
Atlanta a pure military garrison or depot, with no civil popula¬ 
tion to influence military measures. I had seen Memphis, 
Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans, all captured from the 
enemy, and each at once was garrisoned by a full division of 
troops, if not more, so that success was actually crippling our 
armies in the field by detachments to guard and protect the 
interests of a hostile population.” Of course this action met 
with a vigorous protest from the people themselves, from the 
city authorities, and from General Hood, between whom and 
General Sherman there was a sharp correspondence discussing 
the humanity of the measure and to some extent the issues 
of the war. 

General Sherman also received a letter signed by the mayor 
and two of the councilmen, in which they set forth the difficul¬ 
ties and sufferings that the people would encounter, and asked 
him to reconsider his order for their removal. This he answered 
at length, presenting a broad view, not of Atlanta only, but of 
the entire country, and the state of the war, and the effect that 
this would have upon it. There were few generals on either 
side who understood the entire aspect, military, political, moral, 
and economical, as thoroughly, or describe it as clearly, as Sher¬ 
man. He said: “I give full credit to your statements of the 
distress that will be occasioned, and yet shall not revoke my 
orders, because they were not designed to meet the humanities 
of the case, but to prepare for the future struggles in which 
millions of good people outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. 
We must have peace, not only at Atlanta, but in all America. 
To secure this, we must stop the war that now desolates our once 
happy and favored country. To stop war, we must defeat the 
rebel armies which are arrayed against the laws and Constitution 
that all must respect and obey. To defeat those armies, we 
must prepare the way to reach them in their recesses, provided 
with the arms and instruments which enable us to accomplish 
our purpose. Now, I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, 
that we may have many years of military operations from this 
quarter, and therefore deem it wise and prudent to prepare in 
time. The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsistent 
with its character as a home for families. There will be no 
manufactures, commerce, or agriculture here, for the mainte¬ 
nance of families, and sooner or later want will compel the in¬ 


habitants to go. Why not go now, when all the arrangements 
are completed for the transfer, instead of waiting till the plung¬ 
ing shot of contending armies will renew the scenes of the past 
month ? Of course I do not apprehend any such thing at this 
moment, but you do not suppose this army will be here until 
the war is over. I cannot discuss this subject with you fairly, 
because I cannot impart to you what we propose to do; but 
I assert that our military plans make it necessary for the 
inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of services 
to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable 
as possible. 

“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War 
is cruelty, and you cannot refine it ; and those who brought war 
into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people 
can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I 
know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure 
peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. 
If the United States submits to a division now, it will not stop, 
but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal 
war. The United States does and must assert its authority 
wherever it once had power ; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, 
it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This 
feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that 
of Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the 
authority of the National Government, and, instead of devoting 
your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and 
this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shield¬ 
ing you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I 
know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and 
passion, such as swept the South into rebellion ; but you can 
point out, so that we may know those who desire a government, 
and those who insist on war and its desolation. 

“ You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against 
these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable ; and the 
only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in 
peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be 
done admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride. 
We don’t want your negroes, or your horses, or your houses, or 
your lands, or anything that you have, but we do want and will 
have a just obedience to the laws of the United States. That we 
will have, and, if it involves the destruction of your improvements, 
we cannot help it. You have heretofore read public sentiment 
in your newspapers, that live by falsehood and excitement ; and 
the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters, the better. I 
repeat, then, that, by the original compact of government, the 
United States had certain rights in Georgia, which have never 
been reliquished and never will be ; that the South began war 
by seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, etc., long before 
Mr. Lincoln was installed, and before the South had one jot or 
tittle of provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of women 
and children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry 
and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Missis¬ 
sippi, we fed thousands upon thousands of the families of rebel 
soldiers left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. 
Now that war comes home to you, you feel very different. You 
deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when you sent car¬ 
loads of soldiers and ammunition, and moulded shells and shot, 
to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, to desolate the homes 
of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to 
live in peace at their old homes and under the government of 
their inheritance. But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, 






420 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



you may call 
o n m e for 
anything. 
Then I will 
share wit h 
you the last 
cracker, and 
watch with 
you to shield 
your homes 
and families 
against dan- 
from 
quar- 


(T p r 


HON. JOSEPH E. BROWN. 
Governor of Georgia 


every 
> > 

ter. 

Among 
the consider¬ 
ations that 
influenced 
General 
Sherman’s 
action at that 

time, two appear to have been paramount—one a hope, the 
other a fear. The fear was, that some portion of Hood’s 
army would make a serious break in his communications by 
destroying portions of the long, single-track railroad over 
which he drew all his supplies from Chattanooga. The hope 
was, that Georgia, seeing any further prosecution of the war to 
be useless, would withdraw her troops from the Confederate 
armies and practically secede from the Confederacy. Some color 
was given to this from the fact that Gov. Joseph E. Brown had 
recalled the Georgia militia from Hood’s army, while Mr. Davis, 
on a flying visit to that army, had made a speech in which he 
threw the blame for the recent disasters upon General Johnston 
and Governor Brown, and told the soldiers they were about to 
set out on a campaign that would carry them to Tennessee 
and Kentucky. Sherman sent word to Governor Brown that if 
Georgia’s troops were withdrawn from the Confederate service, 
he would pass across the State as harmlessly as possible, and 
pay for all the corn and fodder that he took ; but if not, he 
would devastate the State through its whole length and breadth. 

In North Carolina there had been a strong movement for 
peace this year, the only difference of opinion being as to the 
method in which peace should be sought. The governor, Zebu- 
Ion B. Vance, as a candidate for reelection, represented those 
who held that the State should only act in cooperation with 
the other States that were engaged with her in the war. The 
other party, wdiose candidate was William W. Holden, held 
that North Carolina should assert her sovereignty and negotiate 
peace directly and alone with the United States. Governor 
Vance probably presented the decisive argument when he 
said : “ Secession from the Confederacy will involve us in a new 
war, a bloodier conflict than that which we now deplore. So 
soon as you announce to the world that you are a sovereign and 
independent nation, as a matter of course the Confederate Gov¬ 
ernment has a right to declare war against you, and President 
Davis will make the whole State a field of battle and blood. 
Old Abe would send his troops here also, because we would no 
longer be neutral; and so, if you will pardon the expression, we 
would catch the devil on all sides.” At the election in August, 
Governor Vance received fifty-four thousand votes, against 
twenty thousand for Mr. Holden. 


Georgia did not secede from the Confederacy, but Hood did 
attack the communications. At every important point on the 
railroad there was a strong guard, and at the bridges there were 
block-houses with small but well-appointed garrisons. About 
the 1st of October Hood crossed the Chattahoochee, going north¬ 
ward to strike the railroad. Sherman hurried after him, and on 
the 5th looked down from Kenesaw Mountain upon the fires 
that were burning the ties and heating the rails of a dozen miles 
of his road. Anticipating an attack on Allatoona, which was 
held by a small brigade under command of Lieut.-Col. John E. 
Tourtellotte, he signalled over the heads of the enemy a message 
to Allatoona conveying an order for Gen. John M. Corse, then 
at Rome, to go to the relief of Tourtellotte with a strong force. 
Corse obeyed promptly, going down with all the men he could 
obtain transportation for, and arriving at midnight. In the 
morning the garrison, now nearly two thousand strong, were 
summoned to surrender immediately, to avoid a needless effu¬ 
sion of blood. General Corse answered, “ We are prepared for 
the needless effusion of blood whenever it is agreeable to you,” 
and at once his men were attacked from all sides. They were 
driven into their redoubts, and there made so determined a 
resistance that after five hours of desperate fighting the Confed¬ 
erates withdrew, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. 
Corse had lost seven hundred and seven men out of his nine¬ 
teen hundred and forty-four, including Colonel Redfield, of the 
Thirty-ninth Iowa, killed, and had himself suffered the loss of an 
ear and a cheek-bone. The total Confederate loss is unknown ; 
but Corse reported burying two hundred and thirty-one of their 
dead, and taking four hundred and eleven prisoners, which would 
indicate a total loss of sixteen hundred. This successful defence 
of Allatoona was one of the most gallant affairs of the kind in 
history. 

General Thomas had previously been sent to Nashville with 
two divisions, General Slocum was left in Atlanta with the 
Twentieth Corps, and with the remainder of his forces Sherman 
pursued Hood through the country between Rome and Chatta¬ 
nooga and westward of that region. But he could not bring the 



the President. 


ALL THE LIVE STOCK LEFT ON McGILL'S FARM. 


Confederates to battle, and had little expectation of overtaking 
them. He thinks he conceived of the march to the sea some 
time in September; the first definite proposal of it was in a tele¬ 
gram to General Thomas, on the 9th of October, in which he 
said : “ I want 
to destroy all 
the road below 
Chattanooga, 
including At¬ 
lanta, and to 
make for the 
sea-coast. We 
cannot defend 
this long line 
of road.” In 
various de¬ 
spatches be¬ 
tween that 
date and the 
2d of Novem¬ 
ber, Sherman 
proposed the 
great march to 
Grant and to 
















J 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


421 



Grant thought Hood’s army should be destroyed first, but 
finally said : “ I do not see that you can withdraw from where 
you are, to follow Hood, without giving up all we have gained 
in territory. I say, then, go on as you propose.” This was on 
the understanding, suggested by Sherman, that Thomas would 
be left with force enough to take care of Hood. Sherman sent 
him the Fourth and Twenty-third Corps, commanded by Gen¬ 
erals Stanley and Schofield, and further reinforced him with 
troops that had been garrisoning various places on the railroad, 
while he also received two divisions from Missouri and some 
recruits from the North. These, when properly organized, made 
up a very strong force; and, with Thomas at its head, neither 
Sherman nor Grant felt any hesitation about leaving it to take 
care of Tennessee. 

Sherman rapidly sent North all his sick and disabled men, and 
all baggage that could be spared. Commissioners came and took 
the votes of the soldiers for the Presidential election, and de¬ 


parted. Pay¬ 
masters came 
and paid off 
the troops, 
a n d went 
back again. 

W agon trains 

were put in trim and loaded for a march. Every detachment 
of the army had its exact orders what to do; and as the last 
trains whirled over the road to Chattanooga, the track was taken 
up and destroyed, the bridges burned, the wires torn down, and 
all the troops that had not been ordered to join Thomas con¬ 
centrated in Atlanta. From the 12th of November nothing 
more was heard from Sherman till Christmas. 

The depot, machine-shops, and locomotive-house in Atlanta 
were all torn down, and fire was set to the ruins. The shops 
had been used for the manufacture of Confederate ammunition, 

















422 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


and all night the shells 
were exploding in the 
midst of the ruin, while 
the fire spread to a 
block of stores, and 
finally burned out the 
heart of the city. With 
every unsound man 
and every useless arti¬ 
cle sent to the rear, 
General Sherman now 
had fifty-five thousand 
three hundred and 
twenty-nine infantry¬ 
men, five thousand and 
sixty-three cavalry¬ 
men, and eighteen hun¬ 
dred and twelve artil¬ 
lerymen, with sixty-five 
guns. There were four 
teams of horses to each 
gun, with its caisson 
and forge; sixhundred 
ambulances, each drawn by two horses ; and twenty-five hundred 
wagons, with six mules to each. Every soldier carried forty 
rounds of ammunition, while the wagons contained an abundant 
additional supply and twelve hundred thousand rations, with 
oats and corn enough to last five days. Probably a more thor¬ 
oughly appointed army was never seen, and it is difficult to 
imagine one of equal numbers more effective. Every man in it 
was a veteran, was proud to be there, and felt the most perfect 
confidence that under the leadership of “ Uncle Billy ” it would 
be impossible to go wrong. 

On the 15th of November they set out on the march to the 
sea, nearly three hundred miles distant. The infantry consisted 
of four corps. The Fifteenth and Seventeenth formed the right 
wing, commanded by Gen. Oliver O. Howard ; the Fourteenth 
and Twentieth the left, commanded by Gen. Henry W. Slocum. 
The cavalry was under the command of Gen. Judson Kilpatrick. 
The two wings marched by parallel routes, generally a few miles 
apart, each corps having its own proportion of the artillery and 
trains. General Sherman issued minute orders as to the conduct 
of the march, which were systematically carried out. Some of 
the instructions were these : 

“ The habitual order of march will be, wherever practicable, 
by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible. The separate col¬ 
umns will start habitually at seven A.M., and make about fifteen 
miles a day. Behind each regiment should follow one wagon 
and one ambulance. Army commanders should practise the 
habit of giving the artillery and wagons the road, marching 
the troops on one side. The army will forage liberally on the 
country during the march. To this end, each brigade com¬ 
mander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, 
who will gather corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, 
vegetables, corn meal, or whatever is needed by the com¬ 
mand, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten 
days’ provisions. Soldiers must not enter dwellings or com¬ 
mit any trespass; but, during a halt or camp, they may be 
permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, 
and to drive in stock in sight of their camp. To corps 
commanders alone is intrusted the power to destroy mills, 
houses, cotton-gins, etc. Where the army is unmolested, 


no destruction of such property should be permitted; but 
should guerillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should 
the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise 
manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order 
and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according 
to the measure of such hostility. As for horses, mules, wagons, 
etc., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may 
appropriate freely and without limit; discriminating, however, 
between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor and in¬ 
dustrious, usually neutral or friendly. In all foraging, the parties 
engaged will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable 
portion for their maintenance.” 

Thus equipped and thus instructed, the great army moved 
steadily, day after day, cutting a mighty swath, from forty to 
sixty miles wide, through the very heart of the Confederacy. 
The columns passed through Rough and Ready, Jonesboro’, Cov¬ 
ington, McDonough, Macon, Milledgeville, Gibson, Louisville, 
Millen, Springfield, and many smaller places. The wealthier 
inhabitants fled at the approach of the troops. The negroes in 
great numbers swarmed after the army, believing the long-prom¬ 
ised day of jubilee had come. Some of them seemed to have 
an intelligent idea that the success of the National forces meant 
destruction of slavery, while most of them had but the vaguest 
notions as to the whole movement. One woman, with a child 
in her arms, walking along among the cattle and horses, was 
accosted by an officer, who asked her, “ Where are you going, 
aunty? ” “ I’se gwine whar you’s gwine, massa.” One party of 

black men, who had fallen into line, called out to another who 
seemed to be asking too many questions, “Stick in dar ! It’s 
all right. We’se gwine along; we’se free.” Major George 
Ward Nichols describes an aged couple whom he saw in a hut 
near Milledgeville. The old negress, pointing her long finger 
at the old man, who was in the corner of the fireplace, hissed 
out, “ What fer you sit dar? You s’pose I wait sixty years for 
nutten? Don't yer see de door open? I’se follow my child ; 

I not stay; 1 walks till I drop in my tracks.” 

The army destroyed nearly the whole of the Georgia Central 
Railroad, burning the ties, and heating and twisting the rails. 
As they had learned that a rail merely bent could be straight¬ 
ened and used again, a special tool was invented with which a 




MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN M. CORSE. 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


423 


red-hot rail could be quickly twisted like an 
auger, and rendered forever useless. They 
also had special appliances for tearing up the 
track methodically and rapidly. All the de¬ 
pot buildings were in flames as soon as the 
column reached them. As the bloodhounds 
had been used to track escaped prisoners, the 
men killed all that they could find. 

The foraging parties—or “ bummers,” as 
they were popularly called—went out for 
miles on each side, starting in advance of the 
organizations to which they belonged, gathered 
immense quantities of provisions, and brought 
them to the line of march, where each stood 
guard over his pile till his own brigade came 
along. The progress of the column was not 
allowed to be interrupted for the reception of 
the forage, everything being loaded upon the 
wagons as they moved. The “ flankers ” were 
thrown out on either side, passing in thin lines 
through the woods to prevent any surprise 
by the enemy, while the mounted officers 
went through the fields to give the road to the troops and 
trains. 

The only serious opposition came from Wheeler’s Confederate 
cavalry, which hung on the flanks of the army and burned some 
bridges, but was well taken care of by Kilpatrick’s, who generally 
defeated it when brought to an encounter. There was great 
hope that Kilpatrick would be able to release the prisoners of 
war confined in Millen, 
but when he arrived 
there he found that they 
had been removed to 
some other part of the 
Confederacy. When the 
advance guard was with¬ 
in a few miles of Savan¬ 
nah there was some 
fighting with infantry, 
and a pause before the 
defences of the city. 

Fort McAllister, 
which stood in the way 
of communication with 
the blockading fleet, was 
elaborately protected 
with ditches, palisades, 
a n d chevaux-de-frise ; 
but Gen. William 
Hazen’s division made 
short work with it, going 
straight over everything 
and capturing the fort 
on the 13th of Decem¬ 
ber, losing ninety-two 
men in the assault, and 
killing or wounding 
about fifty of the garri¬ 
son. That night Gen¬ 
eral Sherman, with a 
few officers, pulled 
down the river in a yawl 


and visited a gunboat of the fleet in Ossabaw 
Sound. Four days later, having established 
full communication, Sherman demanded the 
surrender of the city of Savannah, which Gen. 
William J. Hardee, who was in command 
therewith a considerable force, refused. Sher¬ 
man then took measures to make its invest¬ 
ment complete ; but on the morning of the 
21st it was found to be evacuated by Hardee’s 
forces, and Gen. John W. Geary’s division of 
the Twentieth Corps marched in. The next 
day Sherman wrote to the President: “ I beg 
to present you as a Christmas gift the city of 
Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy 
guns and plenty of ammunition, also about 
twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.” Sher¬ 
man’s entire loss in the march had been seven 
hundred and sixty-four men. 

That phase of war which reaches behind the 
armies in the field and strikes directly at the 
sources of supply, bringing home its burdens 
and its hardships to men who are urging on 
the conflict without participating in it, was never exhibited on 
a grander scale or conducted with more complete success. This, 
in fact, is the most humane kind of war, since it accomplishes 
the purpose with the least destruction of life and limb. Sher¬ 
man’s movement across Georgia naturally brings to mind another 
famous march to the sea; but that was a retreat of ten thou¬ 
sand, while this was a victorious advance of sixty thousand; and 

it was only in their 
shout of welcome, Tha- 
latta! thalatta! (“The 
sea ! the sea ! ”) that 
the weary and disheart¬ 
ened Greeks resembled 
Sherman’s triumphant 
legions. 

The condition of 
affairs in Georgia, as 
seen by the residents, 
just before and at the 
time of Sherman’s great 
march, has been vividly 
described by the Rev. 
J. Ryland Kendrick, 
who was pastor of a 
church in Charleston 
when the war broke out, 
and two years later re¬ 
moved to Madison, Ga. 
He says : 

“In passing from 
South Carolina to 
Georgia one could hard¬ 
ly fail to be immediately 
conscious of breathing 
a somewhat larger and 
freer atmosphere. The 
great mass of the people 
in the latter State were 
perhaps no less ardent 
in their zeal for the 



MAJOR-GENERAL PETER J. OSTERHAUS. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL BENJAMIN HARRISON. COLONEL DANIEL DUSTIN. 

BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL BREVET BRIGADIER.GENERAL 

WILLIAM T, WARD. WILLIAM COGGSWELL. 



















(FROM A GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPH.) 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


Confederate cause than those of the former, but still there was 
among them more latitude of opinion, and criticisms on the polit¬ 
ical and military status were not so rigorously repressed. Owing 
to her greater extent of territory, her less aristocratic civil insti¬ 
tutions, and her more composite population, Georgia had long 
been characterized by a broader spirit of tolerance than South 
Carolina, and she manifested that spirit during the war. Not 
a few might be found in almost any community who had no 
heart in the pending conflict, and little faith in its successful 
issue. Besides, her governor, Joseph E. Brown, early showed 
a disposition to do his own thinking, and to take ground which 
was not always pleasing to the autocratic will of Jefferson Davis. 
This naturally encouraged freedom of thought and utterance 
among the people at large. 

“ At the beginning of 1863 I received a call to the pastorate 
of the Baptist church in Madison, a village on the Georgia rail¬ 
road, and made my home there for the remainder of the war. It 
was an ideal refuge amidst the storm and stress of the time, 
especially for a man with my peculiar convictions. The village 
was one of the pleasantest and most attractive in the State, 
comprising in its population a considerable number of wealthy, 
educated, and refined families, a large share of which belonged 
to my church. In the ante-bellum days it had been distinguished 
as an educational centre for girls, with two flourishing seminaries 
—one Baptist, the other Methodist. When I went there the 
war had closed both of them. Just on the line which divides 
the upper from the lower country, Madison was as remote 
from the alarms of war as any place in the war-girdled South 
could well be, and fairly promised to be about the last spot 
which the invaders would strike. To its various attractions 
Madison added, for me, one other, which at the time was not 
generally esteemed an attraction at all, but rather a serious 
reproach. I refer to its reputation for somewhat lax loyalty to 
the Confederacy. It was known throughout the State as a town 
much given to croaking and criticism, with a suspicion of decided 
disaffection on the part of some of its leading citizens. Fore¬ 
most among these sullen and recalcitrant Madisonians was Col. 
Joshua Hill, familiarly known as ‘ Josh Hill,’ confessedly the 
most prominent man in the community, and about as much at 
odds with the Confederate Government as one could well be 
without provoking the stroke of its iron hand. He had been a 
member of the United States Congress when the secession fury 
began, and having stuck to his post as long as possible finally 
retired from it in a regular and honorable way. 

“ Preaching as I did only on Sunday mornings, I often availed 
myself of the opportunity to attend, in the after-part of that day, 
the religious services of the colored people ; sometimes preach¬ 
ing to them myself, but more commonly listening to the preach¬ 
ers of their own race. While, as might be expected, there was 
a sad lack of any real instruction in their pulpit performances, 
there was superabundance of fervor and not a little of genuine 
oratorical effectiveness. 

“ It interested me especially, in these meetings of the colored 
people, to watch their attitude toward the pending.war, in whose 
issues they had so great a stake, and by which they were placed 
in an extremely delicate relation to their masters. Their shrewd¬ 
ness was simply amazing. Their policy was one of reserve and 
silence. They rarely referred to the war in their sermons or 
prayers, and when they did mention it they used bioad terms 
which meant little and compromised nobody. Of course they 
could not betray sympathy for the invaders, but they certainly 
exhibited none for the other side. To any keen observer their 


42 c; 

silence was significant enough, but nobody cared to evoke their 
real sentiments. The subtlest sagacity could not have dictated 
a more prudent line of conduct than that which their instincts 
chose. Indeed, the conduct of the colored people through the 
whole war, whose import they vaguely but truly divined, was 
admirable, and such as to merit the eternal gratitude of the 
Southern whites. Under the most tempting opportunities, out¬ 
rages upon women and children were never fewer, petty crimes 
were not increased, and of insurrectionary movements, so far 
as I knew, there were absolutely none, while the soil was never 
tilled with more patient and faithful industry. No doubt their 
conduct was largely determined by a shrewd comprehension of 
the situation, as well as by their essential kindliness of nature. 
They understood that bodies of soldiery were never far away, 
and that any uprising would be speedily and remorselessly 
crushed. They knew, too, that it was wiser to wait for the com¬ 
ing of ‘ Massa Linkum’s’ legions, whose slow approach could 
not be concealed from them. 

“If the colored people dimly saw that their deliverance was 
approaching with the advance of the Federal armies, the faith 
of the whites in the perpetuity of the divine institution lingered 
long and died hard. It seemed to them impossible that this 
institution should come to an end. Indeed, there was mani¬ 
fested on the part of some very good and devout people a dis¬ 
position to hazard their faith in the veracity of God and the 
Bible on the success of the Southern arms. The Bible, they 
argued, distinctly sanctioned slavery, and if slavery should be 
overthrown by the failure of the South the Bible would be 
fatally discredited. 

“ In those trying days some few compensations came to us 
for the deprivations inflicted by the blockade. For one thing, 
the tyranny of fashion was greatly abated. Style was little 
thought of, and fine ladies were made happy by the possession 
of an English or French calico gown. For another thing, cut 
off from magazines, reviews, and cheap yellow-covered literature, 
and with newspapers so curtailed of their ordinary proportions 
that they were taken in at a coup d'ceil , we were driven back 
upon old standard books. I suspect that among the stay-at- 
homes a larger amount of really good, solid reading was done 
during the war than in the previous decade. Now and then a 
contraband volume slipped through the blockade, and was 
eagerly sought after. Somehow, a copy of Buckle’s ‘ History 
of Civilization ’ got into my neighborhood, and had a wide cir¬ 
culation. Victor Hugo’s ‘ Les Miserables' appeared among us 
in a shocking edition, printed, I think, in New Orleans. 

“ The ever-beginning, never-ending topic of conversation was 
the war, with its incidents and prospects. We breakfasted, 
dined, and supped on startling reports of victories or defeats, 
and vague hints of prodigious things shortly to occur. It is 
noteworthy that our reports were almost uniformly of victories, 
frequently qualified by the slow and reluctant admission that, 
having won a brilliant success, the Confederate forces at last 
fell back. This trick of disguising defeat came, after a while, to 
be so well understood, that ‘ to conquer and fall back ’ was tossed 
about as a grim jest. 

“ As the tide of war surged southward, and at last reached 
Chattanooga, our village, like nearly all others on railway lines, 
became a hospital station, and the large academy was appropri¬ 
ated to the sick and wounded. 

“ After the battle of Chickamauga great trains of cars came 
lumbering through our town, crowded with Union captives. 
They were a sad sight to look upon. Standing one day by the 


426 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


track as such a train was slowly passing, the irrepressible prison¬ 
ers shouted to me, ‘ Old Rosey will be along here soon ! ’ ‘ Old 

Rosey ’ never came, but ‘Uncle Billy’ in due time put in an 
unmistakable appearance, which more than fulfilled what at the 
moment seemed the prediction of mere reckless bravado. 

“During the summer of 1864 our secluded little village was 
rudely shaken by its first experience in the way of invasion. 
After steadily pushing back the Confederate columns, Sherman 
had at last reached Atlanta, and his hosts were in fact only 
about seventy miles away from us. In certain conditions of the 
atmosphere we could hear the dull, heavy thunder of his guns. 
Yet, strangely enough, this proximity of war in its sternest form 
created no panic among us. In fact, a kind of paralysis now 
benumbed the sensibilities of the people. The back of the Con¬ 
federacy had been definitely broken in the preceding summer by 
the battle of Gettysburg. Nearly all discerning persons were 
conscious of this, and but for the foreordained and blind obsti¬ 
nacy of Jefferson Davis and his satellites efforts would have been 
made to save the South from utter wreck. Alexander H. 
Stephens was understood to entertain very definite ideas as to 
the hopeless and disastrous 
course of events under Davis’s 
policy. 

“ On a hot July morning I was 
sitting, Southern fashion, with a 
number of gentlemen before a 
store just outside of the public 
square. We were canvassing a 
strange rumor which had just 
reached us, to the effect that 
Yankee soldiers had been seen 
not far from the town. At that 
moment a man from the coun¬ 
try rode up to our group, and, 
hearing the topic of conversa¬ 
tion, generously offered to ‘ eat 
all the Union soldiers within ten 
miles of Madison.’ Scarcely had 
he uttered these reassuring words 
when a man in uniform galloped 
into the square. Now, we said, 
we shall get trustworthy informa¬ 
tion, thinking that this was a 
Confederate scout. In a mo¬ 
ment, however, another cavalry¬ 
man dashed around the corner, 
and fired a pistol at a fugitive 
clad in Confederate gray. The 
truth instantly flashed upon us, 
and with a cry of ‘ Yankees! 
we all sprang to our feet. Not 
much alarmed myself, I called 
to my friends, 1 Don’t run!’ but 
the most of them, disregarding 
my advice, took themselves off 
in remarkably quick time. The 
strange intruders, coming upon 
us as suddenly as if they had 
dropped out of the summer sky, 
now poured into the square 
and overflowed all the streets. 

Boldly standing my ground, I 


approached the first officer I could make out, and requested 
permission to go at once to my home on the outskirts of the 
village. He informed me that I must wait until the arrival of 
the colonel in command. So it was that for a space of five or 
ten minutes I may be said to have been a prisoner under the flag 
of my country. The colonel soon rode up, a stalwart, square- 
built, kindly-faced Kentuckian—Colonel Adams, as I afterward 
learned—who promptly granted my request, and directed an 
officer to see me safe through the crowd of soldiers. At my gate 
I found two or three soldiers, quietly behaved, and simply ask¬ 
ing for food. Gratefully receiving such as we could give them, 
they departed, leaving us quite unharmed. 

“ In November an important ministerial service called me to 
southwestern Georgia, and, as all seemed quiet about Atlanta, 
I hesitatingly ventured, accompanied by my wife, upon the 
journey. Starting homeward after a few days, we reached 
Forsyth, and paused there on the edge of the desert. For a 
desert it was that stretched for some sixty miles between us and 
Madison, a terra incognita, over which no adventurous explorer 
had passed since Sherman’s legions had blotted out all knowl¬ 
edge of it. Only wild rumors 
filled the air. At last a friend 
took the serious risk of letting 
us have his carriage, with a pair 
of mules and a negro driver, for 
the perilous journey. Having 
crossed the Ocmulgee, we at once 
struck the track of Sherman’s 
army, his right, under Howard, 
having kept near the river. In 
that day’s ride we met on the 
road but one human being—a 
negro on horseback. A white 
woman rushed frantically from 
her little cabin to inquire if any 
more Yankees were coming, a 
question which I ventured to 
answer with a very confident 
negative. Rather late in the 
afternoon, as we were passing a 
pleasant farm-house, a gentleman 
came out to our carriage and with 
a very solemn voice and manner 
warned us against going any 
further. He had just been in¬ 
formed that ten thousand Yan¬ 
kee soldiers were at somebody’s 
mills, not far away, and he de¬ 
clared that we were driving 
straight into their ranks. This 
staggered me for a moment. 
But a little reflection convinced 
me of the violent improbability 
of the rumor, and a little further 
reflection determined me to go 
on. From that moment to the 
evening hour when we drew up 
before a planter’s house to spend 
the night, we saw not a human 
being, scarcely a living thing. In¬ 
deed, the wide, dead silence was 
the most marked sign that we 



By permission of Dick& Fitzgerald, New York. From ‘‘Twelve Decisive Battles of the War.” 























































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


427 


boon of liberty. Presently Union soldiers were everywhere. A 
German colonel, lately a New York broker, moved among us in 
the spick-and-span bravery of his uniform, the sovereign arbiter 
of our destinies. The world had rarely presented such a topsy¬ 
turvy condition of things, half tragical, half comical. 

“As soon as matters had sufficiently quieted down to warrant 
it, I resolved on a visit to my Northern friends, toward whom 
my heart yearned. My point of departure was Atlanta, still a 
desolation of falling walls, 
blackened chimneys, and 
almost undistinguishable 
streets. How queer it was 
to be again in the great 
world ! How splendid 
Nashville, Louisville, and 
Cincinnati appeared, with 
their brilliant gaslights, 
crowded thoroughfares. 





MAJOR-GENERAL GUSTAVUS W. SMITH, C. S. A. 


MAJOR-GENERAL 

BENJAMIN F. CHEATHAM, C. S. A. 

showy shop windows, and 
fashionably dressed peo¬ 
ple ! Evidently war here, 
whatever it had meant of sor¬ 
row and deprivation, had not 
been war as we had known it in the 
beleaguered, invaded, blockaded 
South. This prosperity was all but 
incredible when contrasted with 
Southern poverty, distress, and desolation.” * 

When Hood found that he could not lure Sherman 
away from Atlanta, or make him loose his hold upon 
that prize of his long campaign, he turned toward 
Nashville, under orders from Richmond, hoping to de¬ 
stroy the army that Thomas was organizing. He was 
hindered by heavy rains, and it was late in November 
when he arrived at Duck River, about forty miles south 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
JOHN T MORGAN, C. S. A. 


were in the path over which a few days before a great army had 
passed. The road here and there was considerably cut up, show- 
ing that heavy wagons had recently gone over it. Fences were 
frequently down or missing, and two or three heaps of blackened 
ruins, surmounted by solitary chimneys, denoted that the torch 
had done some destructive work, d he next day, in passing 
through Monticello, I saw the charred remains of the county 
jail, but the signs of conflagration were surprisingly few. 

“ The family with whom we spent the night had had the 
strange experience of being for a while in the midst of an en¬ 
camped army. The soldiers, they informed us, had swarmed 
about them like bees, but had behaved as well as soldiers com¬ 
monly do. The planter’s horses and cattle had been freely ap¬ 
propriated, and as much of his corn and vegetables as were 
needed ; but there was no complaint of violence or rudeness, and 
an ample supply of the necessaries of life was left for his house¬ 
hold. Indeed, from my observations in this trip across the line 
of Sherman s march, that march, so far from having been sig¬ 
nalized by wanton destruction, was decidedly merciful. No 
doubt bummers and camp followers committed many atrocities, 
but the progress of the army proper was attended by no unusual 
incidents of severity. The year had been one of exceptional 
bounty, and there was no want in Sherman’s rear. Such was 
the plenty that I believe he might have retraced his steps and 
subsisted his army on the country. 

“ On reaching Madison we found 
die place substantially intact. Not 
.1 house had been destroyed, not a 
citizen harmed or insulted. The 
greatest sufferers from the invasion 
were the turkeys and chickens. The 
country was thickly strewn with the 
feathers of these slaughtered inno¬ 
cents. When I expressed to a friend 
some doubt as to Sherman’s ability 
to reach the sea, he replied, ‘If you 
had been here and seen the sort of 
men composing his cohorts, you 
would not question that they could 
go wherever they had a mind to.’ 

“ Our life between the time of 
Sherman’s march and Lee’s surren¬ 
der, with the scenes and incidents 
that attended and followed that sur¬ 
render, was as strange and abnormal 
as a bad dream. We had, indeed, an 
abundance of the necessary articles 
of food and clothing. I have hardly ever lived in more physical 
comfort than during the last year of the war. The few fowls 
that had escaped the voracious appetites of the invaders soon 
provided a fresh supply of chickens and eggs. Coffee at twenty- 
five dollars a pound (Confederate money), and sugar at not much 
less cost, were attainable, and I managed to keep a fair supply 
of them for my little family. But though our physical condi¬ 
tions were tolerable, life was subject to a painful strain of uncer¬ 
tainty and anxiety, relieved only by the conviction that the 
war, of which all were weary and sick unto death, was nearly 
over. When the end came, confusion was confounded in a 
jumble so bewildering as scarcely to be credited with reality. 
The town streets and country roads were full of negroes, wan¬ 
dering about idle and aimless, going they knew not whither—a 
pitiful spectacle of enfranchised slaves dazed by their recent 


of the city. Here he found a force, under Gen. John M. Schofield, 
which was easily flanked by crossing the river, whereupon Scho¬ 
field fell back to Franklin, on Harpeth River, eighteen miles from 
Nashville, intrenched a line south and west of the town, with 
both flanks resting on bends of the river, and got his artillery 
and trains across the stream, placing the guns where they could 
play upon any attacking force. Schofield had about twenty-five 
thousand men, and Hood over forty thousand. In the afternoon 
of November 30 the attack was made. Schofield’s rear guard, 
consisting of Wagner’s brigade, instead of falling back to the 
main body, as ordered, so as to permit the fire of the whole line 
to be poured into the advancing enemy, attempted to withstand 
the Confederate onset. Of course it was quickly swept back, 


* Atlantic Monthly for October, 1889. 














(FROM A GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPH.) 

























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


420 


and as the men rushed in confusion into the lines they were 
closely followed by the enemy, who captured a portion of the 
intrenchments. From a part of the line thus seized they were 
driven in turn, but they clung tenaciously to the remainder, and 
Schofield established a new line a few rods in the rear. 

Hood’s orders to his corps and division commanders were 
that they were to drive the National army into Harpeth River, 
while Forrest’s cavalry was to cross the river above, sweep down 
upon the trains, and destroy or capture whatever remnant should 
have succeeded in crossing the stream. General Schofield did 
not believe that the attack upon so strong a position would be 
made in front ; he looked for a flank movement, and accordingly 
when the battle took place, he was on the north side of the river 
making arrangements for an adequate means of crossing in case 
of such movement. But he gave Hood credit for more general¬ 
ship than he ever possessed. Hood never seemed to have a 
conception of any method of conducting a battle except by 
driving his men straight up against the guns and intrenchments 
of the enemy. In this instance, although he possessed an 
abundance of artillery, only two batteries were with him. Scho¬ 
field’s line was about a mile and a half long, running through the 
suburbs of the little town which lay in the bend of the river. 
The town was approached by three roads, from the southeast, 
south, and southwest, and along these converging roads Hood 
pushed the twenty-two thousand men that he brought into the 
fight. The immediate commander on the field of the National 
forces was Gen. Jacob D. Cox, who showed himself a masterly 
tactician and inspiring leader. The works were well planned 
and very strong, and as the reckless Hood pushed his doomed 
men up against them they were swept down by front-fire and 
cross-fire, musketry and artillery, in ghastly heaps along the 
whole line. When the advanced line was driven back and the 
centre temporarily broken, the exultant Confederates imagined 
they were to have everything their own way; and as their 



BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOSEPH W. FISHER. 


divisions 
came in on 
-gi»g 
lines they 
were crowd- 
edtogetherin 



great masses, 
t h r o u g h 
which the fire 
of the arti 1- 
1 e r y from 
right and left, 
as well as the 
m u s k e t r y , 
played with 
terrible ef¬ 
fect. Two 
c o m p a n i e s 
of one Ken¬ 
tucky regi¬ 
ment were 
armed with 
repeating 
rifles, and 
their fire 
alone was 
equal to that 

of five hundred ordinary infantrymen. A participant describing 
the scene at this time says: “ From Stiles’s and Casement’s bri¬ 
gades a blaze of fire leaped from the breastworks and played 
so incessantly that it appeared to those who saw it as if it had 
formed a solid plane upon which a man might walk ; ” and a 
Confederate staff officer describes it as “ a continuous living 
fringe of flame.” Lieutenant Speed, of the Twelfth Kentucky 
Regiment, says : “ The artillery in the line played incessantly, 
hurling double charges of grape over the field. From Casement 
and Stiles to the left there was an unabated roar of musketry, 
which now was continued with intensified fury along Reilly’s 
line up to the pike, and swelled with terrific grandeur along the 
front all the way to Carter’s Creek pike. Along Reilly’s line it 
was a desperate hand-to-hand conflict. Sometimes it seemed 
that the masses of the assailants would overwhelm all opposi¬ 
tion. The struggle was across and over the breastworks. The 
standards of both armies were upon them at the same time. 
Muskets flashed in men’s faces. Officers fought with the men, 
musket in hand. The Confederates were at a disadvantage on 


CAPTAIN JOSEPH B. FORAKER. 
(Afterward Governor of Ohio.) 


blinding 


account of the ditch 
cross under the 
fused, they, who had 
tory, could now only 


outside the works, which they could not 
storm of lead. Bewildered and con- 
a moment before shouted the cry of vic- 
receive death and destruction in the most 
appalling form. In this immediate front the Confederate loss 
was heavier than at any other point. Here Cleburne fell, almost 
up to the works ; also Cranberry and Quarles. The ditch out 
side the works was filled with killed and wounded men. Con¬ 
federate officers who witnessed their removal next morning have 
stated that in places they were piled five deep.” The Confeder¬ 
ates made in rapid succession so many charges against the new 
line of works where they had broken the first line, that witnesses 
differed as to their number. Some counted fourteen, and none 
counted fewer than ten. But all were in vain. In this action the 
National troops expended a hundred wagon loads of ammunition, 
and as the smoke did not rise readily it seemed as if the darkness 














430 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


of night were coming on prematurely. No doubt this circum¬ 
stance contributed largely to the terrible losses of the Confeder¬ 
ates. Forrest’s cavalry, which was expected to cross the river and 
capture Schofield’s trains, did not accomplish anything. The 
reason given for its inaction was lack of ammunition. In this 
brief and bloody encounter Hood lost more than one-third of his 
men engaged. His killed numbered one thousand seven hundred 
and fifty. The number of his wounded can only be computed, 
but it is not probable that they were fewer than seven thousand. 
Major Sanders, of the Confederate army, estimates the loss in 
two of the brigades at sixty-five per cent. These losses included 
Major-Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne and Brig.-Gcns. John Adams, 
Oscar F. Strahl, S. R. Gist, and H. B. Granberry, all killed ; also 
six general officers wounded and one captured ; and more than 
thirty colonels and lieutenant-colonels were killed or wounded. 
Schofield lost two thousand five hundred men, and his army took 
seven hundred prisoners and thirty-three stands of colors. At 
midnight Schofield crossed the river and retreated to Nashville. 
Hood followed him, and there confronted the whole of Thomas’s 
army. Schofield has been criticised for thus retreating after his 
victory ; but if he had remained at Franklin the conditions for a 
battle the next day would have been materially changed. Hood 
brought up all his artillery in the night, intending to open upon 
the works in the morning, and it is not probable that Forrest’s 
vigorous cavalry would have remained inactive another day. 


Everybody complained of Thomas’s slowness, and he was in 
imminent danger of being superseded ; but he would not assume 
the offensive till he felt that his army was prepared to make sure 
work. When all was ready, he still had to delay because of bad 
weather; but on the 15th of December (one day after Sherman 
reached the sea) the long-meditated blow was given. Thomas’s 
army advanced against Hood’s, striking it simultaneously in 
front and on the left flank. The weight of the attack fell upon 
the flank, which was completely crushed, and a part of the 
intrenchments with their guns fell into the hands of the National 
forces. In the night Hood retreated a mile or two, to another 
line on the hills, made some new dispositions, and awaited 
attack. He was seriously embarrassed by the absence of a large 
part of Forrest’s cavalry, which should have been protecting his 
flanks. In the afternoon of the 16th, Thomas, having sent Wil¬ 
son’s cavalry around the enemy’s left flank, attacked with his 
whole force. He made no headway against Hood’s right, but 
again he crushed the left flank, and followed up the advantage 
so promptly and vigorously that all organization in the Confed¬ 
erate army was lost, and what was left of it fled in wild confusion 
toward Franklin, pursued by Wilson’s cavalry. Thomas cap¬ 
tured all their artillery and took forty-five hundred prisoners. 
The number of their killed and wounded was never reported. 
His own loss was about three thousand. Brig.-Gen. Sylvester 
G. Hill was among the killed. 



SHERMAN'S FORAGERS ON A GEORGIA PLANTATION. 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


43 i 



CHAPTER XLII. 

MINOR EVENTS OF THE FOURTH YEAR. 

DESPERATE CONDITION OF THE CONFEDERACY-THE EXPORTATION 

OF COTTON, TOBACCO, AND SUGAR PROHIBITED— THE THREAT¬ 
ENED SECESSION OF NORTH CAROLINA FROM THE CONFEDERACY — 
SWEEPING CONSCRIPTION ACTS—FORCES UNDER GENERAL BUTLER 
ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE RICHMOND—NUMEROUS MINOR ENGAGE¬ 
MENTS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY—BATTLE BETWEEN CAV¬ 
ALRY FORCES AT TREVILIAN STATION-PLYMOUTH, X. C., CAP¬ 

TURED BY THE CONFEDERATES BLACK. FLAG RAISED AND 

NEGRO PRISONERS SHOT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RAM 

“ALBEMARLE” BY A FORCE UNDER LIEUTENANT CUSHING 

-DEFEAT OF FEDERAL FORCE AT OLUSTEE- 

ENGAGEMENTS AT DAND RIDGE AND FAIR GAR 

DENS, TENN.-OPERATIONS IN LOUISIANA 

AND MISSISSIPPI. 

WITH the dawn of the fourth year of 
the war the statesmen and journalists 
of the Confederacy showed by their 
utterances that they knew how des¬ 
perate were its straits, and how much 
its prospects had waned since the vic¬ 
tories of the first and second years. 

The Richmond Whig said: “ The ut¬ 
most nerve, the firmest front, the most 
undaunted courage, will be required dur¬ 
ing the coming twelve months from all 
who are charged with the management of 
affairs in our country, or whose position 
gives them any influence in forming or 
guiding public sentiment.” The Wil¬ 
mington (X. C.) Journal said : “ Moral 
courage, the power to resist the ap¬ 
proaches of despondency, and the fac¬ 
ulty of communicating this power to 
others, will need greatly to be called 
into exercise; for we have reached 
that point in our revolution—which 
is inevitably reached in all revolu¬ 
tions—when gloom and depression 
take the place of hope and enthu¬ 
siasm, when despair is 
fatal, and despondency is 
even more to be 
dreaded 
than defeat. 

W hetlier 
a crisis be 
upon us or 
not, there 
can be in 
the mind 
of no one, 
who looks 
at the map 
of Georgia 
and consid¬ 
ers her geo- 
graphical 


A FEDERAL SIGNAL STATION NEAR WASHINGTON. 


relations to the rest of the Confederacy, a single doubt that 
much of our future is involved in the result of the next spring 
campaign in upper Georgia.” The Confederate Congress passed, 
in secret session, a bill to prohibit exportation of cotton, tobacco, 
naval stores, molasses, sugar, or rice, and one to prohibit impor¬ 
tation of luxuries into the Confederacy, both of which bills were 
promptly signed by Mr. Davis. At Huntsville, Ala., a meeting 
of citizens was held, at which resolutions were passed deprecating 
the action of the South, and calling upon the Government to con¬ 
vene the legislature, that it might call a convention to provide 
some mode for the restoration of peace and the rights and liber¬ 
ties of the people. The legislature of Georgia, in March, adopted 
resolutions, declaring that the Confederate Government ought, 
after every success of the Confederate arms, to make to the 
United States Government an official offer to treat 
for peace. The Richmond Examiner said : “ Peo¬ 
ple and army, one soul and one body, feel 
alike, in their inmost hearts, that when the 
clash comes it will be a struggle for life 
or death. So far we feel sure of the 
issue. All else is mystery and uncer¬ 
tainty. Where the first blow will fall, 
when the two armies of Northern 
Virginia meet each other face to face, 
how Grant will try to hold his own 
against the master-spirit of Lee, we 
cannot yet surmise; but it is clear to 
the experienced eye that the approach¬ 
ing campaign will bring into action two 
new elements not known hereto¬ 
fore in militarv history, which 
may not unlikely decide the fate 
of the gigantic crusade. The 
enemy will array against us 
his new iron-clads by sea and 
his colored troops by land.” 
In the western districts of 
North Carolina the execu¬ 
tion of the Confederate 
conscription law created 
great excitement, and sev¬ 
eral public meetings were 
held to consider the ac¬ 
tion of separating from 
the Confederacy and 
returning to the 
Union. The Ra¬ 
leigh Standard de¬ 
clared boldly, that, if the 
measures proposed by 
the Confederate Govern¬ 
ment were carried 
out, the people of 
North Carolina 
would take their af¬ 
fairs into their own 
hands and proceed, 
in convention as¬ 
sembled, to vindi¬ 
cate their liberties 
and privileges. 

As the war pro- 










CHARGE OF CONFEDERATE CAVALRY AT TREVILIAN STATION, VIRGINIA. 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


433 


gressed, and the Confederate armies were depleted by the casu¬ 
alties of battle and the illness attendant upon the hardships of 
the camp, the conscription became more sweeping, and at last it 
was made to embrace every man in the Confederacy between 
eighteen and forty-five years of age. This almost emptied the 
colleges, until some of them reduced the age of admission to 
sixteen years, when the)' were rapidly filled up again. But even 
these boys were held subject to military call in case of necessity, 
and in some of the battles of the last year cadets of the Virginia 
Military Institute took part, and many of them were killed. 
Another noticeable effect was the diminution in the number of 
small and detached military operations, because the waning re¬ 
sources of the Confederacy were concentrated more and more 
in its principal armies. 

On the first day of the year a detachment of seventy-five men, 
commanded by Major Henry A. Cole, being on the scout near 
Harper’s Ferry, suddenly encountered, near Rectortown, a por¬ 
tion of General Rosser's Confederate command, and a stubborn 
fight ensued. The result was that fifty-seven of Cole’s men were 
either killed or captured, and the remainder made their escape. 
Two days later a Confederate force, under Gen. Sam Jones, sud¬ 
denly attacked an Illinois regiment, commanded by Major Beers, 
near Jonesville, and after a desperate fight compelled them to 
surrender. 

On the 6th of February, an expedition, organized by General 
Butler for the purpose of dashing into Richmond and releasing 
the prisoners there, marched from Yorktown by way of Xew- 
Kent Court House. They failed in their purpose to surprise the 
enemy at Bottom’s Bridge, where they were to cross the Chicka- 
hominy, because, as a Richmond newspaper said, “ a Yankee 
deserter gave information in Richmond of the intended move¬ 
ment.” The Confederates had felled a great number of trees 
across the roads and made it impossible for the cavalry to pass. 
There was great consternation in Richmond, however, and in 
the evening of the 7th the bells were rung, and men rushed 
through the streets crying, “To arms, to arms! the Yankees are 
coming.” The home guard was called out, and the women and 
children ran about seeking places of safety. 

Early in May, General Crook, with about seven thousand 
men, moving from the mouth of New River through Raleigh 
Court House and Princeton toward Newbern, met a Confed¬ 
erate force, under Albert G. Jenkins, on Cloyd’s Mountain, on 
the gth. In the engagement that ensued, the Confederates were 
defeated and General Jenkins was killed. The next day a cavalry 
force under General Averell was met at Crockett’s Cove by one 
under General Morgan, and was defeated. General Crook, after 
the battle of Cloyd’s Mountain, destroyed the bridge over New 
River and a considerable section of the Virginia and Tennessee 
railroad. 

On the 15th of May, General Sigel’s force in the Shenandoah 
Valley being in the northern outskirts of the town of New¬ 
market, General Breckenridge moved up from the south to 
attack him. The town is divided by a ravine running at right 
angles to the Shenandoah, and in the beginning the contest was 
mainly an artillery battle, both sides firing over the town. Then 
General Breckenridge’s cavalry, with one or two batteries, made 
a detour to the right, and obtained a position on a hill where 
they could enfilade the left of Sigel’s line, and drove back his 
cavalry on that wing. At the same time Breckenridge advanced 
his infantry and pushed back Sigel’s whole line about half a mile. 
Later in the day, repeating the same tactics, he pushed Sigel back 
a mile farther, but did not accomplish this without severe fight¬ 


ing. One notable incident was the capture”of an unsupported 
battery on the right of Sigel's line, which had been playing with 
terrible effect upon Breckenridge’s left. One regiment of veter¬ 
ans and the cadets of the Military Institute were sent to capture 
it, which they did at terrible cost. Of the five hundred and 
fifty men in the regiment, two hundred and forty-one were either 
killed or wounded, nearly all of them falling in the last three 
hundred yards before they reached the battery. Of the two 
hundred and twenty-five boys from the Institute, fifty-four were 
killed or wounded. When night fell, Sigel crossed the river and 
burned the bridge behind him. General Imboden, who com¬ 
manded Breckenridge’s cavalry in this action, says: “ If Sigel had 
beaten Breckenridge, General Lee could not have spared the men 
to check his progress (as he did that of Hunter, a month later) 
without exposing Richmond to immediate and almost inevitable 
capture. The necessities of General Lee were such that on the 
day after the battle he ordered Breckenridge to join him near 
Richmond with the brigades of Echols and Wharton.” 

Early in June General Sheridan was sent out with the cavalry 
of the Army of the Potomac, about eight thousand strong, to 
strike the Virginia Central Railroad near Charlotteville, where it 
was expected he would meet the force under General Hunter 
moving through the Shenandoah Valley. He intended to break 
the main line at Trevilian Station, and the Lvnchburg branch 
at Charlotteville. He encountered the enemy’s cavalry near 
Trevilian Station on the morning of the nth. Sending Custer’s 
brigade to the left, and Torbert with the remainder of his divis¬ 
ion to the right, Sheridan moved directly forward with his main 
body. The enemy was found dismounted in the edge of the 
forest, his line stretching across the road. Sheridan’s men also 
dismounted, and promptly attacked. Sharp fighting ensued, 
in the course of which the enemy was driven back two miles 
with a heavy loss. Williston's battery was then brought up, 
and with great skill sent its shells into the mass of fleeing Con¬ 
federates, whose retreat was turned into a wild rout. A portion 
of the defeated force, retreating toward Louisa Court House, was 
struck by Custer’s brigade, which defeated them, and captured 
about three hundred and fifty men. But a little later Fitz Lee’s 
Confederate cavalry came up in the rear of Custer, and captured 
his wagon-train and headquarters baggage. One of his guns 
also was captured, but was recaptured in a charge that he led in 
person. Custer and his whole command came so near being 
captured when the enemy closed around them, that, when his 
color-bearer was killed, he tore the flag from the staff and hid it 
in his bosom. That night the remainder of the enemy retired 
toward Gordonsville. The next day Sheridan’s men destroyed 
about five miles of the railroad. In the afternoon Torbert ad¬ 
vanced toward Gordonsville, and found the Confederates in 
position across the railroad, facing east. Here they attacked 
them again, chiefly on their left wing, and again bringing forward 
Williston’s battery, punished them severely, but not so as to 
drive them from their position before dark. In these actions 
Sheridan lost about six hundred men. The Confederate loss is 
not fully known, but it was probably larger. Sheridan now 
learned that Hunter would not conclude to meet him, and that 
he was likely instead to encounter Ewell’s corps. He therefore 
turned back, and recrossed the North Anna. 

Plymouth, N. C., had been held for some months by a garrison 
of sixteen hundred men, under General Wessells, when it was 
attacked on April 17, 1864, by the Confederate General Hoke, 
with about five thousand men. Skirmishing and artillery firing 
began early in the morning, and very soon the National camps 


434 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAMS C. WICKHAM, C 

were riddled by shot from the guns 
The skirmishers retired within their 
works, and the Confederates pressed 
up to these in heavy masses, and were 
shot down in great numbers. One of 
the forts, which stood some distance 
in front of the general line of for¬ 
tifications, was supplied with hand 
grenades, and these were used with 
great effect. But at last this work 
was captured. The next day the 
attack was renewed, and a most gallant 
defence was made. General Hoke, who had been 
promised a promotion in case of his capturing the place, was 
determined to do it at whatever cost. Three times he demanded its sur¬ 
render, and three times he was refused, when he said : “ I will fill your 
citadel full of iron ; I will compel your surrender if I have to fight to the 
last man.” It is doubtful, however, if he would have succeeded but for the 
assistance of the ram Albemarle , which came down the river and got into 
the rear of the National position. Lieutenant Blakeslee, of the Sixteenth 
Connecticut Regiment, says : “ There was a force of five or six thousand 
in line about six hundred yards in front of our works. At this hour a 
rocket was sent up as the signal for the attack, and a more furious charge 
we never witnessed. Instantly over our heads came a peal of thunder from 
the ram. Up rose a curling wreath of smoke—the batteries had opened, 
and quickly flashed fierce forks of flame—loud and earth-shaking roars in 
quick succession. Lines of men came forth from the woods—the battle 
had begun. We on the skirmish line fell back and entered Coneby re¬ 
doubt, properly barred the gates and manned the works. The enemy, 
with yells, charged on the works in heavy column, jumped into the ditch, 
climbed the parapet, and for fifteen murderous minutes were shot down 
like mown grass. The conflict was bloody, short, and decisive. The enemy 


were in such numbers that we had to yield. The gate had been crushed down 
by a rebel shot, and the enemy poured in, to the number of five or six hundred, 
with thousands on the outside. Great confusion then ensued; guns were 
spiked, musket barrels bent, and all sorts of mischief practised by the Union 
soldiers, while the enemy were swearing at a terrible rate because we would not 
take off equipments and inform them if the guns could be turned on the town, 
and in trying to reorganize their troops, who were badly mixed, to take the next 
work. We were prisoners, and as we marched out of the fort, we could see at 
what a fearful cost it was to them. Of the eighty-two men in this fort, but one 
was wounded.” The Confederates then worked their way from one redoubt to 
another, each of which was obstinately defended, but finally captured, until all 
were taken, and Plymouth was theirs. Lieutenant Blakeslee says: “ The rebels 
raised the black flag against the negroes found in uniform, and mercilessly shot 
them down. The shooting in cold blood of three or four hundred negroes and 
two companies of North Carolina troops, who had joined our army, and even 
murdering peaceable citizens, were scenes of which the Confederates make no 
mention, except the hanging of one person, but of which many of us were eye¬ 
witnesses.” The loss of the garrison in the fight ing was fifteen killed and 
about one hundred wounded. The Confederate loss is not 
mown, but it appears to have been well 
two thousand. 

When the iron-clad ram Albemarle 
came down the Roanoke to assist 
General Hoke in the capture of Ply¬ 
mouth, she not only bombarded the 
garrison, but attacked the National flo¬ 
tilla there and destroyed or scattered it. 
She wrecked the Southfield by ramming, 
and when the wooden gunboat Miami 
gallantly stood up to the work and fired 


ex- 


S- A. 








111 


gh 








PRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN D. IMBODEN, C. S. A, 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


435 




its broadsides against 
her iron walls, the shot 
simply rebounded or 
rolled off, and one of 
these returning shots 
struck and killed 
Lieut. C. W. Flusser 
who was in command 
of the Miama. 

In the autumn, 

Lieut. William B. 

Cushing, of the Unit¬ 
ed States navy, who 
had performed many 
gallant exploits, and 
whose brother was 
killed beside his gun 
at Gettysburg, formed 
a plan for the destruc¬ 
tion of the Albemarle. 

He obtained the 
sanction of his supe¬ 
rior officer for the ex¬ 
periment, which Cushing himself considered so hazardous that he 
asked leave to make a visit to his home before carrying it out. 
On his return he fitted up an open launch about thirty feet 
long with a small engine, a twelve-pound howitzer in the bow, 
and a boom fourteen feet long swinging at the bow by a hinge. 
This boom carried a torpedo at the end, so arranged that it 
could be lowered into the water, pushed under a vessel, and then 
detached from the boom before being exploded. With fifteen 
picked men in this little craft, in the night of October 27th, 
Cushing steamed off in the darkness and found the ram at her 
mooring at Plymouth. When he drew near he was discovered 
and sharply chal¬ 
lenged, whereupon 
he ordered on all 
steam and steered 
straight for the 
ram. He was fired 
upon, but in the 
darkness the shot 
failed of its 
mark. I hen a 
large fire was 
lighted on the 
bank, and this 
revealed to him 
the fact that 
the Albeviarle 
was protected 
by a circle or 
boom of logs. 

Without hesi¬ 
tation , he 
drew back 
about a hun¬ 
dred yards, 
and then un¬ 
der full head¬ 
way drove 
straight at 


them, trusting to 
make his launch slip 
over them into the 
enclosed space where 
the ram lay. In this 
he was successful. By 
this time the crew of 
the ram were thor¬ 
oughly alarmed, and 
as Cushing stood on 
the bow with the ex¬ 
ploding line in his 
hand he could hear 
every word of com¬ 
mand on the ram, and 
his clothing was per¬ 
forated with bullets. 
He now ordered the 
boom to be lowered 
until the motion of 
the launch pushed the 
torpedo under the 
ram’s overhang. 
Then he pulled the detaching line, and, after waiting a little for 
the torpedo to rise in the water and rest under the hull, he pulled 
the exploding line. The result to the ram was that a hole was 
torn in her hull which caused her to keel over and sink. At 
the same instant a discharge of grape shot from one of her 
guns tore the launch to pieces, and a large part of the mass 
of water that was lifted by the torpedo came down upon her 
little crew. Cushing commanded his men to save themselves, 
and throwing off his sword, revolver, shoes, and coat, jumped 
into the water and swam for the opposite shore. Making his 
way through swamps, and finding a skiff, Lieutenant Cushing at 
last, almost exhausted, reached the National fleet. One of his 

crew also escaped, 
two were drowned, 
and the remain¬ 
der were cap¬ 
tured. The Al¬ 
bemarle was of no 
further use. 

During the 
early days of the 
year a constant 
fire was kept up 
upon Charles¬ 
ton, and some¬ 
times as many 
as twenty 
shells, loaded 
with Greek 
fire, were 
thrown into 
the city in a 
day. The 
Charles t o n 
Courier said : 
“ The dam¬ 
age being 
done is ex¬ 
traordinarily 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID McM- GREGG AND STAFF. 


MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE 


CROOK. 


BRIGADIER 


.GENERAL CHARLES T. 


EWING. 










43<> 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




small in comparison with the number of shot and weight of 
metal fired. The whizzing of shells overhead has become a 
matter of so little interest as to excite scarcely any attention 
from passers-by.” 

In Savannah, April i/th, there was a riot of women who 
marched through the streets in procession, demanding bread or 
blood, many of them carrying arms. They seized food wherever 
they could find it. After a time soldiers were called out, and 
the leaders of the riot were arrested and put into jail. 

Early in February, Gen. Truman Seymour, by order of Gen¬ 
eral Gillmore, left Hilton Head with five thousand five hundred 
men for Jacksonville, Fla., accompanied by five gunboats under 
Admiral Dahlgren. The object of the expedition was to pene¬ 
trate the country west of Jacksonville for the purpose of making 
an outlet for cotton and lumber, cutting off one source of the 
enemy’s supplies, obtaining recruits for black regiments, and 
taking measures to protect any citizens who might be disposed 
to bring the State back into the Union. It was unfortunate 
that the immediate commander of the expedition, General 
Seymour, did not altogether believe in its objects. Marching 
inland, he dispersed some small detachments of Confederate 
soldiers and captured some guns. He then pushed forward for 
Suwanee River to destroy the bridges and the railroad, and 
prevent communication between East and West Florida. Mean¬ 
while the Confederate general, Joseph Finegan, had been collect¬ 
ing troops to oppose the expedition, concentrating them at Lake 
City, and got together a force about equal to Seymour’s. On 
the 20th of February Seymour moved out from his camp on St. 


Mary’s River to engage 
the enemv, who threw 
forward some troops to rear-admiral john a. dahlgren. 

meet him. They met 

near Olustee, and a battle ensued, which was fought on level 
ground largely covered with open pine forests. Seymour massed 
his artillery in the centre, and opened from it a fierce fire which 
was very effective. He then endeavored to push forth his infan¬ 
try on both flanks, and at the same time the whole Confederate 
line was advanced. The Seventh New Hampshire and Eighth 
United States colored regiment, being subjected to a very severe 
fire, gave way. The fire of the Confederates was then concen¬ 
trated largely on the artillery, and so many men and horses fell 
in the short time that five of the guns had to be abandoned. 
The Confederate reserves were then brought up to a point where 
they could put in a cross-fire on the National right, and at the 
same time the whole Confederate line was advanced again. The 
National line now slowly gave way, and at length was in full re¬ 
treat ; but there was no pursuit. The Confederate loss was nine 
hundred and forty men ; the National loss was one thousand eight 
hundred and sixty-one. 

An escort of eight hundred men, who had charge of the 
wagon train with commissary stores for the garrison at Peters¬ 
burg, was suddenly attacked, January 29th, near Williamsport, 
by several detachments of Confederates who rushed in from 
different directions. There was a stubborn fight, which lasted 
from three o’clock in the afternoon until dark. When at last 
the Confederates, after several repulses, succeeded, they had lost 
about one hundred men killed and wounded, and the Nationals 
had lost eighty. 

On the 17th of January, a Confederate force made a sudden 
and determined assault upon the National lines near Dandridge, 
Tenn. But the Nationals, though surprised, stubbornly stood 
their ground, and a division of cavalry under Col. D. N. McCook 
charged the enemy and decided the fate of the conquest. The 
National loss in this affair was about one hundred and fifty men, 
nearly half of which fell upon the First Wisconsin Regiment. 

A body of National cavalry, commanded by General Sturgis, 
attacked the Confederate force on January 27th, near Fair 
Gardens, ten miles east of Sevierville. The fight lasted from 
daylight until four o’clock in the afternoon, the Confederates 
being slowly pushed back, when finally the National cavalry 
drew their sabres and charged with a yell, completely routing 


BREVET BRIGADiER-GENERAL 
GUY V. HENRY. 


UNION TRANSPORT ON THE SUWANEE RIVES. 

























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


*3; 



STURGIS. 


GENERAL 


the enemy, and capturing two guns and more than one hundred 
prisoners. 

Early in February, a detachment of the Seventh Indiana 
Regiment entered Bolivar under the supposition that it was still 
occupied by National troops, and were surprised to find there a 
large detachment of Confederates. When they learned that 
these were Mississippi troops, the Indianians, shouting, “ Remem¬ 
ber Jeff Davis, made a furious attack and drove out the Con¬ 
federates in confusion, killing, wounded, or capturing a large 
number of them. 

At Powell’s River bridge, February 22d, there was an engage¬ 
ment between five hundred Confederates and two companies of 
the Thirty-fourth Kentucky infantry. The Confederates made 
four successful charges upon the bridge, and were 
repelled every time. Finally 
they were driven off, leaving 
many horses, arms, saddles, 
etc., on the field. A partici¬ 
pant says : “ The attack was 


ments, which were successively overtaken and defeated by Col¬ 
onel Andrews. At Fitzhugh's Woods, however, a large force 
of the enemy was concentrated, and attacked Colonel Andrews's 
men in a sharp fight that lasted more than two hours. Andrews 
took a good position, and thwarted every effort of the enemy to 
carry it or flank it, when at last they gave up and retired. He 
lost about thirty men, and estimated the enemy’s loss at a 
hundred. 

In the middle of February, the Confederates made a deter¬ 
mined attempt to capture the fort at Waterproof, La. First, 
about eight hundred cavalry drove in the pickets and assaulted 
the garrison, who might have been overcome but for the assist¬ 
ance of the gunboat Forest Rose, Captain Johnson, which with 
its rapid fire sent many shells into the ranks of the Con¬ 
federates, and after a time drove them away. This proceed¬ 
ing was repeated later in the day with the same result. 
Next day the Confederates, largely reinforced, tried it again. 
Before the fight was over the ram Switzerland arrived and 
took part in it, and the result was the same as on the pre¬ 
vious day. 


> 






L m 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL W L. McMILLEN. 


On they came in a 
steady solid column, 
covered by the fire of their infantry. In a moment the Nationals 
saw their perilous position, and Lieutenant Slater called for a 
volunteer to tear up the boards and prevent their crossing. 
There was some hesitation, and in a moment all would have 
been lost had not William Goss leaped from the intrenchments, 
and running to the bridge, under the fire of about four hundred 
guns, thrown ten boards off into the river, and returned unhurt. 
This prevented the capture of the whole force.” 

Shelby’s Confederate force was attacked on January 19th at 
a point on the Monticello Railroad, twenty miles from Pine 
Bluff, by a National force under Colonel Clayton, which in 
course of two hours drove the Confederates seven miles and 
completely routed them. Clayton’s men had marched sixty 
miles in twenty-four hours. 

An expedition commanded by Col. C. C. Andrews of the 
Third Minnesota infantry ascended White River and marched 
thirty miles to Augusta, from which place he set out April 1st 
in search of a Confederate force under Colonel McCrae. It 
proved that McCrae’s forces were divided into scattered detach 


BRIGADIER 


made by the infantry, 
while the cavalry pre¬ 
pared for a charge. The 
cavalrv was soon in line 




A: 






m 




moving on the bridge. 


SLAVES GOING TO JOIN THE FEDERAL ARMY. 





















“THE COUNTERSIGN.” 

‘Halt! Who goes there?’ My challenge cry, ‘Relief!’ I hear a voice reply. 

It rings along the watchful line; ‘Advance and give the Countersign! 









CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


439 




terR'' 


wM OR-G^ ER * L 


M_FRfc° 


CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE FINAL BATTLES. 

SHERMAN MARCHES THROUGH THE CAROLINAS-JOHNSTON RESTORED 

TO COMMAND—COLUMBIA BURNED-CHARLESTON EVACUATED- 

CAPTURE OF FORT FISHER—BATTLE OF AVERYSBORO-BATTLE 

OF BENTONVILLE—SCHOFIELD JOINS SHERMAN-A PEACE CON¬ 

FERENCE—BATTLE OF WAYNESBORO—SHERIDAN’S RAID ON THE 
UPPER JAMES—LEE PLANS TO ESCAPE—FIGHTING BEFORE 

PETERSBURG-BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS—LEE’S LINES BROKEN— 

RICHMOND EVACUATED—LEE’S RETREAT-HIS SURRENDER- 

GRANT’S GENEROUS TERMS—SURRENDER OF THE OTHER CON¬ 
FEDERATE ARMIES. 

After Sherman’s army had marched through Georgia and 
captured Savannah, he and General Grant at first contemplated 
removing it by water to the James, and placing it where it could 
act in immediate connection with the Army of the Potomac 
against Petersburg and Richmond. But several considerations 
soon led to a different plan. One was, the difficulty of getting 
together enough transports to carry sixty-five thousand men and 
all their equipage without too much delay. A still stronger one 
was the fact that in a march through the Carolinas General Sher¬ 
man’s army could probably do more to help Grant’s and bring 
the war to a speedy close than if it were suddenly set down be¬ 
side it in Virginia. The question of supplies, always a vital one 
for an army, had become very serious in the military affairs of the 
Confederacy. The trans-Mississippi region had been cut off long 
ago, the blockade of the seaports had been growing more strin¬ 
gent, Sheridan had desolated the Shenandoah Valley, Sherman 
had eaten out the heart of Georgia. And now if that same army, 
with its increased experience and confidence, should go through 
South and North Carolina, living on the country, Lee’s position 
in the defences of Richmond would soon become untenable 
for mere lack of something for his army to eat. Sherman’s mili¬ 
tary instinct never failed him ; and, after tarrying at Savannah 
three weeks, he gathered up his forces for another stride toward 


A BOMB PROOF, FORT FISHER. 


the final victory. 
Turning over the 
city on January 18, 
1865, to Gen. John 
G. Foster, who was 
in command on the 
coast, he issued 
orders on the 19th 
for the movement of 
his whole army. 

The right wing 
was concentrated at 
Pocotaligo, about 
forty miles north of 
Savannah, and the 
left at Robertsville, 
twenty miles west of 
Pocotaligo. After 
some delay caused 
by the weather and 
the necessity for 
final preparations, 

the northward march was begun on the 1st of February. Slier- 
man had sent out rumors that represented both Charleston and 
Augusta as his immediate goal ; but instead of turning aside for 
either of those cities, he pushed straight northward, on a route 
midway between them, toward Columbia. 

This march, though not so romantic as that through Georgia, 
where a great army was for several weeks hidden from all its 
friends, was really much more difficult and dangerous, and re¬ 
quired greater skill. In the march from Atlanta to the sea, the 
army moved parallel with the courses of the rivers, and found 
highways between them that it was not easy for any but a large 
force to obstruct or destroy. But in the march through the 
Carolinas, all the streams, and some of them were rivers, had to 
be crossed. A single man could burn a bridge and stop an army 
for several hours. Moreover, after the disasters that befell Gen¬ 
eral Hood at Franklin and Nashville, public sentiment in the 
Confederacy had demanded the reinstatement of Gen. Joseph 
E. Johnston, and that able soldier had been placed in command 
of whatever 
remained of 
Hood’s army, 
to which were 
added all the 
scattered de¬ 
tachments and 
garrisons that 
were available, 
and with this 
force he took 
the field against 
his old antago¬ 
nist. Of course 
he was not able 
now to meet 
Sherman in 
anything like a 
pitched battle ; 
but there was 
no telling how 

a sudden blow brevet major-general n. m. curtis. 













440 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL ADELBERT AMES AND STAFF 


might fall 


be 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
NATHAN GOFF, JR. 


upon an army on the 
march. Another danger, which was 
seriously contemplated by Sher¬ 
man, was that Lee, instead of re¬ 
maining in his intrenchments while 
his source of supply was being cut 
off, might with his whole army slip 
away from Grant and come down 
to strike Sherman somewhere be¬ 
tween Columbia and Raleigh. With 
a caution that admirably balanced his 
boldness, Sherman arranged to have 
the fleet cooperate with him along the 
coast, watching his progress and estab 
lishing points where supplies could 
reached and refuge taken if necessary. He 
even sent engineers to repair the railroads 
that, starting from the ports of Wilmington 
and Newbern, unite at Goldsboro’, and to 

collect rolling-stock there. He intended, when once under way, 
to push through to Goldsboro’, four hundred and twenty-five 
miles, as rapidly as possible. 

Wheeler’s cavalry had been considerably reduced by its con¬ 
stant efforts to delay the march through Georgia, and Wade 
Hampton’s, heretofore with the Army of Northern Virginia, 
was now sent down to its assistance. They felled trees in the 
roads, and attempted to make a stand at Salkehatchie River; 
but Sherman’s men made nothing of picking up the trees and 
casting them one side, while the force at the river was quickly 
brushed away. The South Carolina Railroad was soon reached, 
and the track was destroyed for miles. Then all the columns 
pushed on for Columbia. Sherman expected to meet serious 
opposition there, for it was the capital of the State ; but the 
Confederate leaders were holding their forces at Charleston and 
Augusta, confidently expecting those cities to be attacked, and 
nothing but Hampton’s cavalry was left to take care of Colum¬ 
bia. The main difficulty was at the rivers, where the Confeder¬ 
ates had burned the bridges, which Sherman’s men rapidly 
rebuilt, and on the 17th the National troops entered the city 
as Hampton’s cavalry left it. Bales of cotton piled up in the 


ton 
was 

evacuated by the 
Confederate forces 
under General Har¬ 
dee, and a brigade of 
National troops com¬ 
manded by General 
S c h i m m e 1 p f e n n i g 
promptly took pos¬ 
session of it. 

On the 20th, leav¬ 
ing Columbia, Sher¬ 
man’s army bore 
away for Fayette¬ 
ville, the right wing 
going through Che- 
raw, and the left 
through Lancaster 
and Sneedsboro’, 
and threatening 


streets were on fire, there was a high 
wind, and the flakes of cotton were fly- 
ins' through the air like a snow-storm. 
In spite of all efforts of the soldiers, the 
fire persistently spread at night, several 
buildings burst into a blaze, and before 
morning the heart of the city was a heap 
of ruins. There has been an acrimonious 
dispute as to the responsibility for this 
fire. It seems probable that Hampton’s 
soldiers set fire to the cotton, perhaps 
without orders, and it seems improbable 
that any one would purposely set fire to 
the city. At all events, Sherman’s men 
did their utmost to extinguish the 
flames, and that general gave the citizens 
five hundred head of cattle, and did what 
he could to shelter them. He did de¬ 
stroy the arsenal purposely, and tons of 

powder, shot, and 
shell were taken 
out of it, hauled to 
the river, and sunk 
in deep water. He 
also destroyed the 
foundries and the 
establishment in 
which the Confed- 
e racy’s paper 
money was print¬ 
ed, large quantities 
of which were 
found and carried 
away by the sol¬ 
diers. 

That same day, 
the 18th, Charles- 


BREVET 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
ALBERT M. BLACKMAN. 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOSEPH C. ABBOTT, 


































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


441 




Averysboro’ is about forty miles west 
of Goldsboro’. Midway between is 
Bentonville, where on the 19th the left 
wing again found the enemy intrenched 
across the way, this time in greater 
force, and commanded by General 
Johnston. Thickets of blackjack pro¬ 
tected the flanks, and it was ugly ground 
for fighting over. Slocum’s men at¬ 
tacked the position in force as soon as 
they came upon it. They quickly broke 
the Confederate right flank, drove it 
back, and planted batteries to command 
that part of the field. On the other 
flank the thickets interfered more with 
the organization of both sides, the Na¬ 
tional troops threw up intrenchments, 
both combatants attacked alternately, 
and the fighting was very bloody. After 
nightfall the Confederates withdrew 
toward Raleigh, and the road was then 
open for Sherman to march into Golds¬ 
boro’. At Bentonville, the last battle 
fought by this army, the National loss 
was sixteen hundred and four men, the 
Confederate twenty-three hundred and 
forty-two. At Goldsboro’ 
Sherman was joined by 
Schofield’s corps, which 
had been transferred thither 
from Thomas’s army. 

Several attempts to ne¬ 
gotiate a peace were made 
during the winter of 1864- 
65, the most notable of 
which took place early in 
February, when Alexander 
H. Stephens, Vice-President 
of the Confederacy, accom¬ 
panied by John A. Camp¬ 
bell and Robert M. T. Hun¬ 
ter, applied for permission 
to pass through Grant’s 
lines for the purpose. They 
were conducted to Fort 
Monroe, met President Lin¬ 
coln and Secretary Seward 
on a steamer in Hampton 
Roads, and had a long and 
free discussion. The Con¬ 
federate commissioners pro¬ 
posed an armistice, with the 
hope that after a time, if 
trade and friendly relations 
were resumed, some sort of 
settlement or compromise 
could be reached without 
more fighting. But Mr. 
Lincoln would consent to 
no peace or armistice of any 
kind, except on condition 
of the immediate disband- 


Charlotte and Salisbury. The most 
serious difficulty was met at Catawba 
River, where the bridges were destroyed, 
the floods interfered with the building 
of new ones, and there was a delay of 
nearly a week. In Cheraw was stored 
a large amount of valuable personal 
property, including fine furniture and 
costly wines, which had been sent from 
Charleston for safe-keeping. Most of 
this fell into the hands of the invading 
army. Here also were found a large 
number of arms and thirty-six hundred 
barrels of pow'der; and here, as at 
Columbia, lives were lost by the care¬ 
lessness of a soldier in exploding the 
powder. 

Fayetteville w r as reached on the nth 
of March, and here communication was 
opened with Gen. Alfred H. Terry, 
whose men had captured Fort Fisher, 
below Wilmington, after a gallant fight, 
in January, and later the city itself, thus 
closing that harbor to blockade-runners. 
In taking the fort, Terry’s men had 
fought their way from traverse to trav- 
erse, and the stubborn gar¬ 
rison had only yielded 
when they literally reached 
the last ditch. All this time 
the Confederate forces, 
somewhat scattered, had 
hung on the flanks of Sher- 
man’s column or disposed 
themselves to protect the 
points that were threatened. 

But now they knew he was 
going to Goldsboro’, and 
accordingly they concen¬ 
trated in his front, between 
Fayetteville and that place. 

At Averysboro’, thirty- 
five miles south of Raleigh, 
on the 16th of March, the 
left wing suddenly came 
upon Hardee’s forces in¬ 
trenched across its path. 

The left flank of the Con¬ 
federates was soon turned, 
and they fell back to a 
stronger position. Here a 
direct attack was made, but 
wdthout success, and Kil¬ 
patrick’s cavalry was rough¬ 
ly handled by a division of 
Confederate infantry. Gen¬ 
eral Slocum then began a 
movement to turn the flank 
again, and in the night 
Hardee retreated. Each 
side had lost five hundred 
men. 


MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD O. C. ORD. 


BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER. 





















44 ^ 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. 


ment of the Confederate armies and government, the restoration of 
the Union, and the abolition of slavery. With these points se¬ 
cured, he was willing to concede everything else. Mr. Stephens, 
trying to convince Mr. Lincoln that he might properly recognize 
the Confederacy, cited the example of Charles I. of England 
negotiating with his rebellious subjects. “ I am not strong on 
history,” said Lincoln ; “ I depend mainly on Secretary Seward 
for that. All I remember about Charles is, that he lost his 


head.” The Conf«-J- 
erate commissioners 
were not authorized to 
concede the restora¬ 
tion of the Union, and 
thus the conference 
ended with no practi¬ 
cal result. 

Late in February 
General Sheridan, at 
the head of ten thou¬ 
sand cavalry, moved 
far up the Shenandoah 
Valley, and at Waynes¬ 
boro’ his third division, 
commanded by Gen¬ 
eral Custer, met Early’s 
force on the 2d of 
March. In the engage¬ 
ments that ensued, 
Early was completely 
defeated, and about 
fifteen hundred of his 
men were captured, to¬ 
gether with every gun 
he had, and all his 
trains. Sheridan then 
ruined the locks in the 
James River Canal, 
destroyed portions of 
the railroads toward 
Lynchburg and Gor- 
donsville, and rode 
down the peninsula to 
White House, crossed 
over to the James and 
joined Grant, taking 
post on the left of the 
army, and occupying 
D i n w i d d i e Court 
House on the 29th. 

Grant and Lee had 
both been waiting im¬ 
patiently for the roads 
to dry, so that wagons 
and guns could be 
moved—Lee, because 
he saw that Richmond 
could not be held any 
longer, and was 
anxious to get away; 
Grant, because he was 
anxious to begin the 
final campaign and pre¬ 
vent Lee from getting away. The only chance for Lee to 
escape was by slipping past Grant’s left, and either joining 
Johnston in North Carolina or taking a position in the moun¬ 
tainous country to the west. But Grant’s left extended too far 
westward to permit of this without great hazard. To compel 
him to contract his lines, drawing in his left, Lee planned a 
bold attack on his right, which was executed in the night of the 
24th. Large numbers of deserters had recently left the Confed- 





CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


MAJOR. 


AYREs 


brevet 


-general 


R 0 MEYN 


ines, bringing their 


Mvaivs 


erate army and walked 
across to Grant’s 
arms with them, and this 
stance was now used for a 
ruse. At a point where 
the hostile lines were not 
more than a hundred yards 
apart, some of General Gor¬ 
don’s men walked out to the 
National picket-line as if 
they were deserters, seized the 
pickets, and sent them back as 
prisoners. Then a colum n 
charged through the gap, sur¬ 
prised the men in the main line, 
and captured a section of the 
works. But General Parke, com¬ 
manding the Ninth Corps, where 
the assault was delivered, promptly 
made dispositions to check it. d he 
Confederates were headed off in 
both directions, and a large number 
of guns were soon planted where 
they could sweep the ground that 

had been captured. A line of intrenchments was thrown 
up in the rear, and the survivors of the charging column 
found themselves where they could neither go forward, 
nor retreat, nor be reinforced. Consequently they were 
all made prisoners. This affair cost the Confederates 
about four thousand men, and inflicted a loss of two 
thousand upon the National army. 

Grant, instead of contracting his lines, was making dis¬ 
positions to extend them. Three divisions under Gen. E. 
O. C. Ord were brought from his right, before Richmond, 
in the night of the 27th, and placed on his extreme left, 
while a movement was planned for the 29th by which that 
wing was to be pushed out to the Southside Railroad. 
When the day appointed for the movement arrived, heavy 
rains had made the ground so soft that the roads had to 
be corduroyed before the artillery could be dragged over 
them. But the army was used to this sort of work, and 
performed it with marvellous quickness. Small trees were 
cut down, and rail fences disappeared in a twinkling, 
while the rude flooring thus constructed stretched out 


BREVET MAJOR GENERAL HENRY E. DAVIES, JR, 


over the sodden road and kept the wheels 
of the guns from sinking hopelessly in the 
mire and quicksands. 

Grant’s extreme left, where the critical 
movement was to be made, was now held 
by his most energetic lieutenant, General 
Sheridan, with his magnificent cavalry. 
By Grant’s orders, Sheridan made a march 
through Dinwiddie Court House, to come 
in upon the extreme Confederate right at 
Five Forks, which he struck on the 31st. 
He had no difficulty in driving away the 
Confederate cavalry; but when a strong 
infantry force was encountered he was 
himself driven back, and 
called upon Grant for help. 
Grant sent the Fifth Corps 
to his assistance ; but it was 
unusually slow in moving, 
and was stopped by the 
loss of a bridge at Grav¬ 
elly Run, so that it was 
midday of April 1st be¬ 
fore Sheridan began to 
get it in hand. Fee 
had strengthened the 
force holding Five 
Forks; but Sheridan 
was determined to cap¬ 
ture the place, and when 
his troops were all up, 
late in the afternoon, 
he opened the battle on 
a well-conceived plan. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL AUGUST V. KAUTZ. 

MAJOR-GENERAL GODFREY WEITZEL. 




















SHERIDAN AND HIS GENERALS RECONNOITRING AT FIVE FORKS (DINWIDDIE COURT-HOUSE). 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


445 



around so as to embrace and crush the Confederate force. 
With bloody but brief fighting the manoeuvre was successful; 
hive Forks was secured, and more than five thousand prisoners 
were taken. Sheridan’s loss was about one thousand. In the 
hour of victory came orders from Sheridan relieving Warren of 
his command, because of that officer’s slowness in bringing his 
corps to the attack. Whether this harsh action was justified or 
not, it threw a blight upon the career of one of the best corps 
commanders that the Army of the Potomac ever had, and ex¬ 
cited the regret, if not the indignation, of every man that 
had served under him. 

Judging that Lee must have drawn forces from other 
parts of his line to strengthen his right, Grant followed up 
_ the advantage by attack¬ 
ing Lee’s centre 


to one below. Two strong 
earthworks, Forts Gregg 
and Whitworth, salient to 
the inner Confederate line, 
still held out. But Fos¬ 
ter’s division of the 
Twenty-fourth Corps 
carried Fort Gregg after 
a costly assault, and Fort 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
STEPHEN ELLIOTT, JR., C S. A, 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL A. H. COLQUITT C. S. A. 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL 
WADE HAMPTON, C. S. A 


Whitworth then \ ACM)■ 

s u rrcnd e red. In 4- ' 1 1 Wf 

the fighting of this day the 

Confederate general A. P. | 

Hill was killed. ll.' 

General Lee now sent a telegram 
to Richmond, saying that both major-general 
cities must be evacuated. It was G - w - c - LEE . c - s. a. 
received in church by Mr. Davis, 

who quietly withdrew without waiting for the service to be 
finished. As the signs of evacuation became evident to the 
people, there was a general rush for means of conveyance, and 
property of all sorts was brought into the streets in confused 
masses. Committees appointed by the city council attempted 
to destroy all the liquor, and hundreds of barrelfuls were poured 
into the gutters. The great tobacco warehouses were set on 
fire, under military orders, and the iron-clad rams in the river 
blown up ; while a party of drunken soldiers began a course of 
pillaging, which became contagious and threw everything into 
the wildest confusion. The next morning a detachment of black 
troops from Gen. Godfrey Weitzel’s command marched into the 


^t.ge n£BM " 

>-' EUT£N b GORDON- 
pHN ° 

at daybreak the 
next morning, 
Sunday, April 
2d, with the corps 
of Wright and 
Parke, the Sixth 
and Ninth. Both 
of these broke 
through the Con¬ 
federate lines in 
the face of a mus¬ 
ketry fire, took 
large portions of 
them in reverse, 
and captured 
three or four 
thousand prison¬ 
ers and several 


MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM MAHONE, C. S. A. 


Engaging the enemy with his cavalry in 
Fifth Corps as if it were his immense 


front, he used the 
arm, swinging it 


right 


line from a point on the 
Appomattox River above 


guns. The Second Corps, under Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys, 
and three divisions under General Ord, made a similar move¬ 
ment, with similar success; Sheridan moved up on the left, and 
the outer defences of Petersburg were now in the possession 
of the National forces, who encircled the city with a continuous 


city, and the flag of the Twelfth Maine Regiment was hoisted 
over the Capitol. 

When Lee, with the remnant of his army, withdrew from 
Richmond and Petersburg, he fled westward, still keeping up 
the organization, though his numbers were constantly diminish- 






















446 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



take up arms against the United States. The exceeding gener¬ 
osity of these terms, to an army that had exacted almost the last 
life it had power to destroy, was a surprise to many who re¬ 
membered the unconditional surrender that General Grant had 
demanded at Vicksburg and Fort Donelson. But he considered 
that the war was over, and thought the defeated insurgents would 
at once return to their homes and become good citizens of the 
United States. In pursuance of this idea, he ordered that they 
be permitted to take their horses with them, as they “would 
need them for the ploughing.” The starving Confederates were 
immediately fed by their captors; and, by General Grant’s or¬ 
ders, cheering, 
firing of salutes, 
and other demon¬ 
strations of exul¬ 
tation over the 
great and deci¬ 
sive victory were 
immediately 
stopped. The 
number of officers 
and men paroled, 
according to the 
terms of the sur- 
render, was 
twenty-eight 
thousand three 
hundred and six¬ 
ty-five. 

The next day 
General Lee 
issued, in the form 
of a general order, 
a farewell address 
to his army in 
which he lauded 
them in unmeas¬ 
ured terms, to the 
implied disparage¬ 
ment of their con¬ 
querors, and as¬ 
sured them of his 
“ unceasing ad¬ 
miration of their 
constancy and de¬ 
votion to their 
country.” It seems not to have occurred to the general that he 
had no army, for it had been taken away from him, and no right 
to issue a military document of any kind, for he was a prisoner of 
war; and he certainly must have forgotten that the costly court 
of last resort, to which he and they had appealed, had just de¬ 
cided that their country as he defined it had no existence. 

General Johnston, who was confronting Sherman in North 
Carolina, surrendered his army to that commander at Durham 
Station, near Raleigh, on the 26th of April, receiving the same 
terms that had been granted to Lee ; and the surrender of all 
the other Confederate armies soon followed, the last being the 
command of Gen. E. Kirby Smith, at Shreveport, La., on the 
26th of May. The number of Johnston’s immediate command 
surrendered and paroled was thirty-six thousand eight hundred 
and seventeen, to whom were added fifty-two thousand four 
hundred and fifty-three in Georgia and Florida. 


DEFENCE OF FORT GREGG, PETERSBURG. 


ing by desertion, straggling, and capture. Grant was in close 
pursuit, striving to head him off, and determined not to let him 
escape. He moved mainly on a parallel route south of Lee’s, 
attacking vigorously whenever any portion of the hostile forces 
approached near enough. Some of these engagements were very 
sharply contested; and as the men on both sides had attained 
the highest perfection of destructive skill, and were not sheltered 
by intrenchments, the losses were severe, and the seventy miles 
of the race was a long track of blood. There were collisions at 
Jetersville, Detonville, Deep Creek, Sailor’s Creek, Paine’s Cross 
Roads, and Farmville ; the most important being that at Sailor’s 
Creek, where Custer broke the Confederate line, capturing four 
hundred wagons, sixteen guns, and many prisoners, and then the 
Sixth Corps came 
up and captured 
the whole of 
Ewell’s corps, in- 
eluding Ewell 
himself and four 
other generals. 

Lee was stopped 
by the loss of a 
provision train, 
and spent a day 
in trying to col- 
lect from the sur¬ 
rounding country 

o J 

something for his 
famished soldiers 
to eat. 

When he arrived 
at Appomattox 
Court House, 

April 9th, a week 
from the day he 
set out, he found 
Sheridan’s dis¬ 
mounted cavalry 
in line across his 
path, and his in¬ 
fantry advanced 
confidently to 
brush them away. 

But the cavalry¬ 
men drew off to 
the right, and dis¬ 
closed a heavy line 
of blue-coated in¬ 
fantry and gleam¬ 
ing steel. Before 1 
this the weary 

Confederates recoiled, and just as Sheridan was preparing to 
charge upon their flank with his cavalry a white flag was sent out 
and hostilities were suspended on information that negotiations 
for a surrender were in progress. Grant had first demanded Lee’s 
surrender in a note written on the afternoon of the 7th. Three 
or four other notes had passed between them, and on the 9th the 
two commanders met at a house in the village, where they wrote 
and exchanged two brief letters by which the surrender of the 
Army of Northern Virginia was effected; the terms being sim¬ 
ply that the men were to lay down their arms and return to 
their homes, not to be molested so long as they did not again 

































THE McLEAN HOUSE WHERE GENERAL LEE SURRENDERED TO GENERAL GRANT. 



THE SURRENDER OF GENERAL LEE. 







































































































448 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


CHAPTER XLIV. 

PEACE. 

THE WAR GOVERNORS—CIVILIAN PATRIOTS—THE SUDDEN FALL OF 
THE CONFEDERACY—CAPTURE OF MR. DAVIS—CHARACTER OF 
THE INSURRECTION—MAGNANIMITY OF THE VICTORS —THE AS¬ 
SASSINATION CONSPIRACY—LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL AD¬ 
DRESS— LINCOLN IN RICHMOND — THE GRAND REVIEW — THE 
HOME-COMING—LESSONS OF THE WAR. 

No account of the war, however brief, can properly be closed 
without some mention of the forces other than military that 
contributed to its success. The assistance and influence of the 
“war governors,” as they were called—including John A. 
Andrew of Massachusetts, William A. Buckingham of Con¬ 
necticut, Edwin D. Morgan of New York, William Dennison 
of Ohio, and Oliver P. Morton of Indiana—was vital to the 
cause, and was acknowledged as generously as it was given. 
There was also a class of citizens who, by reason of age or other 
disability, did not go to the front, and would not have been 
permitted to, but found a way to assist the Government perhaps 
even more efficiently. They were thoughtful and scholarly men, 
who brought out and placed at the service of their country every 
lesson that could be drawn from history; practical and experi¬ 
enced men, whose hard sense and knowledge of affairs made 
them natural leaders in the councils of the people; men of 
fervid eloquence, whose arguments and appeals aroused all there 
was of latent patriotism in their younger and hardier country¬ 
men, and contributed wonderfully to the rapidity with which 
quotas were filled and regiments forwarded to the seat of war. 
There were great numbers of devoted women, who performed 
uncomplainingly the hardest hospital service, and managed great 
fairs and relief societies with an enthusiasm that never wearied. 
And there were the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, whose 
agents went everywhere between the depot in the rear and the 
skirmish-line in front, carrying not only whatever was needed 
to alleviate the sufferings of the sick and wounded, but also 
many things to beguile the tedious hours in camp and diminish 
the serious evil of homesickness. 

It was a common remark, at the time, that the Confederacy 
crumbled more suddenly in 1865 than it had risen in 1861. It 
seemed like an empty shell, which, when fairly broken through, 
had no more stability, and instantly fell to ruins. It was for¬ 
tunate that when the end came Lee’s army was the first to 
surrender, since all the other commanders felt justified in fol¬ 
lowing his example. To some on the Confederate side, espe¬ 
cially in Virginia, the surrender was a surprise, and came like a 
personal and irreparable grief. But people in other parts of the 
South, especially those who had seen Sherman’s legions march¬ 
ing by their doors, knew that the end was coming. Longstreet 
had pronounced the cause lost by Lee’s want of generalship at 
Gettysburg; Ewell had said there was no use in fighting longer 
when Grant had swung his army across the James; Johnston 
and his lieutenants declared it wrong to keep up the hopeless 
struggle after the capital had been abandoned and the Army of 
Northern Virginia had laid down its weapons, and so expressed 
themselves to Mr. Davis when he stopped to confer with them, 
in North Carolina, on his flight southward. He said their for¬ 
tunes might still be retrieved, and independence established, if 


those who were absent from the armies without leave would 
but return to their places. He probably understood the situa¬ 
tion as well as General Johnston did, and may have spoken not 
so much from judgment as from a consciousness of greater re¬ 
sponsibility, a feeling that as he was the first citizen of the Con¬ 
federacy he was the last that had any right to despair of it. 

Nevertheless, he continued his flight through the Carolinas 
into Georgia; his cabinet officers, most of whom had set out 
with him from Richmond, leaving him one after another. When 
he had arrived at Irwinsville, Ga., accompanied by his family and 
Postmaster-General Reagan, their little encampment in the woods 
was surprised, on the morning of May ilth, by two detachments 
of Wilson’s cavalry, and they were all taken prisoners. In the 
gray of the morning the two detachments, approaching from dif¬ 
ferent sides, fired into each other before they discovered that 
they were friends, and two soldiers were killed and several 
wounded. Mr. Davis was taken to Savannah, and thence to Port 
Monroe, where he was a prisoner for two years, after which he 
was released on bail—his bondsmen being Cornelius Vanderbilt, 
Horace Greeley, and Gerrit Smith, a life-long abolitionist. He 
was never tried. 

The secession movement had been proved to be a rebellion 
and nothing else—although the mightiest of all rebellions. It 
never rose to the character of a revolution ; for it never had pos¬ 
session of the capital or the public archives, never stopped the 
wheels of the Government for a single day, was suppressed in 
the end, and attained none of its objects. But although it was 
clearly a rebellion, and although its armed struggle had been 
maintained after all prospect of success had disappeared, such 
was the magnanimity of the National Government and the 
Northern people that its leaders escaped the usual fate of rebels. 
Except by temporary political disabilities, not one of them was 
punished—neither Mr. Davis nor Mr. Stephens, nor any member 
of the Confederate cabinet or congress ; neither Lee nor John¬ 
ston, nor any of their lieutenants, not even Beauregard who ad¬ 
vocated the black flag, nor Forrest who massacred his prisoners 
at Fort Pillow. Most of the officers of high rank in the Confed¬ 
erate army were graduates of the Military Academy at West 
Point, and had used their military education in an attempt to 
destroy the very government that gave it to-them, and to which 
they had solemnly sworn allegiance. Some of them, notably 
General Lee, had rushed into the rebel service without waiting 
for the United States War Department to accept their resigna¬ 
tions. But all such ugly facts were suppressed or forgotten, in 
the extreme anxiety of the victors lest they should not be suffi¬ 
ciently magnanimous toward the vanquished. There was but a 
single act of capital punishment. The keeper of the Anderson- 
ville stockade was tried, convicted, and executed for cruelty to 
prisoners. His more guilty superior, General Winder, died two 
months before the surrender. Two months after that event, the 
secessionist that had sought the privilege of firing the first gun 
at the flag of his country, committed suicide rather than live 
under its protection. The popular cry that soon arose was, 
“ Universal amnesty and universal suffrage ! ” 

No such exhibition of mercy has been seen before or since. 
Four years previous to this war, there was a rebellion against the 
authority of the British Government; six years after it, there 
was one against the French Government; and in both instances 
the conquered insurgents were punished with the utmost sever- 
itv. In our own country there had been several minor insurrec- 
tions preceding the great one. In such of these as were aimed 
against the institution of slavery—Vesey’s, Turner’s, and Brown’s 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


449 



the offenders suffered the extreme penalty of the law; in the others—Fries’s, 
Shays s, Dorr s, and the whiskey war—they were punished very lightly or not 
at all. 

The general feeling in the country was of relief that the war was ended— 
hardly less at the South than at the North. After the surrender of 
the various armies, the soldiers so recently in arms against 
each other behaved more like brothers than like enemies. 

The Confederates were fed liberally from the abun¬ 
dant supplies of the National commissariat, and 
many of them were furnished with transportation 
to their homes in distant States. Some of 
them had been absent from their families dur¬ 
ing the whole war. 

If the people of the North had 
any disposition to be boisterous over 
the final victory, it was completely 
quelled by the shadow of a great 
sorrow that suddenly fell upon them. 

A conspiracy had been in progress 
for a long time among a few half¬ 
crazy secessionists in and about the 
capital. It culminated on the night 
of Good Friday, April 14, 1865. One 
of the conspirators forced his way 
into Secretary Seward’s house and 
attacked the Secretary with a knife, 
but did not Succeed in killing him. 

Mr. Seward had been thrown from a 
carriage a few days before, and was 
lying in bed with his jaws encased in 
a metallic frame-work, which probably 
saved his life. The chief conspirator, 


THE LAST MEETING OF THE CONFEDERATE 
CABINET. 


JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

(From a photograph taken in 1881.) 


an obscure actor, 
made his way into 
the box at Ford’s 
Theatre where the President and 
his wife were sitting, witnessing the 
comedy of “ Our American Cousin,” 
shot Mr. Lincoln in the back of the 
head, jumped from the box to the 
stage with a flourish of bravado 
shouting “ Sic semper tyrannis! ” 
and escaped behind the scenes and 
out at the stage door. The dying 
President was carried to a house across the street, where he expired 
the next morning. As the principal Confederate army had already 
surrendered, it was impossible for any one to suppose that the killing 
of the President could affect the result of the war. Furthermore, 
Mr. Lincoln had long been in the habit of going to the War Depart¬ 
ment in the evening, and returning to the White. House, unattended, 
late at night ; so that an assassin who merely wished to put him out of 
the way had abundant opportunities for doing so, with good chances of 
escaping and concealing his own identity. It was therefore perfectly obvi¬ 
ous that the murderer’s principal motive was the same as that of the youth 
ho set fire to the temple of Diana at Ephesus. And the newspapers did 
r utmost to give him the notoriety that he craved, displaying his name in 
large type at the head of their columns, and repeating about him every anecdote 
that could be recalled or manufactured. The consequence was that sixteen years 
later the country was disgraced by another Presidential assassination, mainly from 
the same motive ; and, as the journalists repeated their folly on that occasion, we 





























450 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



r. R Lubbock 


•Vm.RvOKKSON 


Joseph C.Ives 


<1» James Chestnut 


Joseph- R. Davis 


Wm M.Browne 


shall perhaps have still 
another by and by. 

Mr. Lincoln had grown 
steadily in the affections 
and admiration of the peo¬ 
ple. His state papers 
were the most remarkable 
in American annals; his 
firmness where firmness 
was required, and kind- 
heartedness where kind¬ 
ness was practicable, were 
almost unfailing; and as 
the successive events of 
the war called forth his 
powers, it was seen that 
he had unlimited shrewd¬ 
ness and tact, statesman¬ 
ship of the broadest kind, 
and that honesty of pur¬ 
pose which is the highest 
wisdom. Moreover, his 
lack of all vindictive feel¬ 
ing toward the insurgents, 
and his steady endeavor to 
make the restored Union 
a genuine republic of 
equal rights, gave tone to 
the feelings of the whole 
nation, and at the last won 
many admirers among 
his foes in arms. In his 
second inaugural address, 
a month before his death, 
he seemed to speak with 
that insight and calm 
judgment which we only 
look for in the studious 
historian in aftertimes. 

“ Neither party expected 
for the war the magnitude 
or the duration which it 
has already attained. 

Neither anticipated that 
the cause of the conflict 
might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. 
Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental 
and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the 
same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may 
seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s 
assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s 
faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer 
of both could not be answered; that of neither has been 
answered fully. If we shall suppose that American slavery 
is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must 
needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed 
time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North 
and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom 
the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from 
those divine attributes which the believers in a loving God 
always ascribe to him ? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we 
pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. 


Yet if God wills that it 
continue until all the 
wealth piled by the bond¬ 
man’s two hundred and 
fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and 
until every drop of blood 
drawn with the lash shall 
be paid by another drawn 
with the sword, as was 
said three thousand years 
ago, so still it must be 
said, ‘ The judgments of 
the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether.’ 
With malice toward none, 
with charity for all, with 
firmness in the right as 
God gives us to see the 
right, let us strive to finish 
the work we are in, to 
bind up the nation’s 
wounds, to care for him 
who shall have borne the 
battle, and for his widow 
and his orphan, to do all 
which may achieve and 
cherish a just and a last¬ 
ing peace among ourselves 
and with all nations.” 

A day or two after the 
evacuation of Richmond, 
Mr. Lincoln walked 
through its smoking and 
disordered streets, where 
the negroes crowded 
about him and called 
down all sorts of uncouth 
but sincere blessings on 
his head. He had lived to 
enter the enemy’s capital, 
lived to see the authority 
of the United States re¬ 
stored over the whole 
country, and then was 
snatched away, when the people were as much as ever in need of 
his genius for the solution of new problems that suddenly con¬ 
fronted them. 

The funeral train retraced the same route over which Mr. 
Lincoln had gone to Washington from his home in Springfield, 
Ilk, four years before ; and to the sorrowful crowds that were 
gathered at every station, and even along the track in the country, 
it seemed as if the light of the nation had gone out forever. 

The armies returning from the field were brought to Washing¬ 
ton for a grand review before being mustered out of service. 
The city was decorated with flags, mottoes, and floral designs, 
and the streets were thronged with people, many of whom carried 
wreaths and bouquets. The Army of the Potomac was reviewed 
on May 23d, and Sherman’s army on the 24th, the troops march¬ 
ing in close column around the Capitol and down Pennsylvania 
Avenue to the music of their bands. As they passed the grand 
stand at the White House, where President Johnson and his 


JEFFERSON DAVIS'S BODYGUARD. 
















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


cabinet reviewed them, the officers saluted with their swords, 
and commanders of divisions dismounted and went upon the 
stand. 

The armies were quickly disbanded, and each regiment, on its 
arrival home, was given a public reception and a fitting welcome. 
I he men were well dressed and well fed, but their bronzed faces 
and their tattered and smoky battle-flags told where they had 
been. It was computed that the loss of life in the Confederate 
service was about equal to that in the National. Their losses in 
battle, as they were generally on the defensive, were smaller, but 
their means of caring for the wounded were inferior. Thus it 
cost us nearly six hundred thousand lives and more than six 
thousand million dollars to destroy the doctrine of State sove¬ 
reignty, abolish the system of slavery, and begin the career of 
the United States as a nation. 

The home-coming at the North was almost as sorrowful as 
at the South, because of those that came not. In all the festivi¬ 
ties and rejoicings there was hardly a participator whose joy was 
not saddened by missing some well-known face and form now 
numbered with the silent three hundred thousand. Grant was 
there, the commander that had never taken a step backward ; 
and Farragut was there, the sailor without an equal; and the 
unfailing Sherman, and the patient Thomas, and the intrepid 
Hancock, and the fiery Sheridan, and the brilliant Custer, and 
many of lesser rank, who in a smaller theatre of conflict would 
have won a larger fame. But where was young Ellsworth ?—shot 
dead as soon as he crossed the Potomac. And Winthrop—killed 
in the first battle, with his best books unwritten. And Lyon— 
fallen at the head of his little army in Missouri, the first summer 
of the war. And Baker—sacrificed at Ball’s Bluff. And Kearny 
at Chantilly, and Reno at South Mountain, and Mansfield at 
Antietam, and Reynolds at Gettysburg, and Wadsworth in the 


45 1 

Wilderness, and Sedgwick at Spottsylvania, and McPherson 
before Atlanta, and Craven in his monitor at the bottom of the 
sea, and thousands of others, the best and bravest—all gone—all, 
like Latour, the immortal captain, dead on the field of honor, 
but none the less dead and a loss to their mourning country. 
The hackneyed allegory of Curtius had been given a startling 
illustration and a new significance. The South, too, had lost 
heavily of her foremost citizens in the great struggle—Bee and 
Bartow, at Bull Run; Albert Sidney Johnston, leading a desper¬ 
ate charge at Shiloh ; Zollicoffer, soldier and journalist, at Mill 
Spring; Stonewall Jackson, Lee’s right arm, at Chancellorsville; 
Polk, priest and warrior, at Lost Mountain ; Armistead, waver¬ 
ing between two allegiances and fighting alternately for each, 
and Barksdale and Garnett—all at Gettysburg; Hill, at Peters¬ 
burg; and the dashing Stuart, and Daniel, and Perrin, and Dear- 
ing, and Doles, and numberless others. The sudden hush and 
sense of awe that impresses a child when he steps upon a single 
grave, may well overcome the strongest man when he looks upon 
the face of his country scarred with battlefields like these, and 
considers what blood of manhood was rudely wasted there. 
And the slain were mostly young, unmarried men, whose native 
virtues fill no living veins, and will not shine again on any field. 

It is poor business measuring the mouldered ramparts and 
counting the silent guns, marking the deserted battlefields and 
decorating the grassy graves, unless we can learn from it all 
some nobler lesson than to destroy. Men write of this, as of 
other wars, as if the only thing necessary to be impressed upon 
the rising generation were the virtue of physical courage and 
contempt of death. It seems to me that is the last thing that 
we need to teach ; for since the days of John Smith in Virginia 
and the men of the Mayflower in Massachusetts, no generation 
of Americans has shown any lack of it. From Louisburg to 




















GRAND REVIEW OF THE ARMY, WASHINGTON, MAY 23-24, 1865. 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


453 


Peteisbuig a hundred and twenty years, the full span of four 
generations they have stood to their guns and been shot down 
in greater comparative numbers than any other race on earth. 
In the war of secession there was not a State, not a county, 
probably not a town, between the great lakes and the gulf, that 


politics, is to cast away our dearest experience and invite, in 
some troubled future, the destruction we so hardly escaped in 
the past. There can be remembrance without animosity, but 
there cannot be oblivion without peril. 



was not represented on fields where all that men could do with 
powder and steel was done, and valor was exhibited at its 
highest pitch. It was a common saying in the Army of the 
Potomac that courage was the cheapest thing there ; and it 
might have been said of all the other armies as well. There is 
not the slightest necessity for lauding American bravery or im¬ 
pressing it upon American youth. But there is the gravest 
necessity for teaching them respect for law, and reverence for 
human life, and regard for the rights of their fellow-men, and all 
that is significant in the history of our country—lest their feet 
run to evil and they 
make haste to shed 
innocent blood. I 
would be glad to 
convince my com¬ 
patriots that it is not 
enough to t hin k 
they are right, but 
they are bound to 
know they are right, 
before they rush 
into any experiments 
that are to cost the 
lives of men and 
the tears of orphans, 
in their own land 
or in any other. I 
would warn them to 
beware of provincial 
conceit. I would 
have them compre¬ 
hend that one may fight bravely, and still be a perjured felon ; 
that one may die humbly, and still be a patriot whom his 
country cannot afford to lose ; that as might does not make 
right, so neither do rags and bare feet necessarily argue a noble 
cause. I would teach them that it is criminal either to hide 
the truth or to refuse assent to that which they see must fol¬ 
low logically from ascertained truth. I would show them that 
a political lie is as despicable as a personal lie, whether uttered 
in an editorial, or a platform, or a President’s message, or a 
colored cartoon, or a disingenuous ballot ; and that political 
chicanery, when long persisted in, is liable to settle its shameful 
account in a stoppage of civilization and a spilling of life. These 
are simple lessons, yet they are not taught in a day, and some 
whom we call educated go through life without mastering them 
at all. 

It may be useful to learn from one war how to conduct an¬ 
other; but it is infinitely better to learn how to avert another. 
I am doubly anxious to impress this consideration upon my 
readers, because history seems to show us that armed conflicts 
have a tendency to come in pairs, with an interval of a few 
years, and because I think I see, in certain circumstances now 
existing within our beloved Republic, the elements of a second 
civil war. No American citizen should lightly repeat that the 
result is worth all it cost, unless he has considered how heavy 
was the cost, and is doing his utmost to perpetuate the result. 
To strive to forget the great war, for the sake of sentimental 


AN EXPLODED GUN IN THE DEFENCE OF RICHMOND. 


THE FIRST UNITED STATES FLAG RAISED 
IN RICHMOND AFTER THE WAR. 


BY MRS. LASALLE CORBELL PICKETT, 

Wife of Major-General George E. Pickett, C. S. A. 

The first knell of the evacuation of Richmond sounded on 
Sunday morning while we were on our knees in St. Paul’s 
Church, invoking God’s protecting care for our absent loved 
ones, and blessings on our cause. 

The intense excitement, the tolling of the bells, the hasty 
parting, the knowledge that all communication would be cut 
off between us and our loved ones, and the dread, undefined 
fear in our helplessness and desertion, make a nightmare mem¬ 
ory. 

General Ewell had orders for the destruction of the public 
buildings, which orders our Secretary of War, Gen. J. C. Breck- 
enridge, strove earnestly but without avail to have counter¬ 
manded. The order, alas! was obeyed beyond “the letter of 
the law.” 

The terrible conflagration was kindled by the Confederate 
authorities, who applied the torch to the Shockoe warehouse, 
it, too, being classed among the public buildings because of the 










454 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


tobacco belonging to France and England stored in it. A fresh 
breeze was blowing from the south; the fire swept on in its 
haste and fury over a great area in an almost incredibly short 
time, and by noon the flames had transformed into a desert 
waste all the city bounded by Seventh and Fifteenth Streets, 
and Main Street and the river. One thousand houses were 
destroyed. The streets were filled with furniture and every 
description of wares, dashed down to be trampled in the mud or 
buried where they lay. 

At night a saturnalia began. About dark, the Government 
commissary began the destruction of its stores. Soldiers and 
citizens gathered in front, catching the liquor in basins and 
pitchers; some with their hats and some with their boots. It 
took but a short time for this to make a manifestation as dread 
as the flames. The crowd became a howling mob, so frenzied 
that the officers of the law had to flee for their lives, reviving 
memories of 1781, when the British under Arnold rode down 
Richmond Hill, and, invading the city, broke open the stores 
and emptied the provisions and liquors into the gutters, making 
even the uninitiated cows and hogs drunk for days. 

All through the night, crowds of men, women, and children 
traversed the streets, loading themselves with supplies and 
plunder. At midnight, soldiers drunk with vile liquor, followed 
by a reckless crowd as drunk as themselves, dashed in the 
plate-glass windows of the stores, and made a wreck of every¬ 
thing. 

About nine o’clock on Monday morning, terrific shell explo¬ 
sions, rapid and continuous, added to the terror of the scene, 
and gave the impression that the city was being shelled by the 
retreating Confederate army from the south side. But the 
explosions were soon found to proceed from the Government 
arsenal and laboratory, then in flames. Later in the morning, 
a merciful Providence caused a lull in the breeze. The terrific 
explosion of the laboratory and of the arsenal caused every 
window in our home to break. The old plate-glass mirrors, built 
in the walls, were cracked and shattered. 

Fort Darling was blown up, and later on the rams, It was 
eight o’clock when the Federal troops entered the city. It 
required the greatest effort to tame down the riotous, crazed 
mob, and induce them to take part in the struggle to save their 
own. The firemen, afraid of the soldiers who had obeyed the 
orders to light the torch, would not listen to any appeals or 
entreaties, and so the flames were under full headway, fanned 
by a southern breeze, when the Union soldiers came to the 
rescue. 

The flouring mills caught fire from the tobacco houses, com¬ 
municating it to Cary and Main Streets. Every bank was 
destroyed. The War Department was a mass of ruins; the 
Enquirer and Dispatch offices were in ashes ; and the county 
court-house, the American Hotel, and most of the finest stores 
of the city were ruined. 

Libby Prison and the Presbyterian church escaped. Such a 
reign of terror and pillage, fire and flame, fear and despair! 
The yelling and howling and swearing and weeping and wailing 
beggar description. Families houseless and homeless under the 
open sky! 

I shall never forget General Weitzel’s command, composed 
exclusively of colored troops, as I saw them through the dense 
black columns of smoke. General Weitzel had for some time 


been stationed on the north side of the James River, but a few 
miles from Richmond, and he had only to march in and take 
possession. He despatched Major A. H. Stevens of the Fourth 
Massachusetts cavalry, and Major E. E. Graves of his staff, 
with about a hundred mounted men, to reconnoitre the roads 
and works leading to Richmond. They had gone but a little 
distance into the Confederate lines, when they saw a shabby, 
old-fashioned carriage, drawn by a pair of lean, lank horses, the 
occupants waving a white flag. They met this flag-of-truce 
party at the line of fortifications, just beyond the junction of 
the Osborne turnpike and New Market road. The carriage 
contained the mayor of Richmond—Colonel Mayo—Judge Mere¬ 
dith of the Supreme Court, and Judge Lyons. The fourth 
worthy I cannot recall. Judge Lyons, our former minister to 
England, and one of the representative men of Virginia, made 
the introductions in his own characteristic way, and then Colonel 
Mayo, who was in command of the flag-of-truce party, handed 
to Major Stevens a small slip of wall paper, on which was writ¬ 
ten the following: “It is proper to formally surrender to the 
Federal authorities the city of Richmond, hitherto capital of 
the Confederate States of America, and the defences protecting 
it up to this time.” That was all. The document was approved 
of, and Major Stevens most courteously accepted the terms for 
his commanding general, to whom it was at once transmitted, 
and moved his column upon the evacuated city, taking posses¬ 
sion and saving it from ashes. 

His first order was to sound the alarm bells and to take com¬ 
mand at once of the fire department, which consisted of four¬ 
teen substitute men, those who were exempt from service 
because of disease, two steam fire engines, four worthless hand 
engines, and a large amount of hose, destroyed by the retreat¬ 
ing half-crazed Confederates. His next order was to raise the 
stars and stripes over the Capitol. Quick as thought, two 
soldiers, one from Company E and one from Company H of the 
Fourth Massachusetts cavalry, crept to the summit and planted 
the flag of the nation. Two bright, tasteful guidons were 
hoisted by the halyards in place of the red cross. The living 
colors of the Union were greeted, while our “ Warriors’ banner 
took its flight to meet the warrior’s soul.” 

That flag, whose design has been accredited alike to both 
George Washington and John Adams, was raised over Virginia 
by Massachusetts, in place of the one whose kinship and likeness 
had not, even after renewed effort, been entirely destroyed. 
For by the adoption of the stars and bars (three horizontal 
bars of equal width—the middle one white, the others red—with 
a blue union of nine stars in a circle) by the Confederate Con¬ 
gress in March, 1861, the Confederate flag was made so akin 
and so similar to that of the nation, as to cause confusion ; so 
in 1863 the stars and bars was supplanted by a flag with a 
white field, having the battle flag (a red field charged with a blue 
saltier, on which were thirteen stars) for a union. This, having- 
been mistaken for a flag of truce, was altered by covering the 
outer half of the field beyond the union with a vertical red bar. 
This was the last flag of the Confederacy. 

Richmond will testify that the soldiers of Massachusetts were 
worthy of the honor of raising the first United States flag over 
her Capitol—the Capitol of the Confederacy—and also to the 
unvarying courtesy of Major Stevens, and the fidelity with 
which he kept his trust. 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


4S5 


HUMOROUS INCIDENTS OF THE WAR. 


The illustrations of this chapter are exact reproductions of cartoons published during the war in various newspapers and periodicals. 


FUN FROM ENLISTMENT TO HONORABLE DISCHARGE—RECRUITS’ EXCUSES—BULL RUN PLEASANTRIES—GREENHORNS IN CAMP—FUN WITH 
THE AWKWARD SQUAD—OFFICERS LEARNING THEIR BUSINESS—SENTRIES AND SHOULDER STRAPS—STORIES OF GRANT, LINCOLN, BUTLER, 
SHERMAN, ETC.—DUTCH, IRISH, AND DARKV COMEDY—EXPEDIENTS OF THE HOMESICK—ARMY CHAPLAINS—HOSPITAL HUMOR—GRANTS 
“PIE order”-“THROUGH VIRGINIA”—YANKEE GOOD NATURE AND PLUCK A BETTER STIMULANT THAN WHISKEY. 




HE hardships of cam¬ 
paigning, the suffer¬ 
ings of the hospital, 
the horrors of actual 
combat — none of 
these sufficed to keep 
down the irrepressi¬ 
ble spirit of fun in 
the American soldier. 
From the day of his 
enlistment to the day 
of his discharge he 
did not cease to look 
upon the funny side 
of every situation, 
and the veterans of 
to-day talk more about the humor of the war than of privations 
and pitched battles. Wits in and out of the army said and did 
clever things, some of which have passed into the proverbs and 
idioms of the American people; and more than one distin¬ 
guished “American humorist” laid the foundation of his repu¬ 
tation in connection with the war. 

Humorous situations began at the very recruiting office, or 
the citizens’ meeting which stimulated recruiting, and continued 
to the end of the service. It was at one of the meetings held in 
a New England village that the wife of a spirited citizen, whose 
patriotism consisted in brave words, said to him : “ I thought you 
said you were going to enlist to-night.” Well, he 
had thought better of it. “ Take off those breeches, 
then, and give them to me, and I will go myself.” 

There was not much prospect of “peace” for him 
in a life at home after that; so he went to the 
front. Countless excuses were offered by candi¬ 
dates for the draft in the hope of proving them¬ 
selves physically disqualified for service. The 
man who had one leg too short was let off; but 
the man behind him, who pleaded that he had 
“ both legs too short,” failed to prove a double 
incapacity, and he wore the blue, and that cred¬ 
itably. 

Officers who tarried too long in Washington 
on their way to the front were not seldom 
rendered uncomfortable by the remarks made 
to them or in their hearing. One who was 
eager for news from the first battle of Bull Run 
bought an “ extra ” of a newsboy who was call¬ 
ing, “ All about the battle! ” Glancing over it, 
he shouted after the boy: “ Here! I don’t see 
any battle in this paper.” “ Don’t you ? ” said 
the boy. “ Well, you won’t see any battle if 


you loaf around this hotel all the time.” It was of the battle 
of Bull Run that a wit said, it was so popular it had to be 
repeated the very next year, to satisfy the public demand for 
it. And one of the participants in this first experience of the 
new army said: “At Bull Run we were told that the eyes of 
Washington were upon us; when we knew very well that what 
we were most anxious about was to get our eyes on Washing¬ 
ton.” It was said of the soldiers on both sides in that battle, 
that their guns trembled in their hands, so that if the enemy was 
dodging he was almost certain to be hit, and that the conclusion 
arrived at by the rearward experiments of both armies was that 
a soldier may retreat successfully from almost any position if 
only he starts in time. Thus the pleasantry of the day turned to 
account the “ baptism of fire ” of some of the bravest troops that 
ever wore blue or gray. 

Once in camp, the school-boy spirit revelled in larks of every 
description. A few weeks of experience developed military man¬ 
ners and prepared the recruit to enjoy the greenness of the newer 
comers. On drill, a new recruit was sure to get his toes exactly 
where a “ vet ” wanted to drop the butt of his musket as he 
ordered arms, and if there was a mud-puddle within a yard of 
him he was sure to “ dress ” into it. The new men were sent to 
the officers’ quarters on the most absurd errands, usually in 
quest of some luxury which, fresh from the comforts of home, 
they still regarded as a necessity. The drilling of the awkward 
squad was a never-ending source of amusement; for some men 
are constitutionally incapable of moving in a machine-like har¬ 
mony with others, and these were continually out of 


Manager Lincoln. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I regret to say that the Tragedy, entitled 
The Army of the Potomac , has been withdrawn on account of Quarrels among the leading 
Performers, and I have substituted three new and striking Farces or Burlesques, one, en¬ 
titled The Repulse at Vicksburg, by the well-known, popular favorite, E. M. Stanton, Esq., 
and the others. The Loss of the Harriet Lane and The Exploits of the Alabama — a very 
t>weot thing in Farces. I assuro you—by the Veteran Composer, Gideon Welles." 

(Unbounded Applause by the CorPEau£ADS.> 


























45^ 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



place. One of them was a loose-jointed fellow 
from, say, Nantucket, who was so thorough a 
patriot that he was always longing for home, 
and he met every hardship and discouragement 
with a sigh and the wish that he was back in 
Nantucket. He was exceedingly awkward at 
drill. He seemed to make every movement on 
the “bias.” One day, in responding to a com¬ 
mand, he figured it out so badly as to find him¬ 
self all alone, several yards away from the rest 
of the squad. All at sea, he said : “ Captain, 
where ought I to be now?” The captain, thor¬ 
oughly out of patience, shouted back : “ Why, 
back in Nantucket , gol darn you! ” There was 
the Irishman who said he had spent two years 
in the cavalry learning to turn his toes in , and 
two years in the infantry learning to turn his 
toes out. “ Divil take such a sarvice,” said he ; 

“there’s no plazing the blackguards, anyhow.” 

The drill jokes were 
not all on the men. 

The officers, who at the 
beginning were non¬ 
military citizens like 
their soldiers, had their 
business to learn. In¬ 
deed, it was not an easy 
matter at first to pre¬ 
serve thorough discipline, 
because of the frequent 
equality, in military 
knowledge, between the 
officers and the men. It 
was said that the Ameri¬ 
can soldier was perfectly 
willing to endure hard¬ 
ships, to fight, and if neces¬ 
sary to die, for his country ; 
but the hardest thing for 
him to submit to was to 
be bossed around by his su¬ 
perior officer, who might, 
like enough, be his next- 
door neighbor at home. One 
captain, who had abandoned rail¬ 
roading for the war, in his excite¬ 
ment over the necessity of halt¬ 
ing his men suddenly, true to 
his former calling, shouted out, 

“ Down brakes ! ” And another, 
who had forgotten the command 
for breaking ranks, dismissed his 
company with the order, “ Ad¬ 
journ for rations!” It was a 
Georgian commandant of a Home 
Guard who, while showing his men off before a visiting officer, 
invented his own tactics on the basis of “common sense.” His 
first order after falling in was, “ In two ranks, git! ” It was 
not long before he had his men pretty well mixed up; but, 
equal to the occasion, he shouted, “ Disentangle to the front, 
march!” which was as effective as anything in “Hardee’s Tac¬ 
tics.” Drill sergeants were often peremptory fellows, and they 


/£v*l 




sometimes called on their men to perform 
difficult feats. One under-sized sergeant had 
much trouble with an Irish recruit, whose 
enormous height had given him the habit of 
looking dow 7 i, and he could not keep his chin 
up to the military angle. Finally the ser¬ 
geant reached up to the Irishman’s chin (for 
which he had to stand on tip-toe) and poked 
it up, saying, “ That’s the place for it; now 
don’t let us see your head down again.”— 
“Am I always to be like this, sergeant?” 
asked the recruit. “ Yes, sir.”-—“ Then I'll 
say good by to yez, sergeant, for I’ll niver 
see yez again.” It was a very fresh recruit 
who was found on his sentry post sitting down 
and cleaning his gun, which he had taken 
entirely to pieces. The officer who discov¬ 
ered him rebuked him sternly and asked, 
“Are you the sentinel here?”—“Well, I’m 
a sort of a sentinel.” — “Well, 
I’m a sort of officer of 
the day.”—“ All right,” 
said the undismayed re¬ 
cruit, “just hold on till 
I get my gun together, 
and I’ll give you a sort 
of a salute.” 

The military rule that 
a sentry must challenge 
everybody, and not pass 
unchallenged even those 
whom he knew to be all 
right, was often as slow in 
taking possession of the 
officers’ minds as those of 
the least experienced of the 
men. A full-uniformed lieu¬ 
tenant, much disgusted at 
the “ Who goes there ? ” of 
one of his own company on 
guard, expressed his senti¬ 
ments by indignantly exclaim¬ 
ing, “Ass!” To which the 
sentry promptly responded, “Ad¬ 
vance, Ass, and give the counter¬ 
sign ! ” Not infrequently general 
officers and high dignitaries had 
experiences with the guards of 
their own camps. It is said that 
every great general in history has 
been halted by a guard, the ap¬ 
proach of a well-known superior 
officer giving the sentry an oppor¬ 
tunity of showing off his discipline. 
General McClellan was not only 
halted on a certain occasion, but forced to dismount and call 
up the officer of the guard before a sentry would let him pass. 
General Sherman, who used to see for himself what was going 
on among his men, under the incognito afforded by a rather 
unmilitary dress, once interfered with a teamster who was 
pounding a mule, and told him who he was. “ Oh, that’s played 
out!” said the mule driver; “every man that comes along here 





















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


45 7 



with an old brown coat and a stove-pipe hat claims to be 
General Sherman.” This suggests the story of a mule driver 
in the army who was swearing at and kicking a span of balky 
mules, when the general, who was annoyed at his profanity, 
ordered him to stop. “Who are you?” said the mule driver. 
“I’m the commander of the brigade,” said the general. “I’m 
the commander of these mules, and I’ll do as I please, or re¬ 
sign, and you can take my place ! ” The general passed on. 
Even the President of the United States had his encounter 
with a guard, and was for a short time kept waiting outside 
General Grant s tent under the order, suggested by his some¬ 
what clerical appearance, “No sanitary folks allowed inside!” 

Lincoln always made friends among the soldiers. On one 
occasion he came on some men hewing logs for a hospital, and 
remarking, with a reminiscence of his rail-splitting days, that he 
“ used to be pretty good on the 
chop,” made the chips fly 
for a while like 


where he knew the depth was enough to drown every man of 
them. He was sternly rebuked by his superior, who ordered 
him peremptorily to make the crossing, telling him that his 
requisition would be honored for whatever he might require 
for the purpose. So he made a requisition for “ twenty men 
eighteen feet long to cross a swamp fifteen feet deep.” 

We will give another of the many similar stories. After a 
long march a captain ordered, as a sanitary precaution, that the 
men should change their under-shirts. The orderly sergeant 
suggested that half of the men had only one shirt each. The 
captain hesitated a moment and then said : “ Military orders 
must be obeyed. Let the men, then, change with each other.” 

Orders against unauthorized foraging were very strict. A 
youthful soldier was stopped on his way into camp with a fine 
goose slung over his shoulder, and he was required to account 

for it. “ Well,” said he, “ I 
was coming 


a veteran lumberman. 
The President’s half-pathetic say¬ 
ing, that he had “ no influence with this 
administration,” has passed into history; but less familiar is 
his remark, when some one applied to him for a pass to go 
into Richmond, and he said, “ I don’t know about that; I 
have given passes to about two hundred and fifty thousand 
men to go there during the last two years, and not one of them 
has got there yet.” 

Ben Butler was credited with a lawyer-like disinclination to 
be cross-questioned when he gave orders. Word was brought 
to him that his favorite horse, “ Almond-eye,” had fallen into a 
ravine and been killed, and he called an orderly and told him to 
go to the ravine and skin the horse. “ What, is Almond-eye 
dead?” asked the man. “Never you mind whether he is or 
not,” said the general, “you obey orders.” The man came back 
in about two hours and reported that he had finished. “ Has it 
taken you all this time to skin a horse?” asked Butler. “Oh, 
no; it took me half an hour to catch him,” was the reply. 
“You don’t mean to say you killed him?” shouted the irate 
general. “ My orders were to skin him,” said the soldier, “and 
I obeyed them without asking any questions.” 

Officers and men alike showed much wit in their way of deal¬ 
ing with impossible or unwelcome orders. A lieutenant pro¬ 
tested against an order to take a squad of men across a swamp 


through the vil¬ 
lage whistling ‘ Yankee 
Doodle,’ and this confounded rebel of 
a goose came out and hissed me ; so I shot it.” 

“ Where did you get that turkey?” said the colonel of the 

-Texas regiment to one of his amiable recruits that came 

into camp with a fine bird. 

“ Stole it,” was the laconic reply. 

“Ah!” said the colonel, triumphantly, to a bystander, “you 
see my boys may steal, but they won’t lie.” 

During a battle the interest in the work was so intense as to 
leave small room for fear, either of the enemy or of superior 
officers. An Irish private was ordered to take up the colors 
when the color-bearer was shot down. “ By the holy St. Patrick, 
colonel,” said he, “ there’s so much good shooting here, I haven’t 
a minute’s time to waste fooling; with that thingf.” 

o o 

The desire to get home for a few days developed much inge¬ 
nuity among the enlisted men. “What do you want, Pat?” 
asked General Rosecrans, as he rode along the line, inquiring 
into the wants of his men. “A furlough!” said Pat. “How 
long has your sister been dead?’’ asked a sympathetic comrade 
of a soldier who had obtained a leave on account of the family 
trouble. “ About ten years,” was the cool reply. General 
Thomas asked a man who applied for leave to go and see his 
wife how long it was since he had seen her. “ Over three 




458 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


months,” was the answer. “Three months!” exclaimed the 
general; “why, I haven’t seen my wife for three years!" 
“ That may be,” said the soldier, “ but you see, general, me 
and my wife ain’t o’ that sort.” 

The “ intelligent contraband,” the irrepressible darky, is one 
of the few types of mankind that furnish as much fun in real 
life as on the stage. He was a source of constant amusement 
in the army. A colored refugee from the Confederate lines 
brought word, as the only news worth mentioning (referring to 
himself), that “ a man in Culpeper lost a mighty valuable nigger 
this mornin’.” The driver of a commissary wagon exemplified 
the general non-combativeness of his race, when, in describing 
his emotions during an attack on the train, he said he felt “ like 
every hair of his head was a bugle, an’ dey was all a-playin’ 
* Home, Sweet Home.’ ” An officer tried to induce his servant, 
who was a refugee, to enlist, saying he must trust the Lord to 
keep him safe. “ Well,” he said, “ I did trust de Lord when I 
was tryin’ to get into de Union lines, but I dun dare resk Him 
again! ” 

The army chaplain now and then ran against the rough sol¬ 
dier wit. One of them, who took a practical view of his respon¬ 
sibility for the souls of his regiment, welcomed some recruits 
with the suggestion that, having joined the army of their coun¬ 
try, they should now also join the army of the Lord. “ What 
bounty does He give?” was the irreverent rejoinder. Even in 
hospital the disposition to look on the humorous side of life—or 
of death—never forsook men. One who had lost three fingers 
held up the maimed member and sorrowfully regretted that he 
“ never could hold a full hand again.” A pale-faced sufferer in 
a hospital near a large city was asked by a visiting lady if she 
could not do something for him. No. Could she not bathe his 
head? “You may if you want to very much,” he replied; “but 
if you do, you will be the fourteenth lady that 
has bathed my head this morning.” It was an 
Irish surgeon who remarked that “ the man who 
has lost his finger makes more noise about it 
than the man who has lost his head.” A nurse 
was shocked one morning to find two attendants 
noisily hammering and sawing at one end of a 
ward where a very sick man was lying. In reply 
to her questions, 
they said they 
were making a 
coffin. “Who 
for?” “Him”— 
pointing to the 
sick man. “ Is he 
going to die ?” she 
asked, much dis¬ 
tressed. “The 
doctor says he is, 
an’ I guess he knows 
what he give him ! ” 

It was a Confed¬ 
erate guerilla who 
comforted himself, 
while lying on his 
hospital cot, with 
the reflection, “ I 
reckon I killed as 
many of them as 
they did of me.” 


A soldier was wounded by a shell at Fort Wagner. He was 
going to the rear. “Wounded by a shell?” some one asked. 
“ Yes,” he coolly answered. “ I was right under the durned 
thing when the bottom dropped out.” 

The occurrences in the enemy’s country, and stories that origi¬ 
nated there, furnished no small portion of the humor that was 
current during the war. “ Where does this road lead to ? ” asked 
the lieutenant in command of a reconnoitering party. “ It leads 

to h-! ” was the surly reply of the unregenerate rebel thus 

interrogated. “ Well, by the appearance of the inhabitants of 
this country, I should judge that I’m most there,” was the retort. 
An old man in Georgia was called upon to declare which side he 
took, and, uncertain as to the identity of his captors, he said : 
“I ain’t took no side; but both sides hev took me!” It must 
have been his wife who said : “ I ain’t neither Secesh nor Union 
—jest Baptist.” 

The devotion of Southern women to the Confederacy has 
often been remarked. One of the minor officers of the army, 
who marched with Sherman to the sea, and who states that he 
tramped, all told, at least two thousand miles during the war 
through the South, says that he saw many Southern men who 
were loyal to the Union, and who regretted the secession of 
their respective States, but he saw only one Southern woman 
whom he even suspected to be Union in sentiment. He saw 
this woman during a foraging expedition in connection with the 
march to the sea. He had charge of a squad of thirteen men 
who had marched through the woods some distance away from 
the army. As they rounded a sharp curve in the road, they sud¬ 
denly came upon a house almost covered with foliage. In front 
of the house, and only a few yards from the men, was a woman 
picking up chips. Her back was toward the soldiers, and she 
had not noticed their approach. The commanding officer mo¬ 
tioned to his men to stop, and, tip-toeing up to the 
side of the woman, he put his arm around her 
waist and kissed her. Stepping back a pace or two, 
he waited for the bitter denunciation and abuse 
that he was sure would come. The woman, how¬ 
ever, straightened herself up, looked at 
the officer for a moment, and then said 
slowly: “ You’ll find me right here every 
morning a-picking up chips.” The offi¬ 
cer said he strong¬ 
ly suspected that 
she was disloyal to 
the South. 

A military pe¬ 
culiarity of Gen¬ 
eral Bragg’s was 
touched on in the 
remark that, when 
he died and ap¬ 
proached the gate 
of heaven and was 
invited in, the first 
thing he’d do 
would be to “ fall 
back.” Gen. W. 
T. Sherman never 
seemed to suit the 
Confederates, no 
matter what he 
did. One of the 



FUN IN CAMP. 





































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


459 


prisoners who fell into the hands of his army gave the following 
graphic expression of the Southern idea of the general: “Sher¬ 
man gits on a hill, flops his wings and crows; then he yells 
out: ‘Attention, creation! by kingdoms, right wheel, march!' 
And then we git! ” It was a solitary relic left behind after one 
of Sherman’s advances, that, communing with himself, said: 
“Well, I’m badly whipped and somewhat demoralized, but no 
man can say I am scattered.” 

Among the humorous miscellanies of the war, General Grant’s 
“ pie order ” must have an immortal place. It was during Grant’s 
early campaign in Eastern Missouri that a lieutenant in command 
of the advance guard inspired the mistress of a wayside house 
with exceptional alacrity in supplying the wants of himself and 
men by announcing himself to be Brigadier-General Grant. Later 
in the day the general himself came to the same house and was 
turned away with the information that General Grant and staff 
had been there that morning and eaten everything in the house 
but one pumpkin pie. Giving her half a dollar, he told her 
to keep that pie till he sent for it. That evening the army 
went into camp some miles beyond this place, and at the dress 
parade that was ordered, the following special order was pub¬ 
lished : 


“ Headquarters, Army in the Field. 

“Special Orders, No. —. 

“ Lieutenant Wickfield, of the —th Indiana Cavalry, having on this day 
eaten everything in Mrs. Selvidge's house, at the crossing of the Ironton and 
Pocahontas and Black River and Cape Girardeau roads, except one pumpkin 
pie, Lieutenant Wickfield is hereby ordered to return with an escort of one 
hundred cavalry and eat that pie also. 

“ U. S. Grant, 

“ Brigadier-General Commanding.'' 

Virginia mud and Virginia swamps were celebrated by the 
invention of the response to the question, “ Did you go through 
Virginia ? ” “Yes—in a number of places; ” and the exclamation 
of the trooper who was fording a stream flanked by miles of 
swamp on either side: “ Blowed if I don’t think we have struck 
this stream lengthwise.” 

It is impossible here to attempt more than a suggestion of the 
combination of good nature and pluck that, all through the dread¬ 
ful days of the war, rendered hardships endurable, lent courage 
to the faint-hearted, and cheered the low-spirited. “ The humor 
of the war” was no mere ebullition of school-boy fun : it was as 
potent a factor in accomplishing the results of the war as powder 
and shot—a stimulant that carried men over hard places better 
than whiskey. 


WAR HUMOR IN THE SOUTH 


THE BADINAGE OF THE ARMY—NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS —“ PICKIN’ A CHUNE ” FROM A BASS DRUM — SWEARING THAT WAS “ PLUM NIGH 
LIKE PREACHIN’ ”—WHAT IS A “ BEE-LINE ” ?—FUN AMONG THE NEGROES—STONEWALL JACKSON’S BODY-SERVANT—WOMEN IN SEWING 
SOCIETIES AND AT THE BEDSIDES OF THE WOUNDED. 



OUTHERN soldiers, like 
their Northern oppo¬ 
nents, soon found that 
humor was a safety 
valve — a diversion 
from the graver 
thoughts that, in their 
lonely hours, lingered 
around the wife, 
mother, and children 
in the distant home. 
Withal, it was a spon¬ 
taneous good humor, 
such as Washington 
Irving calls the “ oil 
and wine of a merry 
meeting,” where the 
companionship was 
contagious and the jokes small, but the jollity was abundant. 
It might not have been as polished as that of Uncle Toby or 
Corporal Trim, nor as philosophical as Dickens makes the obser¬ 


vations of the elder Mr. Weller and his son “Sam, but it exem¬ 
plified human nature in the rough, and overflowed harmlessly. 

Those who have had occasion to make the comparison have, 
without doubt, observed salient points of difference between the 
styles of badinage prevalent in the Northern and Southern 
armies. Your Southerner was no respecter of persons. He 
seized on any feature of an individuality that presented a ludi¬ 
crous side. If a stranger was unusually long or short, or lean or 
fat, he was sure to be a target for ridicule. 



Passing through Frederick in the first Maryland campaign 
(1862), a good-natured-looking citizen, who evidently had not 
been able to tie his shoestrings for a number of years, stood on 
his doorstep watching us as we passed. “Hi, there ! H og-kill- 
ing time, boys,” suddenly astonished his ears, and was the signal 
for an instant fire of playful chaff. “Aint he swelled power¬ 
ful? ” “ Must have swallowed a bass drum.” “ I say, stranger, 


buttermilk or corn-fed?” “ 
hurt ?” ventured the fat man 
rations around with yer all 
day.” In a minute or two 
the old gentleman, very red 
in the face, carried his ab¬ 
dominal rotundity into the 
house, but quickly reap¬ 
peared with a demijohn in 
each hand. “ Here, boys ! ” 
he exclaimed, “ wash your 
mouths out with some of 
this applejack, and have a 
bit of mercy on a fat man.” 

It is needless to say that the 
boys promptly cheered their 
vote of thanks. 

The colonel of a South 
Carolina regiment, having 
returned from his furlough 
with a pair of high top boots 
—boots were then worth 
seven or eight hundred 


Does it hurt much ? ” “ What 

quizzically. “ Why, totin’ them 


GENERAL HOOKER. 















(FROM A GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPH.) 












































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


461 




dollars—had the temerity to 
run the gauntlet of a neigh¬ 
boring brigade, and heard 
comments like these : “ I say, 
mister, better git out’r them 
smokestacks; know you’re 
in thar ’cause we 
kin see 


GENERAL BEAUREGARD. 

yer head s t i c k i n’ out. 

“ Boys, the kern’l ’s gone 
into winter quarters.” 

“ What mout be the price 
o’ them nail kags?” etc. 

An officer wearing no¬ 
ticeably bushy whiskers 
was unfeelingly invited 
to “ come out from be¬ 
hind that bunch of har ! 

’Taint no use t’ say yer 
thar, ’cause yer ears is workin’ monstrous 
powerful.” It was rarely safe, under these 
circumstances, to answer with either wit or 
abuse. 

Our soldiers had little respect for what were 
known as “ bombproofs ”-—the fellows who 
had easy positions in the rear. On one occa¬ 
sion a smartly dressed young officer belonging 
to this kindred cantered up to a depot where 
a regiment of men were awaiting transfer. 

As soon as they saw him they began whoop¬ 
ing: “Oh, my! aint he pooty!” “Say, mis¬ 
ter, whar’d ye git that biled shut?” “Does 
yer grease that har with ham fat, or how ? 

And so they plied the poor fellow with all 
manner of questions concerning his age, occupation, religious 
and political convictions, that were calculated to make a man 
feel uncomfortable. One feather, however, broke the camel’s 
back. A long, cadaverous specimen of humanity, who had evi¬ 
dently been making a comical survey of the victim—his hand¬ 
some uniform, and well-polished boots—taking a step or two 
forward as if to show his intense interest, solemnly drawled 
out: “ Was yer ra-a-ly born so, or did they put yer together 
by corntract ? Strikes me yer must have got yere in a drove 
or ben picked afore you was ripe.” Then somebody suggested 
that “ sich a nice-lookin’ rooster ought to git down and scratch 
for a wurrum ” ; and amid the laughter that followed, he was 
glad to put spurs to his horse and gallop out of hearing. 

Cavalrymen were called by the infantry “ buttermilk rangers,” 
and the musicians came in for more than their share of good- 
natured chaff. Rather than be tormented, the latter would 
sometimes leave the line of march and go through the fields, 


thus avoiding the frequent invitation to “ give us a toot on yer 
old funnel,” or “ brace up with yer blow-pipe.” One day a 
bass drummer, plodding along, was attracted by a pitiful voice 
coming from a group of men resting by the roadside : “ Mister, 
0I1, mister, please come yere?” Turning in the direction, he 
found it proceeded from a woe-begone-looking Mississippian, 
whose sickly appearance was well calculated to arouse the sym¬ 
pathy of a tender-hearted musician. “Well, what can I do for 
you?” said the man with the drum. “Oh, a heap, a heap. I’ve 
got a powerful misery, and I thought as how you mout 
set down yere and pick a cliune for a sick man on that 
ar thing you tote around on your stomach.” Shouts 
of laughter told him that he was “ sold,” and he never 
heard the last of the applications for the soothing tones 
of “ that ar thing.” 

This drollery of expression cropped out even amid the 
turmoil and excitement of the battlefield. The story is 
told of a young fellow who was under fire at Manassas for 
the first time, one of those hundreds of thousands on both 
sides behind whose inexperience was too much pride of char¬ 
acter to permit them to show the white feather, and whose 
fear of the contempt of their comrades, as well as of the dis¬ 
grace at home, made them good fighters. He had become 
pretty well warmed up and was doing excellent service when 
suddenly he caught sight of a rabbit loping across the field 
between the lines. Dropping his gun, as he was about to shoot, 

he looked dolefully at the 
little animal for an instant 
and then yelled with hon¬ 
est pathos : “ Go it, cotton 
tail, go it. I’m ez sheered 
ez you be, an’ ef I hadn’t a 
reputation to lose I’d run 
too.” 

At the battle of Kinston, 
N. C., Gen. N. E. Evans, 
of South Carolina, famil¬ 
iarly known in the old 
army as “ Shanks,” posted 
a body of raw militia at 
the crossing of a creek, 


iifi 


GENERAL MoDOWELL. 


but they were met by 
a severe fire and forced 
to give way. In the dis¬ 
order that followed, the 
general caught one of 
the fugitives and with 
a number of emphatic 
adjectives demanded : 
“ What are you running 
away for, you blank, 
blank coward ? You 
ought to be ashamed of 
yourself.” “ I ain’t run- 
nin’ away, gineral, I’m 
jes’ sheered. Why, them 
fellers over thar are 
shootin’ bullets at us big 


PR. LINCOLN S 


'IUS 




A BITTERDRAUCHT." 





































462 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


as watermillions, boo-hoo-hoo! One on ’em 
went right peerst my head—right peerst—an’ I 
want ter go home.” 

“ Well, why didn’t you shoot back, sir ? 

You are crying like a baby.” 

“ I know it, gineral, I know it, boo-hoo ! and 
I wish I was a baby, and a gal baby too, and 
then I wouldn’t have ben cornscripted.” 

This reminds us of another North Carolina 
story. During the Rebellion the staff of Gen¬ 
eral Wise was riding through a rather forlorn 
part of that State, and a young Virginian of 
the staff concluded to have a little fun at the 
expense of a long-legged specimen of the genus 
homo who wore a very shabby gray uniform and 
bestrode a worm fence at the roadside. Rein¬ 
ing in his horse, he accosted him with “ How 
are you, North Carolina?” 

“ How are you, Virginia? ” was the ready re¬ 
sponse. 

The staff officer continued: “The blockade on turpentine 
makes you rather hard up, don’t it ? No sale for tar now ? ” 

“ Well—yes—” was the slow response. “ We sell all our tar 
to Jeff Davis now.” 

“ The thunder you do ! What on earth does the President 
want of your tar ? ” 

North Carolina answered, “ He puts it on the heels of Vir¬ 
ginians to make them stick on the battlefield.” 

The staff rode on. 

Speaking of General Evans, an incident is recalled concerning 
his brother-in-law, Gen. Mart Gary, who succeeded Wade Hamp¬ 
ton in the command of the Hampton Legion. Gary employed 


many phrases, especially in battle, that are not 
often heard in polite society. His old body- 
servant, commenting on this habit, gave the 
following description of the manner in which 
his master stormed and swore at some dis¬ 
obedience of orders during one of the fights. 

“ I golly, massa, but de way de ole man 
moub about dat day was ’scrutiatin’. He went 
dis away an’ he went dat away wabin his sword 
like a scythe blade. He went yere and he 
went dar; but to hear de ole man open bat¬ 
tery on de hard wuds in de langidge and jes’ 
frow um aroun’—frow um aroun* loose—I de- 
clar, boss, it were plum nigh like preachin’.” 

At first, the necessity for discipline was not 
recognized by the raw Southern volunteers, 
and instances of the verdancy which pre¬ 
vailed were common. When a picket guard 
at Harper’s Ferry, where our first troops as¬ 
sembled, was being detailed for duty, one of 
the men stoutly protested against any such arrangement, be¬ 
cause, as he remarked, “ What’s the use of gwine out thar t’ 
keep ev’rybody off? We’ve all kim here t’ hev a fight with the 
Yankees, and ef yer keep fellers out thar t’ skeer ’em off, how in 
thunder are we gwine to hev a scrimmage?” 

An officer, while inspecting the sentinel lines one day, asked a 
picket what he would do if he saw a body of men coming. 
“Halt ’em, and demand the countersign, sir!” “But suppose 
they wouldn’t halt?” “Then I’d shoot.” “Suppose they 
didn’t stop then, what would you do?” “I reckon I’d form 
a line, sir.” “A line? What kind of a line?” “A bee-line 
straight for camp, and run like thunder!” 




LINCOLN SIGNING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.- KROM A SOUTHERN WAR ETCHING. 







































































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


A young lieutenant, fresh from a country drill ground and 
sadly ignorant of the tactics of Hardee or Scott, didn’t know 
exactly what to do when the commanding officer ordered him 
one morning to “ mount guard.” He marched off with his squad 
of men, however, and about an hour afterwards was found sitting 
under a tree and talking to some one in the branches. “ Well, 
lieutenant, have you mounted guard?” “ Oh, yes, sir,” was the 
cool reply; “ got ’lev’n up this tree and t’others V over yander 
roost’n’ in another.” 

The Southern negroes also furnished abundant humor of their 
peculiar kind. During the occupation of Yorktown, Va., a shell 
entering camp made a muddle of a lot of pots and kettles. 
Mingo, the cook, at once started off for a safe place in the rear. 
On the way he was met by one of his brother servants, who 
inquired : “ Wot’s de matter, Mingo ? Whar’s yo’ gwine wid such 
a hurrification ? ” 

“’Ain’t gwine nowhar p’t’c’lar; jis’ gittin’ outen de way dem 
waggin hubs dey’s t’rowin’ at us.” 

“ Eh, eh, Mingo, I ’spects dat’s a sign you’s a wicked nigger, 
for ef yo’ was a good Chrishun yo’ nebber be skeer by dem shell. 
Ef yo’ listen to de Good Book, yo’ find dat Massa up yander 
am pintin’ eb’ry one ob em, an’ know ’zactly whar to drap um ! ” 

“ Da’ mebbe so, mebbe so ; but yo’ can’t fool dis chile. Hear 
me, Jupiter. Dar’s too much powder in dem t’ings for the good 
Lor’ to meddle wid ’em, and dis chile ain’t gwine ter bu’n hisself, 
needer. And dar’s dem Minnie bullets, too. When dey come 
flyin’ troo de air singin’ de chune, whar is yer, whar is yer? I 
ain’t gwine for to stop and say whar I is fur de bessest cotton 
patch in the lan’. I’se a twenty-two-hundred-dollar nigger, 
Jupiter, an’ I’se gwine t’ tek keer ob what b’long t’ massa.” 

It is said that the body-servant of Stonewall Jackson always 

knew when he was 
about to engage 
in a battle. Some 
one asked him 
how he came to 
be so much in the 
confidence of his 
master. “ Lor’, 
sir,” was the re¬ 
ply, “ de gin’rul 
nebber tell me 
nuffin’. De way 
I know is dis: 
massa say he 
prayer twice a 
day—mornin’ an’ 
night; but w’en 
he git up two or 
t’ree time in de 
night to pray, den 
I begin to pack de 
haversack de fus’ 
t’ing, ca’se I know 
dere’ll be de ole 
boy to pay right 
away.” 

In the early 
part of the war 
there was much 


equality between the officers 
and privates. Many of the 
latter were socially and intel¬ 
lectually superior to the 
former. In the course of an 
altercation one day, a subor¬ 
dinate made an irritating re¬ 
mark, when his captain ex¬ 
claimed: “ If you repeat that, 

I’ll lay down my rank and 
fight you.” “ Lay down your 
rank!” was the indignant re¬ 
sponse. “ That won’t make 
you a gentleman. A coward 
ought to fight with straps on 
his shoulders, but it takes a 
gentleman to fight for eleven 
dollars a month ! ” 

The women of the South 
furnished what may be called the nerve-force of the war. 
Lrom the very beginning they made it disgraceful for any 
man of fighting age to stay at home without sufficient cause. 
Their earliest associations were soldiers’ sewing societies. Yet 
not all of the ladies were at first adepts in fashioning men’s 
attire, and sometimes comical results followed. Stockings 
failed to match, and buttons would be sewed on the wrong 
side of a man’s shirt or breeches. In one instance a friend of 
the writer turned over to the matron president of her society 
in Charleston a pair of trousers with one leg. “Why, what in 
the world did you make that thing for?” was asked by the old 
lady. “ Oh—er—er, why, that’s for a one-legged soldier, of 
course,” gasped the young patriot in her confusion. “That’s all 
right, Miss Georgia; very thoughtful, very thoughtful. But,” 
looking at them quizzically through her spectacles, “ Miss 
Georgia, you’ve got ’em buttoned up behind.” 

After the battle of Leesburg, Va., a group of ladies visited the 
wounded, and seeing one of the latter prone upon his stomach, 
the sympathetic question was asked, as would be quite natural: 
“ Where are you hurt?” The man, an Irishman, pretended not 
to hear, and replied : “ Purthy well, I thank ye, mum.” “ But 
where were you wounded?” again fired away one of the ladies. 
“ Laith, it’s nothing at all, at all, that I want, leddies. I think 
I’ll be on me way to Richmond in about tin days,” again 
answered Pat, with a peculiarly distressed look, as if he wished 
to avoid further conversation on a delicate subject. 

Thinking that he was deaf, an old lady, who had remained in 
the background, now put her mouth down to his ear and shouted : 
“ We—want—to—know—where—you—are—hurt—where-—you 
—are—wounded—so—we—can—do—something—for—you ! ” 
Pat, evidently finding that if the bombardment continued 
much longer he would have to strike his flag, concluded to do 
so at once, and with a face as rosy as a boiled lobster and a 
humorous twinkle in his eye replied : “ Sure, leddies, it’s not 
deaf that I am ; but since ye’re determined to know where I’ve 
been hurted, it’s—it’s where I can’t sit down to take my males. 
The rascally bullet entered the behind o’ me coat! ” 

Sudden locomotion followed, and the story circulated among 
the fair sex like quicksilver on a plate of glass; but while Paddy 
had plenty of sympathy, they pestered him with no more ques¬ 
tions of “Where are you hurt? ” HENRY W. B. Howard. 



Chase. Stanton. 

UNIVERSAL ADVICE TO ABRAHAMDROP 'EM!’ 


463 



GENERAL JOHNSTON. 










































464 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


INDIVIDUAL HEROISM AND THRILLING 

INCIDENTS. 

KINDNESS TO FEDERAL PRISONERS BY MEMBERS OF THE FIFTY-FOURTH 
VIRGINIA REGIMENT—AN ORATION ON PATRIOTISM—THE LAST 
WORDS OF AN HEROIC SOLDIER—HE DIES FOR US—MATCHING 
GALLANT AND CHIVALROUS DEEDS OF PREVIOUS WARS—AN 
INCIDENT OF GETTYSBURG —HOW GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON 
GAVE AID AND COMFORT TO HIS ENEMY, GENERAL BARLOW— 
WOMEN WHO DARED AND SUFFERED FOR THE FLAG —MRS. 
BROMWELL, A BRAVE COLOR-BEARER IN TIME OF DANGER—A 
MODERN ANDRE—THE SULTANA DISASTER—THE HERO OF BURN¬ 
SIDE’S MINE. 

AN ORATION ON PATRIOTISM. 

I HAVE listened to the best speakers our country has possessed 
in the thirty years which have elapsed since the war, but not 
one of them has made the impression on my mind which a few 
words, falling from the lips of a private soldier, did away back 
in 1862. 

It was the night of the 30th of August, 1862, and I, with 
others, was lying in the Van Pelt farmhouse, on the field of 
the Second Bull Run. The time of night I do not know. I 
had been semi-unconscious from the joint effect of chloroform 
and amputations. The room in the old farmhouse in which I 
lay was crowded with desperately wounded men, or boys, for 
some of us were not nineteen years of age—one hundred and 
seventy odd men in and around the house. With returned 
consciousness, sometime in the night, I became aware of voices 
near me. 

I turned my head as I lay on the floor, and next beyond me 
I saw the dim light of a kerosene lamp on the floor. I soon 


made out that some one was kneeling by a wounded man and 
examining his wounds. I heard the injunction given, “Tell me 
honestly, doctor, what my chance is.” He had been shot in the 
abdomen, and all too soon came the verdict, “ My poor fellow, 
you will not see another sunrise.” I heard his teeth grate as he 
struggled to control himself, and then he spoke: “ Doctor, will 
you do me a favor?”—“Certainly,” was the response; “what is 
it?”—“ Make a memorandum of my wife’s address and write her 
a line telling her how and when and where I die.” Out came 
the surgeon’s pencil and memorandum book, and made note of 
the name and address. I did not remember them the next day, 
or since. I only recall it was some town in Michigan. 

It appeared that the dying soldier was a man of some property, 
and in the clearest manner he stated his advice to his wife as to 
the best way to handle it. All this was noted down, and then 
he paused ; and the surgeon, anxious, it is to be presumed, to 
get along to others who so sorely needed his aid, said, “ Is that 
all, my friend?”—“ No,” he replied falteringly; “that is not all. 
I have two little boys. Oh, my God!” Just this one outburst 
from an agonized heart, and then, mastering his emotion, he 
drew himself hastily up, resting on his elbows, and said: “Tell 
my wife, doctor, that with my dying breath I charge her to so rear 
our boys that if, when they shall have come to years of manhood, 
their country shall need their services, even unto death, they 
will give them as fully as, I trust under God, their father gives 
his life this night.” That was all. He sank back, exhausted, 
and the surgeon passed along. In the gray of the morning, 
when I roused enough to be aware of what was transpiring 
around me, I glanced toward him. A cloth was over his face, 
and soon his silent form was carried out. I repeat, I have heard 
the best speakers of my time, but after all these years I still 


: • 



WE DRANK FROM THE SAME CANTEEN. 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


465 


pronounce the dying utterances of that unknown soldier as the 
grandest oration on patriotism I have ever listened to. 


HE DIED FOR US. 

As I stir the memories of those days, there comes to mind one 
experience which, even after the lapse of all these years, stirs me 
deeply. For over three hundred years English history has been 
enriched by the recital of the chivalrous act of Sir Philip Sidney, 
who, stricken with a mortal wound at Zutphen, and being offered 
a drink of water, took the cup, but, when about to raise it to his 
lips, saw the eyes of a wounded private soldier fixed longingly 
thereon. With all the grace and courtliness which had at any 
time characterized him when treading the salon of Queen Eliza¬ 
beth, the gallant knight handed him the refreshing draught, say¬ 
ing, “ Friend, thy necessities are greater than mine, drink.” 
The private drank, and the knight died. 

I have a pride in the belief that in our four years of bloody 
strife we matched the most gallant, chivalrous deeds that pre¬ 
vious history has recorded. It was my good fortune to meet 
and participate in the beneficence of a lineal descendant, in spirit, 
if not in blood, of Sir Philip Sidney, albeit he was garbed in the 
uniform of a private soldier of the Union army. Some of us who 
were lying there in the Van Pelt farmhouse, after the battle of 
the Second Bull Run, and who had suffered amputations, were 
carried out of the house and placed in a little tent in the yard. 
There were six of us in the tent, and we six had had seven legs 
amputated. Our condition was horrible in the extreme. Several 
of us were as innocent of clothing as the hour we were born. 
Between our mangled bodies and the rough surface of the board 
floor there was a thin rubber blanket. To cover our nakedness, 
another blanket. I was favored above the others in that I had 
a short piece of board set up slanting for a pillow. Between us 
and the fierce heat of that Virginia sun there was but the poor 
protection of the thin tent-cloth. There were plenty of flies to 
pester us and irritate our wounds. Our bodies became afflicted 
with loathsome sores, and, horror indescribable! maggots found 
lodging in wounds and sores, and we were helpless. Cremation 
made converts in those hours. 

A very few attendants had been detailed to stay behind with 
us when it was apparent we must fall into the enemy's hands, 
but they were entirely inadequate in point of numbers to min¬ 
ister to our wants. Heat and fever superinduced an awful thirst, 
and our moans were for water, water, and very often there was 
none to give us water. 

We lay there one day when there was none to answer our cry; 
but outside of our tent the ground was strewn with wounded 
men, one among whom was Christ-like in his humanitarianism. 
Sorely wounded in his left side, torn by a piece of a shell, he 
could not rise and go and get us drink, but it always seemed to 
us that, like his prototype of more than three centuries ago, he 
said in the depths of his great heart, “ Their necessities are 
greater than mine,” for he could crawl and we could not. Some 
little distance across the grass he saw where some apples had 
fallen down from the branches overhead. Every motion must 
have been agony to him, yet he deliberately clutched at the 
grass, dragged himself along until he was in reach of the apples, 
some of which he put in the pockets of his army blouse, and 
then turning, and keeping his bleeding side uppermost, he dragged 
himself back to our tent and handed out the apples. 

As I lay nearest, I took them from him one by one and passed 


them along till we each had one, and I had just set my teeth in 
the last one he handed in, and it tasted as delicious as nectar, 
when, hearing an agonizing moan at my right, I turned my head 
on my board pillow, and saw our unknown benefactor, his hands 
clutched, his eyes fixed in the glare of death ; a tremor shook 
his figure, and the eternal peace of death was his. 

This was all we ever knew of him. His name and condition 
in life were a sealed book to us. I saw that he was unkempt of 
hair, unshaven of beard ; his clothes were soiled with dirt and 
stained with blood—not at all such a figure as you would wel¬ 
come in your parlor or at your dinner table; but this I thought 
as I gazed at the humble tenement of clay from which the great 
soul had fled, that in that last act of his he had exhibited so 
much of the purely Christ-like attribute in the effort to reach 
out and help poor suffering humanity, that in the last day when 
we shall be judged for what we have been and not for what we 
may have pretended to have been, I had rather take that man’s 
chance at the judgment bar of God than that of many a gentle¬ 
man in my circle of acquaintance of much greater pretensions. 

AN INCIDENT OF GETTYSBURG* 

Though never a war was fought with more earnestness than 
our own late war between the North and the South, never a war 
was marked by more deeds of noble kindness between the men, 
officers and privates, of the contending sides. Serving at the 
front during the entire war as a captain of engineers of the Con¬ 
federate army, many such deeds came under my own personal 
attention, and many have been related to me by eye-witnesses. 
Here is one especially worthy of record: 

The advance of the Confederate line of battle commenced 
early on the morning of July 1, 1863, at Gettysburg. The 
infantry division commanded by Major-Gen. John B. Gordon, 
of Georgia, was among the first to attack. Its objective point 
was the left of the Second Corps of the Union army. The 
daring commander of that corps occupied a position so far 
advanced beyond the main line of the Federal army, that, while 
it invited attack, it placed him beyond the reach of ready 
support when the crisis of battle came to him in the rush of 
charging lines more extended than his own. The Confederate 
advance was steady, and it was bravely met by the Union 
troops, who for the first time found themselves engaged in battle 
on the soil of the North, which until then had been virgin to the 
war. It was “a far cry” from Richmond to Gettysburg, yet 
Lee was in their front, and they seemed resolved to welcome 
their Southern visitors “ with bloody hands to hospitable graves.” 
But the Federal flanks rested in air, and, being turned, the line 
was badly broken, and, despite a bravely resolute defence against 
the well-ordered attack of the Confederate veterans, was forced 
to fall back. 

Gordon’s division was in motion at a double quick, to seize 
and hold the vantage ground in his front from which the oppos¬ 
ing line had retreated, when he saw directly in his path the 
apparently dead body of a Union officer. He checked his horse, 
and then observed, from the motion of the eyes and lips, that 
the officer was still living. He at once dismounted, and, seeing 
that the head of his wounded foeman was lying in a depression 


* The account here given of this interesting incident is taken from an article by 
Capt. T. J. Mackey, of the Confederate army, recently published in McClure's Mag¬ 
azine. 




(FROM A WAR-DEPARTMENT PHOTOGRAPH.) 










CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


467 


in the ground, placed under it a near-by knapsack. While rais¬ 
ing him at the shoulders for that purpose, he saw that the blood 
was trickling from a bullet-hole in the back, and then knew that 
the officer had been shot through the breast. He then gave him 
a drink from a flask of brandy and water, and, as the man re¬ 
vived, said, while bending over him, “ I am very sorry to see you 
in this condition. I am General Gordon. Please tell me who 
you are. I wish to aid you all I can.” 

The answer came in feeble tones: “Thank you, general. I 
am Brigadier-General Barlow, of New York. You can do noth¬ 
ing for me; I am dying.” Then, after a pause, he said, “Yes, 
you can. My wife is at the headquarters of General Meade. 
If you survive the battle, please let her know that I 
died doing my duty.” 

General Gordon replied: “Your message, if I live, 
shall surely be given to your wife. Can I do nothing 
more for you ? ” 

After a brief pause, General Barlow 
responded: “ May God bless you! 

Only one thing more. Feel in the 
breast pocket of my coat—the left _ 


breast—and take 
out a packet of 
letters.” 

g 

As General Gor¬ 


don unbuttoned 


the blood-soaked 

AMij 

coat, and took out 

gym 

the packet, the 

- -^9 

seemingly dying 

- 

soldier said: 




“ Now please take 
out one, and read 
it to me. They 
are from my wife. 

I wish that her 
words shall be the 
last I hear in this 
world.” 

Resting on one 
knee at his side, 

General Gordon, 
in clear tones, but 
with tearful eyes, 
read the letter. 

It was the missive 
of a noble woman 
to her worthy hus¬ 
band, whom she 
k n e w to be in 
daily peril of his 
life, and with 
pious fervor 
breathed a prayer 
for his safety, and 

commended him to the care of the God of battles. As the read¬ 
ing of the letter ended, General Barlow said : “Thank you. Now 
please tear them all up. I would not have them read by others.” 

General Gordon tore them into fragments and scattered them 
on the field “ shot-sown and bladed thick with steel.” Then, 
pressing General Barlow’s hand, General Gordon bade him good- 
by, and, mounting his horse, quickly joined his command. 


He hastily penned a note on the pommel of his saddle, giving 
General Barlow’s message to his wife, but stated that he was 
still living, though seriously wounded, and informing her where 
he lay. Addressing the note to “ Mrs. General Barlow, at Gen¬ 
eral Meade’s headquarters,” lie handed it to one of his staff, and 

told him to place 
• —v a white handker¬ 

chief upon his 
sword, and ride in 
a gallop toward 
the enemy’s line, 
and deliver the 
note to Mrs. Bar- 
low. The officer 
promptly obeyed 
the order. He 
was not fired 
upon, and, o n 
being met by a 
Union officer who 
advanced to learn 
his business, he 
presented the 
note, which was received 
and read, with the assur¬ 
ance that it should be de¬ 
livered instantly. 

Let us turn from Gettysburg to 
the capital, Washington, where, 
eleven years later, General Gor¬ 
don held with honor, as now, a seat 
as senator of the United States, and 
was present at a dinner party given 
by Orlando B. Potter, a representative in Congress 
from the State of New York. 

Upon Mr. Potter’s introducing to him a gentleman 
with the title of General Barlow, General Gordon 
remarked: “Are you a relative of the General Bar¬ 


low, a gallant soldier, who was killed at Gettysburg?” 

The answer was: “ I am the General Barlow who 
was killed at Gettysburg, and you are the General 


RETREAT OF LEE'S ARMY AFTER GETTYSBURG. 


Gordon who succored me! ” The meeting was 
worthy of two such brave men—every inch Ameri¬ 
can soldiers. 

I should add, that, on receiving her husband's 
note, which had been speedily delivered, Mrs. Bar- 
low hastened to the field, though not without 
danger to her person, for the battle was still in 
progress. She soon found her husband, and had 
him borne to where he could receive surgical at¬ 
tendance. 

Through her devoted ministrations he was enabled to 
resume his command of the “ Excelsior Brigade,” and add 
to the splendid reputation which it had achieved under 
General Sickles, its first commander. 


AN INTERESTING INCIDENT. 

It was a curious fact during the war, that, however savage and 
hostile the armies and the troops might be in action, there was 
a certain friendly relation subsisting between individuals on the 


























468 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


opposing 
sides, and 
even between 
special com¬ 
mands. The 
semi- inter¬ 
course be- 
tween the 
picket lines 
is a familiar 
story ; it was 
based princi¬ 
pally on an 
agreement 
that the pop¬ 
ping over of 
an occasional 
poor devil who 
happened to 
be exposed 

was not compensated for by any material military gain, so the 
pickets were generally suffered to perform their lonesome vigil 
without being shot like squirrels. But there was also a touch of 
the common humanity in this intercourse, which went beyond 
mere military conventions. A pleasant episode of warfare in 
Tennessee marked the kindly relation that sometimes was estab¬ 
lished between regiments. The Third Ohio Regiment were 
among the prisoners after a certain engagement, and when they 
entered a Tennessee town, on their way to the prisons in Rich¬ 
mond, they were visited, through curiosity, by a number of the 
Fifty-fourth Virginia, who wanted to see how the Yankees liked 
it to be hungry and tired and hopeless. The melancholy picture 
that met their gaze was enough to touch their hearts, and it did so. 
They ran back to their camp, and soon returned reinforced by 
others of their regiment, all bringing coffee (and kettles to boil it 
in), corn-bread, and bacon ; and with these refreshments, which 
were all they had themselves, they regaled the hungry prisoners, 
mingling with them and doing all they could to re¬ 
lieve their distress, and the next morning the prison¬ 
ers departed on their weary way, deeply grateful for 
the kindness of their enemies, and vowing never 
to forget it. It was not long before the oppor¬ 
tunity came to them to show that they remem¬ 
bered it. In due time they were exchanged, and, 
returning to service, they found themselves en¬ 
camped near Kelly’s Ferry, on the Tennessee 
River. When Missionary Ridge was stormed, a 
lot of prisoners were taken from the Confederates, 
and among the number was the Fifty-fourth Vir¬ 
ginia, and they were marched nine miles to Kelly’s 
Ferry. It happened that at the landing there were 
some of the Third Ohio, and they asked what regi¬ 
ment this was. The answer, “The Fifty-fourth 
Virginia,” had a most surprising effect on them. 

They left the spot on the run, and rushing up to 
their camp they shouted out to the boys, “ The 
Fifty-fourth Virginia is at the ferry!” If they 
had announced the appearance of a hostile army 
in force, they could not have started up a greater 
or a quicker activity in the camp. The men ran 
about like mad, loaded themselves up with every 
eatable thing they could lay their hands on—coffee, 


bacon, sugar, beef, preserved fruits, everything—and started 
with a yell for the ferry, where they surrounded and hugged 
the Virginians like so many reunited college-mates, and spread 
before them the biggest feast they had seen since the Old 
Dominion seceded from the Union. 


THE “SULTANA” DISASTER. 

The Mississippi steamer Sultana called at Vicksburg, April 25, 
1865, on her journey from New Orleans to St. Louis, receiving 
on board nineteen hundred and sixty-four Union prisoners from 
Columbia, Salisbury, Andersonville, and elsewhere, who had 
been exchanged in regular manner, or set free through the sur¬ 
render or flight of their jailers. 

Being anxious to proceed North, the poor fellows gave little 
heed to the fact that the Snltana was already carrying a heavy 
load of passengers and freight, and that workmen were busy re¬ 
pairing her boilers as she lay at the wharf. So great was the 
swarm that when they came to lie down for sleep every foot of 
available space on all the decks, and even the tops of the cabins 
and the wheel-house, was occupied by a soldier wrapped in his 
blanket, and making light of his uncomfortable berth in anticipa¬ 
tion of a speedy arrival home. 

From Vicksburg the Sultana steamed to Memphis, and there 
took on coal, leaving the wharf at one A. M. on the 27th. The 
next news of her received at that port came from the lips of sur¬ 
vivors snatched from the rushing current of the river. When 
about eight miles above Memphis, one of her boilers had blown 
up, with frightful effect. To add to the horror, the woodwork 
around the engines had been set on fire by the accident, and the 
steamer burned to the water’s edge, compelling all who had been 
spared by the explosion to leap overboard for safety. 

The force of the explosion hurled hundreds of the sleeping 
soldiers into the air, killing many, mangling others ; while others 
again, terribly scalded, fell into the water and were swallowed up 
by the resistless tide, never again to rise. The few survivors 



JAMES RIVER, BELOW DUTCH GAP. 



COURT HOUSE, PETERSBURG, VA. 

















4^9 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


who had escaped all these perils finally reached the Arkansas 
shore, which, owing to the unusual high waters, was a long dis¬ 
tance from the channel. 

Among the soldiers on board were thirty commissioned offi¬ 
cers, of whom only three were rescued. I he dead at the scene 
of the accident numbered fifteen hundred, nearly all of them 
soldiers belonging to Western States. The heaviest loss in any 
one regiment fell to the One Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio, 
which numbered eighty-three victims on the list. The One 
Hundred and Second Ohio counted seventy, and the Ninth 
Indiana cavalry was represented by seventy-eight. 

A catastrophe of similar character, not quite so appalling in 
results, had occurred on the Atlantic coast only three weeks 
previous. I he steamer General Lyon , from Wilmington, bound 


with a score of his fellows, all experienced coal miners, set to 
work with their ordinary camp tools, and, under cover of night, 
in one month excavated, concealed from the enemy’s eyes, 
eighteen thousand cubic feet of earth, creating a tunnel nearly 
six hundred feet long. On two occasions Reese, by personal 
effort, saved the enterprise from failure ; once when the shaft 
opened into a bed of quicksand, and again when the army 
engineers through faulty measurements located the powder- 
chamber outside the limits of the fort to be destroyed, instead 
of directly under it. 

Finally came the hour for the explosion. The troops stood 
ready to charge into the breach, and the long fuse was ignited 
by Reese, who, with a group of his mining companions, stayed 
at the mouth of the shaft, awaiting the result. Generals and 



"CROW'S NEST," AN ARMY OBSERVATORY, NEAR PETERSBURG. 
(From a War Department photograph.) 


for Fortress Monroe, burned to the water’s edge off Cape Hat- 
teras, on the night of March 31st. Out of five hundred on 
board, over four hundred of them soldiers, only twenty escaped. 
Among the lost were eleven officers and one hundred and 
ninety-five men belonging to the Fifty-sixth Illinois, with nearly 
two hundred released Union prisoners. 

THE HERO OF BURNSIDE’S MINE 

In the ranks of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, the regiment 
which placed the powder magazine of Burnside’s mine, at 
Petersburg, underneath the doomed Confederate fort, was a 
sergeant known as Harry Reese. 

He had been the first to propose the mine seriously. Per¬ 
mission to construct it having been granted at headquarters, he, 


aids anxiously studied their watch-dials, that would show the 
flight of moments beyond the appointed time. Grant tele¬ 
graphed from army headquarters over his special field-wire : “ Is 
there any difficulty in exploding the mine?” and again: “The 
commanding general directs, if your mine has failed, that your 
troops assault at once.” 

The mine had failed. Daylight was spreading over the 
trenches, and the enemy were alert even to the point of expect¬ 
ing an assault. 

Reese drew his soldier’s clasp dirk, and, turning to a comrade, 
said: “ I am going into the mine. If it don’t blow up, give me 
time to reach the splice in the fuse, and then come to me with 
fresh fuse and twine.” He creeps into the shaft with resolute 
caution, following up the tell-tale streak of black ashes, which 
shows that the fuse has surely burned its way toward the powder- 
cells in the chamber beyond. It may reach there any second, 






















470 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


and then ! At last, just ahead of him, the brave miner sees a 
stretch of fuse outwardly uncharred. A fine thread of flame 
may be eating through its core, nevertheless, one spark of which 
is enough to set the terrible train ablaze. Reese knows this, 
for a man accustomed to handling powder cannot for an instant 
lose consciousness of its quick and awful violence when the 
connecting flash is struck. He knows his peril, yet presses on, 
and with his blade severs the fuse beyond the charred streak. 
Danger for that moment is over. 

The delay had been caused by a splice wound so tightly that 
the fire could not eat through freely. He made a new short 
fuse, relit the flashing string, and escaped to the mouth of the 
tunnel, just as the magazine chambers exploded, spreading a 
mass of ruins where the armament of Lee had stood grim and 
threatening in the morning light but a moment before. 

The fort thus destroyed was occupied by Capt. R. G. Pegram's 
Virginia battery, and the trenches—which means the system of 
walled ditches, bomb proofs, and other shelter for troops on both 
sides of the battery—by the Eighteenth and Seventy-second 
South Carolina infantry. These men, numbering several hun¬ 
dred, lay sound asleep, all except the sentinels. The battery 
and the sections of work adjoining were hoisted into the air, and 
two hundred and eighty-eight officers and soldiers were buried 
in the debris, while their comrades who escaped injury fled in 
confusion, leaving a defenceless gap in the line twenty or thirty 
rods wide, into which Burnside’s corps charged without a mo¬ 
ment’s hesitation. 

The Union advance was promptly met by a sharp fire from 
the Confederate reserves, and the fight which ensued in the 
breach is known as the battle of the Crater. 

THE ARKANSAS BOY SPY. 

When the Confederate army abandoned Little Rock in 1863, 
one of its military operators, David O. Dodd, stayed back and 
lived some time in the Union lines. He was a lad of seventeen. 
Shortly after the town was Unionized he left there, ostensibly 
to go to Mississippi, but returned in a few days and lingered 
about in his old haunts. A second time he passed out of the 
picket lines, unrestrained until he reached the outposts, where 
the guards, searching him, discovered some curious pencil marks 
in a memorandum book carried openly in his pocket. 

He was arrested, and at headquarters the marks were shown 
to be telegraphic dots and dashes that gave a full description of 
the Union fortifications and the distribution of forces about the 
city. His act was that of a spy, and his life was the forfeit. 
Having admitted that he had accomplices, he was offered pardon 
if he would betray them. A last appeal was made at the scaf¬ 
fold by his friends and relatives, but he firmly put the tempta¬ 
tion aside and signalled the executioner to do his duty. Then 
the drop fell, carrying him and his secret to another world. My 
informant, who witnessed the hanging, declared that the lad met 
his doom with the coolness of a stoic, while the spectators, 
chiefly soldiers, wept like children. 

WOMEN WHO DARED AND SUFFERED FOR THE FLAG. 

War calls women to weep, not to take up the sword in battle, 
yet to such lengths does their devotion run that the place of 
danger finds them on hand unasked. On the Union side in 
the civil war military heroines came from every class and from 
every stage of civilization. Of those who put on uniforms the 


record is hard to trace, but their dead and mangled forms on 
countless battlefields proved that the American amazon was no 
myth. Not to speak of these, there were women who openly 
faced all the terrors and hardships of war. Michigan seems to 
have eclipsed the record in this class of heroines. 

When the Second Michigan volunteers started for the seat of 
war in 1861, Annie Etheridge, a young woman just out of her 
teens, volunteered as daughter of the regiment. Her dress was 
a riding habit, and she wore a military cap as a badge of her 
calling. A pair of pistols rested in her holsters for use in emer¬ 
gencies. Annie served four years, part of the time with the 
Fifth Michigan, and always in the Army of the Potomac. Her 
service was the relief of wounded on the field, which means 
under fire. General Kearny presented her with the “ Kearny 
badge” for her devotion to his wounded at Fair Oaks. Once 
while bandaging a wound for a New York boy a Confederate 
shell killed him under her hands. 

Though not called on to fight, Annie had spirit enough to 
make a battle hero. At Chancellorsville she went to the out¬ 
posts with the skirmishers, and was ordered back to the lines. 
The enemy was already shooting at the pickets. On the way 
back she passed a line of low trenches where the Union soldiers 
lay concealed, and spurning the thought that the affair must end 
in a retreat, she turned her face to the front and called out to the 
men, “ Boys, do your duty and whip those fellows! ” A hearty 
cheer was the response, and “ those fellows ” poured a volley 
into the hidden trenches. Annie was hit in the hand, her skirt 
was riddled, and her horse wounded. At Spottsylvania she 
turned a party of retreating soldiers back to their place in the 
ranks by offering to lead them into battle. No one but a mis¬ 
creant could spurn that call. 

The other Michigan heroines were Bridget Divers, of the First 
cavalry, an unknown in the Eighth and in the Twenty-fifth regi¬ 
ments who passed as Frank Martin, and Miss Seelye who served 
in the Second as Frank Thompson. “Thompson ” and “Mar¬ 
tin ” wore men’s disguise. Bridget Divers was the wife of a 
soldier, and performed deeds of daring in bringing wounded from 
the field, under fire. 

Two Pennsylvania regiments carried women into battle in 
men’s disguise—Charles D. Fuller, of the Forty-sixth, and 
Sergt. Frank Mayne, of the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth. 
“ Mayne ” was killed. The Fifth Rhode Island Regiment pro¬ 
duced a heroine in Mrs. Kady Brownell, wife of a sergeant. 
She is credited with having been a skilful shooter with a rifle 
and also a brave color-bearer in time of danger. The wives of 
officers were accorded great freedom of action at the front, and 
many a gallant and 'noble deed was called forth by devotion to 
husband first and incidentally to the cause. Madame Turchin, 
wife of the Illinois general, went into battle and rescued wounded 
men, besides cheering and inspiring the soldiers of the general’s 
command. Gen. Francis C. Barlow, of New York, was accom¬ 
panied by his wife, who attended the wounded on the field. 
This devoted woman served at the front until 1864, and died of 
fever contracted in the hospitals at Petersburg. 

A MODERN ANDRE. 

Lieut. S. B. Davis, of the Confederate service, probably came 
the nearest of any officer on either side to playing the role of 
the Andr£ of the Rebellion. He did not, it is true, lose his life 
in an attempt to nogotiate for the surrender of an enemy’s for¬ 
tress, as did the noted British spy; but he was sentenced to be 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


4 ;i 



A COMPANY OF SHERMANS VETERANS. 


hanged for complicity, under disguise, in negotiations be¬ 
tween citizens of the United States and Confederate officials 
in Richmond and in Canada for the delivery of the States of 
Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, and certain military positions on 
the lakes, into the power of organized and armed emissaries of 
the South, led by Confederate officers. 

Lieutenant Davis was but twenty-four, a native of Delaware, 
a State that did not secede, and entered into the part he played 
on his own motion ; that is, he volunteered to act as a messenger 
between Richmond and Canada. He was provided with a Brit¬ 
ish passport under an assumed name, had his hair dyed, and 
put on citizen’s dress. The regular route of communication 
between Richmond and Canada was by steamer, via Bermuda ; 
but for some reason never yet explained Davis went from Rich¬ 
mond to Baltimore, and from there to Columbus, O., where he 
certainly communicated with people of suspicious character at 
the time. 

From Columbus he went to Detroit, and from there to Wind¬ 
sor, Canada, where he met the notorious Jacob Thompson and 
other Confederate emissaries. 

There were many points about the young man to give him 
peculiar fitness for his work ; there was also a fatally weak spot 
in his harness. He was well bred and of prepossessing appear¬ 
ance. A native of Delaware, he could mingle with Northern 
people without arousing suspicion. He was a distant relative of 
Jefferson Davis, and had the respect and confidence of the Con¬ 
federate chieftains. Too young to have attained prominence 
before the war, and never having served in the regular army, his 
personality was not likely to be known on the Union side of the 
lines. But he had served a long time on the staff of General 
Winder, commander at Andersonville prison, where many Union 
soldiers had seen him often. 

Fortune favored him in his daring enterprise until his arrival, 
on what proved to be his final trip southward from Canada, at 
Newark, O. He was travelling in the passenger cars of the 
Baltimore and Ohio railroad ; had passed safely through Colum¬ 
bus and other public centres most dangerous to him. 

At Newark two Union soldiers entered the car where the 
disguised Confederate sat. They had been in Andersonville 


prison, and after eying their fellow passenger for a time one 
ex-prisoner whispered in his comrade’s ear, “ There is Lieutenant 
Davis, of Andersonville! ” 

Both arose, and, approaching Davis, one called out bluntly to 
the stranger, “Aren’t you Lieutenant Davis?” 

“ No, sir; my name is Stewart,” was the prompt reply. 

“ Yes, you are Lieutenant Davis, and you had charge of the 
prison when I was in Andersonville,” persisted the soldier. A 
crowd of passengers quickly surrounded the parties, and seeing 
that his stubborn cross-questioners would not be convinced, the 
Confederate yielded, and said : 

“Well, boys, you’ve got me. I am Lieutenant Davis.” 

The provost marshal of Newark was summoned, and the 
prisoner was speedily hurried to the common jail. A search of 
his person failed to disclose any secret papers, and he was left in 
the main room with a number of ordinary county criminals. 
Soon after the military had left the place the stranger was seen 
to remove from inside his coat-lining a number of despatches 
and drawings upon white silk, and to burn them in the fire 
which was blazing in an open stove. The link that would have 
removed all doubt as to his purposes and condemned him to the 
gallows was thus hopelessly destroyed ; but a court martial held 
that his presence in the Union lines in disguise constituted the 
offence for which the penalty is death. When the evidence was 
all in and the case clear against him, the prisoner rose, facing 
the officers and witnesses, every one wearing the colors of his 
mortal enemies, and some of them scarred with the conflicts in 
which he and his own had been pitted against them. There was 
no reason to expect mercy, and he did not ask it. 

After stating his case briefly, he looked over his accusers and 
judges, and said: “ I do not fear to die. I am young and would 
like to live, but I deem him unworthy who should ask pity of 
his foemen. Some of you have wounds and scars ; I can show 
them, too. You are serving your country as best you may; I 
have done the same. I can look to God with a clear conscience; 














472 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


and whenever the chief magistrate of this nation shall say, ‘ Go,’ 
whether upon the scaffold or by the bullets of your soldiery, I 
will show you how to die.” 

The sentence was that he be confined in the military prison at 
Johnson Island, in Lake Erie, until the 17th of February, 1865, 
then “ to be hung by the neck until he is dead.” 

During the night of the 16th of February, when all prepara¬ 
tions had been made, and Davis had, as he believed, beheld the 
last sunset on earth, a reprieve came from President Lincoln. 
He was placed in a dungeon at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, 
and before the reprieve ended the war closed. Then the authori¬ 
ties permitted him to go free. To the end he kept the secret of 
his mission to Ohio. 



T 1 IE BATTLE FLAGS AND MARKERS OF THE FOURTEENTH 
REGIMENT NEW YORK ARTILLERY. 

ENGAGEMENTS IN WHICH THE REGIMENT. WITH THESE FLAGS. TOOK PART. 


Wilderness, Va., 
Spottsylvania C. H., 

North Anna River, Va., 
Tocopotomy Creek, Va., 
Betiiesda Church, Va. , 

Shady Grove Road, Va., 
Cold Harbor, Va., 
Petersburg Front, Va., 

Siege of Petersburg, First, 
Crater, Va., 

Bliell’s Station, Va., 
Weldon Railroad, Va., 
Peebles Farm, Va., 

Poplar Springs Church, Va., 
Siege of Petersburg, Second, 
Fort Haskell, Va., 

Fort Steadman, Va., 

Capture of Petersburg, Va., 
Appomattox, Va., 


May 5-7, 1864. 

May 10-19, 1864. 

May 23-26, 1864. 

May 30, 1864. 

May 31, 1864. 

June 2, 1864. 

June 3-12, 1864. 

June 16-18, 1864. 

June 19 to August 19, 1864. 

July 30, 1864. 

August 19, 1864. 

August 21, 1864. 

September 29, 1864. 

September 30, 1864. 

November 29, 1864, to April 3, 1865. 
March 25, 1865. 

March 25, 1865. 

April 3, 1865. 

April 9, 1865, Surrender of Lee and 
his Army of Northern Virginia. 


REMINISCENCES OF THE BATTLE OF 

BULL RUN. 

BY GENERAL JOHN T. MORGAN, C. S. A. 

The battle of Bull Run—the first battle of Manassas—was a 
great and decided victory for the Confederate army, and aroused 
the pride and enthusiasm of the Southern people as no other 
event ever did. Yet there is a painful recollection in every 
mind that it was the first act in an awful drama, the first great 
field upon which the hosts of the North and the South measured 
arms and opened the series of great tragedies of the civil war, in 
which millions of men perished. 

If that had been the last battle of the war instead of the first, 
and if it had been accepted as the final arbitrament of the ques¬ 
tions that could not have been settled otherwise, I would still 
recall its incidents with pride, but also with sadness. But the 
glory of it would have scarcely compensated for its sacrifices. 

I doubt if any humane person can recall without pain even the 
most gratifying victories of a great war in which he was a par¬ 
ticipant. The excessive toil and anxiety are only made toler¬ 
able, and the suffering and waste of human life can only be 
endured, for the sake of our interest in the cause that demands 
such victims for the altar of sacrifice. 

Yet war, like other intense passions, often becomes a consum¬ 
ing desire, as the hope of victory verges upon the recklessness 
of despair. My earlier impressions of civil war may be illus¬ 
trated by a few personal incidents connected with the first battle 
of Manassas. 

With the exception of a few “ regulars ” in either army, every 
experience of actual warfare was then entirely new to the sol¬ 
diery, and not a man in any position failed to seriously question 
his heart as to its fortitude in the approaching crisis of battle. 
None, perhaps, were about to march upon that great and open 
field who did not overdraw the pictures of danger and distress 
that he would be called to meet. It was a relief from this 
excessive tension that enabled men of highly nervous condition 
to quiet their emotions and to engage in battle like trained 
veterans, when its realities were found to be less harrowing than 
they expected. 

It is probable that no two armies of trained soldiers ever con¬ 
fronted each other with a less daunted spirit than the hundred 
thousand proud men who, in almost full view of the extended 
lines of each army, marched steadily into action across the open 
fields about Manassas. For many miles the view was uninter¬ 
rupted. 

The approaches of the martial hosts, in line after line of sup¬ 
porting columns, under the fire of artillery that covered the 
field with the bluish haze of battle, were marked with an air of 
firm defiance, which spoke of the cause at stake, and of a con¬ 
test for principles which, as they were felt to be involved, com¬ 
manded the devotion of each army. It was not a flag or a 
government for which either army was fighting, but a dispute 
about rights under the Constitution of a common country. War 
under such circumstances is always desperate, and too often 
becomes ferocious. When men make war as political or reli¬ 
gious partisans, they often forget the honorable zeal of the true 
soldier and lend themselves as the instruments of vengeance. 
We had not then reached that stage of hostility. On this field 
there met in battle many thousands of the best and most en- 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


473 


lightened men of a great nation, all Americans, and all inspired 
with the love of a common country, and many in the opposing 
ranks were of the same families. They were gallant and chival- 
ric men, and their fierce onsets left the field thickly strewn with 
dead and wounded. Almost every man who fell had some 
personal history in which whole communities felt a proud and 
grateful interest. The survivors in such armies could not be 
cruel. 

As the incidents of the battle were narrated in the camps 
of the victors, and by parties returning from the pursuit of 
McDowell’s shattered forces, it was clearly manifested that it 
was political antagonism and not sectional animosity that had 
brought on the war. 

When the death or capture of some leading Federal officer 
was announced, respectful silence was observed and personal 
sympathy was manifested with sincerity ; but, when the cap¬ 
ture of a leading politician or of a member of Congress was 
announced, the wildest rejoicing was heard in the crowds of 
delighted listeners. 

That was a grand field of battle, and it was occupied by 
armies that were all the more eager for war because they did 
not then realize its terrible significance. 

Few strategic surprises were possible on such a field, and none 
were attempted. An approaching column could be seen, as it 
was headed toward a point of attack, when it was miles away ; 
and the clouds of dust, rolling up in vast volume, indicated its 
strength. Then, suddenly, arose the opposing cloud, and pres¬ 
ently both were illumined with flashes of artillery, and roared 
with the spiteful din of musketry, in their quickened dash, and 
were clamorous with hoarse cheers from thousands of sturdy 
men. A few crashing volleys ; the swaying back and forth of 
the lines, as repeated charges were met and repulsed—and the 
field was won and lost by some impulse, in which all seemed 
to share at the same moment, that was as much a mystery to 
the victors as it was to the vanquished. It was what is called 
“ a square stand-up fight ” in an open field, without military 
defences; and the result was a notable victory of the soldiers 
engaged, not a victory won by superior strategy or gallant leader¬ 
ship. The battle ended late in the afternoon, and by nightfall, 
the successful army was in bivouac, while the beaten army 


was in flight for Washington, unpursued. The rain began to 
fall in floods as the night came on, adding to the misery of the 
wounded of both armies, who were treated with every possible 
kindness. To a novice in warfare, the battlefield was a fearful 
scene, as the bright morning of the next day dawned upon it, 
with the dead scattered over it, lying beside dead horses, broken 
artillery, muskets, wagons, and shattered trees. It was the 
silent reproach of havoc and death upon the fierce injustice of a 
resort to war as the arbiter of differences of opinion as to civil 
government, which had been exaggerated to such awful conclu¬ 
sions, and could not, after all, be in any wise settled by such 
means. Peace and wiser judgment finally came out of the 
thousand succeeding conflicts, but were not created by them. 
They were only made possible by the failure of war to convince 
anybody of errors. 

Taking a half-dozen cavalry and a brother officer along, we 
moved, at daylight, under orders given to me to follow and 
reconnoitre the army that had moved off in column at the close 
of the battle, but was supposed to have camped not far away. 
We soon found that nothing remained of that army but the 
evidences of panic which had overtaken almost every command. 
The wounded had, in some cases, been left to their own re¬ 
sources, and, at bridges that were broken, there were piled in 
wild confusion, dead men and horses, guns and caissons, wagons 
and sutlers’ goods, tents, muskets, drums, ambulances, spring 
wagons, and the lighter vehicles that had brought the picnic 
parties from Congress to witness the consummation of their 
“policy.” It was to them a sudden and frightful adjournment, 
sine die. 

As we rode over the field, gray-haired fathers and mothers 
from the nearer homes in Virginia were already there looking for 
their dead or wounded sons. All was silent save the moanings 
of the sufferers, and the subdued chirrup of little wrens as they 
sought for their mates. The birds seemed as sad as the vener¬ 
able seekers for their loved ones. The dead seemed to preserve 
their personal characteristics, and the tense strain of the conflict 
was settled upon their features. In most cases, death on the 
battlefield is instantaneous and painless, and the latest thoughts 
seem to linger on the faces of the dead. 

As we rode along the farm lanes where the rail fences had 



AQUEDUCT BRIDGE, POTOMAC RIVER. 



















474 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


been torn away as they were crossed and recrossed by charging 
columns, we found, not widely separated, the victims of the 
bayonet. Several had fallen in this close combat. 

One of them was a very handsome man, clean-shaven, and 
dressed in a neat uniform as a private in the Federal army. He 
was about thirty years old. On his shirt bosom there was a 
single spot of blood. He sat almost erect, his back propped in 
a corner of the fence, with his blue eyes wide open, and his 
mouth was firmly closed, and his gun and hat near by him. His 
form and face were majestic, and his pallid brow, with the hair 
gracefully swept back, was a splendid picture of the serenity of 
death, almost as expressive as life, and the most earnest plea for 
peace that I had ever contemplated. 

On the opposite side of the lane was a Confederate soldier— 
an Irishman—whom a ball had killed. Evidently he had received 
a mortal wound, and had sat down to die in an angle of the 
fence, and rested on a small log he found there. He was also 
leaning against the fence, which held him up in a position that 
seemed very life-like. His hat was on his head and sheltered his 
face which was slightly bowed to the front. In his mouth he 
held his pipe, with a very short stem, in a way that was quite 
natural and suggestive of his race. His wound was in the thigh, 
and while he was bleeding to death, he had doubtless sought 
comfort in his pipe. 

A beautiful photograph was in the side pocket of the Federal 
soldier, near the fatal blood-spot on his shirt bosom. We 
thought we could readily trace his dying thoughts to that dear 
friend. We left him with his friend’s picture where we found it, 
to find, in another spot, a mile distant, a living proof that it is 
love and not hatred that survives death, and commands the 
heart’s last tribute of devotion. 

The body of an oak tree that was heavily clad in foliage had 
been cut through with cannon shot until the top had fallen over 
and formed a thick mass of branches and leaves on the ground. 
There was a copse of undergrowth 
near by, into which we saw a man dart 
like an arrow as we rode up. From 
the tree-top came low moanings, as 
from one who feared discovery, and yet 
could not stifle his voice when spasms 
of pain returned upon him. It proved 
to be a field officer of a New Jersey 
or Delaware regiment, whose thigh had 
been crushed by a cannon shot in the 
battle. 

His servant had laid him in the tree- 
top, with leaves and a horse blanket for 
a bed, and was guarding him. When 
the servant saw us halt, he came out 
timorously from his hiding, and was 
weeping and pleading for the life of his 
master. I said to him, “ What do you 
take us for?”—“But be you not 
rebels?” he said. I answered, “We 
are called rebels, and yet your kin¬ 
dred.”—“ Be you Christian men?” I 
said that was our faith. “ And you 
will be merciful to the major?” I re¬ 
plied, “ I am a major, and have no ill- 
will toward majors, even if they are 
enemies.” The major, hearing our con¬ 
versation, invited us to dismount and 


come to him. We went to his hiding-place, and found him pale 
with loss of blood, and in great anguish. 

Seeing that we were Confederate officers, he said, “ I wish to 
give you my parole.”—“We need none from you,” I replied; 
“ our friendship has been broken, and renewed very suddenly 
by your wounds, it seems, and you are our guest.”—“ Are you 
Virginians?”—“No, we are Alabamians, and this is our home, 
as it is yours, for we are all Americans.”—'“ A home I have 
invaded,” he said, “ and I don’t know why. I wish this war 
had never occurred; but I longed for it, in my thoughtless anger, 
and here I must meet death.” 

He said, “ I am a lawyer.”—“ So are we,” I replied. “ I am a 
Mason.”—“ So are we,” I replied. “ Thank God,” he exclaimed, 
“ I may yet see my wife before I die. She came to Washing¬ 
ton with me, and I parted with her at Longbridge, three days 
ago, as we crossed the Potomac.” 

I assured him that I would inform his wife of his condition, 
through the first flag of truce that went over the lines, and that 
she should have safe-conduct to join him. Taking our hands, 
he prayed God to bless us ; and turning to his servant, whose 
astonishment was now greater than his fear, he said, “ Sam, 
get me the bread and the canteen, and give me some whiskey. 
Maybe if I eat and take a stimulant, I may live to see her.” It 
was a hard, rough crust of corn-bread, which he munched with 
energy, and the canteen contained a few spoonfuls of common 
whiskey, a part of which he drank. I said, “ This business is 
urgent, and we will gallop to your lines with your message.”— 
“Yes," he said, “a race for a life, that has but one hope, that 
I may see her—my wife—before I die.” We soon met a sur¬ 
geon at a field hospital—a few blankets on which wounded 
soldiers were stretched—and he went at once to the sufferer 
in the tree-top. The message was despatched, and the loving 
wife came to find that, after one last kiss from his conscious 
lips, she was a widow indeed. 

The glory of our victory was sad¬ 
dened to my heart by the reflection 
that the blood that enriched the fields 
was American, and was poured out 
from hearts that were alike and equally 
patriotic. Yet the sacrifice was volun¬ 
tary, and may have been needed to 
demonstrate again the devotion of the 
American people to what they believe 
to be their duty in the defence of their 
liberties as they understand them, and 
in the enforcement of our laws as they 
are written. 

This grand result, which seems to be 
perfectly assured, and this demonstra¬ 
tion of American manhood is worth 
all that it has cost. 

The battle of Bull Run was the last 
political battle of the civil war. It set 
Congress to passing vain resolutions to 
stop the war, and to reconcile the 
people and the States. After that 
awful event, war for the sake of war, 
and not for peace or justice, swept over 
the land and raged with unheard-of 
fury, until the sheer power of numbers 
prevailed, and peace came from exhaus¬ 
tion, but not from a broken spirit. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL JOHN T. MORGAN, C. S. A. 





PICKING UP THE WOUNDED, FIFTY-SEVENTH NEW YORK AMBULANCE CORPS. 



BOMBARDMENT OF THE CONFEDERATE LINES BY FORT PICKENS, SANTA ROSA ISLAND, PENSACOLA BAY. 





















PICKETT'S CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG. 


THE MEASURE OF VALOR. 

So far as valor is to be measured by dangers voluntarily encountered and losses sustained, the American citizen may 
justly compare with pride the incidents and statistics of the great civil war with those of any modern conflict in Europe. In 
our chapter on Gettysburg the close resemblance between that battle and Waterloo—in the numbers engaged on each side and 
the losses—has been pointed out. When comparison is made of the losses of regiments and other organizations, in particular 
engagements, the larger figures are with the Americans. The charge of the British Light B rigade, at Balaklava, in 1854, has 
been celebrated in verse by Tennyson and other poets, and is alluded to over and o'ver again as if it were the most gallant 
achievement in modern warfare. Every time that some old soldier chooses to say he is one of the survivors of that charge, 
the newspapers talk about him as a wonder, report his words and publish his portrait. Yet that exploit sinks into insignificance 
when compared with the charge of the First Minnesota Regiment at Gettysburg. The order for the charge at Balaklava was a 
blunder, blunderingly obeyed; it accomplished nothing, and the total loss to the Light Brigade was thirty-seven percent. At 
Gettysburg, on the second day, General Hancock observed a gap in the National line, and saw that Wilcox’s Confederate Brigade 
was pushing forward with the evident intention of passing through it. He looked about for troops to close the gap, and saw 
nothing within immediate reach but the First Minnesota, though others could be brought up if a little time could be gained. 
Riding up to Colonel Colville, he said: “ Do you see those colors ?” pointing at the Confederate flag. “Take them!” Instantly 
the regiment dashed forward and charged the brigade ; there was a short, fierce fight, and the regiment lost eighty-two per cent, 
of its numbers in killed and wounded, but the onset of the enemy was stayed, the desired time was gained, and even the colors 
were captured and brought off. In the Franco-German war of 1870 the heaviest loss sustained by any German regiment in a 
single battle was a fraction more than forty-nine per cent. In the National service during the civil war there were sixty-four 
regiments that sustained a loss of over fifty per cent, in some single action, and in the Confederate service there were fifty-three, 
making a hundred and seventeen American regiments that, in this respect, surpassed the German regiment of highest record. 

















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


477 



There were thirteen battles in which one side or the other 
(in most instances each) lost more than 10,000 men, taking no 
account of the great capitulations like Fort Donelson and 
Vicksburg. And in the least of these nearly 1,900 men 
were shot dead on the field. The greatest losses on both sides 
were sustained at Gettysburg. Next in order (aggregating 
the losses on both sides*) come Spottsylvania, 36,800; the Wilder¬ 
ness, 35,300; Chickamauga, 34,600; and Chancellors- 
ville, 30,000. But each of these battles occupied 
more than one day. The bloodiest single day 
was September 17, 1862, at the Antietam, 
where the National army lost 2,108 men 
killed and 9,549 wounded, with about 800 
missing. The Confederate loss cannot be 
stated with exactness. General Lee’s 
report gives only consolidated figures for 
the whole campaign, including Harper’s 
Ferry and South Mountain, as well as 
the main battle; and these figures fall 
short by a thousand (for killed and 
wounded alone) of those given by his 


the National service in a single engagement was that sustained 
by the First Maine heavy artillery (acting as infantry) in the 
assault on the defences of Petersburg, June 18, 1864, when 210 
of its men were killed or mortally wounded, the whole number 
of casualties being 632 out of about 900 men. This regiment 
was also the one that suffered most in aggregate losses in battle 
during the war, its killed and wounded amounting to 1,283. Over 
nineteen per cent, were killed. Another famous fighting 
regiment was the Fifth New Hampshire infantry, 
which had 295 men killed or mortally wounded in 
battle, the greatest loss, 69, occurring at Cold 
Harbor, June 1, 1864. Its first colonel, Edward 
E. Cross, was killed while leading it in the 
thickest of the second day’s fight at Gettys¬ 
burg. Another was the One Hundred and 
Forty-first Pennsylvania, which lost three- 
quarters of its men at Gettysburg, and at 


LIEUTENANT JOHN T. GREBLE. 
Killed at Big Bethel. 


COLONEL JAMES H. PERRY. 

Died from wounds received at Fort Pulaski. 


division commanders, who also report more 
than 2,000 missing. On the other hand, Mc¬ 
Clellan says that “ about 2,700 of the enemy’s 
dead were counted and buried upon the battle¬ 
field of Antietam,” while “ a portion of their dead 
had been previously buried by the enemy.” Aver- 
aging these discrepant figures, and bearing in mind 
that there were no intrenchments at the Antietam, 
we may fairly put down the losses as equal on the 
two sides, which would give a total, on that field in one day, of 
4,200 killed and 19,000 wounded. The number of prisoners was 
not large. 

The heaviest actual loss that fell upon any one regiment in 


COLONEL ULRIC DAHLGREN. 
Killed at Walkerton, Va.—Kilpat¬ 
rick’s Raid on Richmond. 


* As there are discrepancies in all the counts, only the round numbers are given 
here. 


Chancellorsvihe lost 235 out of 419. At 
the second Bull Run (called also Manassas), 
the One Hundred and First New York lost 
124 out of 168; the Nineteenth Indiana lost 
259 out of 423 ; the Fifth New York lost 297 
out of 490; the Second Wisconsin lost 298 
out of 511 ; and the First Michigan lost 178 out 
of 320. At Antietam the Twelfth Massachu¬ 
setts lost 224 out of 334. It had lost heavily 
also at Manassas, where Col. Fletcher Webster (only 
son of Daniel Webster) was killed at its head. It lost, 
altogether, 18 officers in action. Another famous Massa¬ 
chusetts regiment was the Fifteenth, which at Gettys¬ 
burg lost 148 men out of 239, and at the Antietam, 318 
out of 606, and, out of a total enrolment of 1,701, lost during 
the war in killed and wounded 879. Another Massachusetts 
regiment distinguished by hard fighting was the Twentieth, 
which General Humphreys compliments as “one of the very 
best in the service.” Its greatest loss, in killed (48), was at 
Fredericksburg, where it was in the brigade that crossed the 
river in boats, to clear the rifle-pits of the sharp-shooters that 




















478 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 




were making it impossible to lay the pontoon bridges. This 
regiment had the task of clearing the streets of the town, and as 
it swept through them it was fired upon from windows and 
house-tops. The other regiments that participated in this ex¬ 
ploit were the Seventh Michigan, the Nineteenth Massachusetts, 
and the Eighty-ninth New York. Some nameless poet has 
made it the subject of one of the most striking bits of verse 
produced during the war: 

They leaped in the rocking shallops, 

Ten offered, where one could go, 

And the breeze was alive with laughter, 

Till the boatmen began to row. 

In silence how dread and solemn ! 

With courage how grand and true ! 

Steadily, steadily onward 

The line of the shallops drew. 

’Twixt death in the air above them, 

And death in the waves below, 

Through ball and grape and shrapnel 
They moved, my God, how slow! 

And many a brave, stout fellow, 

Who sprang in the boats with mirth, 

Ere they made that fatal crossing 
Was a load of lifeless earth. 

And many a brave, stout fellow, 

Whose limbs with strength were rife, 

Was torn and crushed and shattered— 

A helpless wreck for life. 


and lost 268, includ¬ 
ing seven officers 
killed and ten wound¬ 
ed. In the fight at 
Savage Station, the 
Fifth Vermont 
walked over a regi¬ 
ment that had thrown 
itself on the ground 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL ROBERT HATTON, C. S. A. 
Killed at Stone River. 


The Twentieth lost 44 men killed at Gettysburg, 38 at 
Ball’s Bluff, 36 in the Wilderness, 20 at Spottsylvania, and 
20 at the Antietam. During its whole service it had 17 
officers killed, including a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, two 
majors, an adjutant, and a surgeon. The story that Dr. Holmes 
tells in “ My Hunt after the Captain” relates his adventures in 
the track of this regiment just after the battle of the Antietam. 

Among the Vermont regiments, the one that suffered most in 
a single action was the Eighth, which at Cedar Creek lost sixty- 
eight per cent, of its numbers engaged. The First Heavy Artil¬ 
lery from that State, acting most of the time as infantry, with 
a total enrolment of 2,280, lost in killed and wounded 583. The 
Second Infantry, with a total enrolment of 1,811, lost 887. Its 
heaviest loss was at the Wilderness, where, out of 700 engaged, 
348 (about half) were disabled, including the colonel and lieu¬ 
tenant-colo¬ 
nel killed. 
And a week 
later, at 
Spottsyl¬ 
vania, near¬ 
ly half of 
the remain¬ 
der (123) 
were killed 
or wound- 
e d . The 
Fourth In¬ 
fantry, at 
the Wilder¬ 
ness, went 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL R. S. GARNETT, C. 
Killed near Carrick’s Ford, Va. 


S. A. 


into 
fight 
fe 


:wer 


the 

with 

than 


and refused to advance any farther, 
pressed close to the enemy, and 
was taken by a flank fire of artil¬ 
lery that struck down 44 out of 
the 59 men in one company. Yet 
the regiment held its ground, 
faced about, and silenced the 
battery. It lost 188 men out of 428. 

In the second and third years of the war, several regiments of 
heavy artillery were raised. It was said that they were intended 
only to garrison the forts, and there was a popular belief that 
their purpose was to get into the service a large number of men 
who were not quite willing to subject themselves to the greater 
risks incurred by infantry of the line. But after a short period 
of service as heavy artillery, most of them were armed with 
rifles and sent to the front as infantry, and many of them ranked 
among the best fighting regiments, and sustained notable losses. 
The First Maine and First Vermont have been mentioned 
already. The Second Connecticut heavy artillery, the first time 
it went into action, stormed the intrenchments at Cold Harbor 
with the bayonet, and lost 325 men out of 1,400, including the 
colonel. At the Opequan it lost 138, including the major and 
five line officers; and at Cedar Creek, 190. The Seventh, Eighth, 
Ninth, and Fourteenth New York heavy artillery regiments all 
distinguished themselves similarly. The Seventh, during one 
hundred days’ service in the field as infantry (Grant’s overland 
campaign), lost 1,254 men, only a few of whom were captured. 
The Eighth lost 207 killed or mortally wounded, at Cold Harbor 
alone, with more than 200 others wounded. Among the killed 
were eight officers, including Col. Peter A. Porter (grandson of 
Col. Peter B. Porter, of the w^ar of 1812), who fell in advance of 
his men. Its total loss in the war w r as 1,010 out of an enrol¬ 
ment of 2,575. The Ninth had 64 men killed at Cedar Creek, 51 
at the Monocacy, 43 at Cold Harbor, and 22 at the Opequan. 
Its total loss in killed and wounded was 824 in an enrolment of 
3,227. This regiment was commanded, a part of the time, by 
Col. William H. Seward, Jr. The Fourteenth had 57 men killed 
in the assault on Petersburg, 43 at Cold Harbor, 30 in the trenches 


AFTER THE FIRST DAY'S BATTLE AT GETTYSBURG. 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


479 




before Petersburg, 26 at Fort Stedman, 22 at the mine 
explosion, and 16 at Spottsylvania. It led the 
assault after the mine explosion, and planted 
its colors on the captured works. Its total 
loss in killed and wounded was 861, in an 
enrolment of 2,506. In comparing these 
with other regiments, it must be remem¬ 
bered that their terms of service were 
generally shorter, because they were en¬ 
listed late in the war. The Fourteenth, 
for instance, was organized in January, 

1864, which gave it but fifteen months of 
service, and it spent its first three months 
in the forts of New York harbor; so that 
its actual experience in the field covered 
somewhat less than a year. In that time 
one-third of all the men enrolled in it were 
disabled; and if it had served through the 
war at this rate, nothing would have been left 
of it. This explanation applies equally to several 
other regiments. 

The State of New York furnished one-sixth of all 
the men called for by the National Government. 

Of Fox’s “Three Hundred Fighting Regiments” 

(those that had more than 130 men killed during the war), New 
York has 59—nine more than its proportion. The Fifth In¬ 
fantry, known as Duryea’s Zouaves, met with its heaviest loss, 
297 out of 490, at Manassas, and lost 162 at Gaines’s Mill. This 
regiment was commanded at one time by Gouverneur K. War¬ 
ren, afterward famous as a corps commander, and General Sykes 
pronounced it the best volunteer regiment that he had ever 
seen. The Fortieth had 238 men killed in battle, and lost in 
all 1,217. Its heaviest losses were in 
the Seven Days’ battles, 100; Fred¬ 
ericksburg, 123; Gettysburg, 150; and 
the Wilderness, 213. The Forty-second 
lost 718 out of 1.210 enrolled, its heavi¬ 
est loss, 181, being at the Antietam. 

The Forty-third lost 138 at Salem 
CHurch, and 198 in the Wilderness, its 
colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major 
all being killed there. The Forty- 
fourth, originally called “ Ellsworth 
Avengers,” was composed of picked 
men from every county in the State. 

It lost over 700 out of 1,585 enrolled. 

At Manassas, out of 148 men in action, 
it lost 71. It was a part of the force 
that seized Little Round Top at Gettys¬ 
burg. The Forty-eighth was raised 
and commanded by a Methodist min¬ 
ister, James Id. Perry, D.D., who had 
been educated at West Point. He died 
in the service in 1862. The regiment 
participated in the assault on Fort 
Wagner, and lost there 242 men. At 
Olustee it lost 244. Its total loss was 
859 out of an enrolment of 2,173. The 
Forty-ninth had two colonels, a lieu- 
tenant-colonel, and a major killed in 
action. The Fifty-first New York and 
Fifty-first Pennsylvania carried the 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
PRESTON SMITH, C. S. A. 
Killed at Chickamauga. 




stone bridge at the Antietam, the New York regiment 
losing 87 men, and the Pennsylvanians 120. The 
Fifty-second New York lost 122 men at Fair 
Oaks, 121 in the siege of Petersburg, and 86 
at Spottsylvania. It was a German regi¬ 
ment, and two Prussian officers on leave of 
absence fought with it as line officers at 
Spottsylvania and were killed in the terri¬ 
ble struggle at the bloody angle. The 
Fifty-ninth went into the battle of the 
Antietam with 321 men, fought around 
the Dunker Church, and lost 224, killed 
or wounded, including nine officers killed. 
The Sixty-first lost 110 killed or wounded 
at Fair Oaks, out of 432 ; 106 in the siege 
of Petersburg, and 79 at Glendale. Francis 
C. Barlow and Nelson A. Miles were two of 
its four successive colonels. One company 
was composed entirely of students from Madison 
University. The Sixty-third, an Irish regiment, 
lost 173 men at Fair Oaks, 98 at Gettysburg, and 59 
at Spottsylvania. The Sixty-ninth, another Irish 
regiment, lost more men killed and wounded than 
any other from New York. At the Antietam, 
where it contended at Bloody Lane, eight color-bearers were 
shot. The Seventieth lost 666 men in a total enrolment 
of 1,462. Its heaviest loss, 330, was at Williamsburg. Daniel 
E. Sickles was its first colonel. The Seventy-sixth lost 234 men 
out of 375 in thirty minutes at Gettysburg. In the Wilderness 
it lost 282. The Seventy-ninth was largely composed of Scotch¬ 
men. It lost 198 men at Bull Run, where Colonel Cameron 
(brother of the Secretary of War) fell at its head. At Chantilly 

six color-bearers were shot down, when 
General Stevens (who had been for¬ 
merly its colonel) seized the flag and 
led the regiment to victory, but was 
shot dead. The Eighty-first lost 215 
men at Cold Harbor, about half the 
number engaged. The Eighty-second, 
at the Antietam, lost 128 men out of 
339, and at Gettysburg 192 out of 305, 
including its colonel. The Eighty-third 
lost 114 men at the Antietam, 125 at 
Fredericksburg, 115 in the Wilderness, 
and 128 at Spottsylvania. The Eighty- 
fourth, a Brooklyn zouave regiment, 
lost 142 men at Bull Run, 120 at Ma¬ 
nassas, and 217 at Gettysburg, where, 
with the Ninety-fifth, it captured a 
Mississippi brigade. The Eighty-sixth 
lost 96 men at Po River, and over 200 
in the Wilderness campaign. The 
Eighty-eighth, an Irish regiment, lost 
102 men at the Antietam, and 127 at 
Fredericksburg. The Ninety-third lost 
260 men in the Wilderness, out of 433. 
The Ninety-seventh at Gettysburg lost 
99 men, and captured the colors and 
382 men of a North Carolina regiment. 
The One Hundredth lost 176 men at 
Fair Oaks, 175 at Fort Wagner, and 259 
at Drewry’s Bluff. The One Hundred 


MAJOR-GENERAL JAMES B. GORDON, C. S. A. 
Killed at Yellow Tavern, Va. 









480 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



and Ninth lost 140 men at Spottsylvania, and 127 in the assault 
on Petersburg. Benjamin F. Tracy, Secretary of the Navy in 
President Harrison’s cabinet, was its first colonel. The One 
Hundred and Eleventh lost 249 men at Gettysburg, out of 
390, and again at the Wilderness it lost more than half of the 
number engaged. The One Hundred and Twelfth lost 180 men 
at Cold Harbor, including its colonel killed, and it lost another 
colonel in the assault on Fort Fisher. The One Hundred and 
Twentieth, at Gettysburg, lost 203 men, including seventeen 
officers killed or wounded. The One Hundred and Twenty- 
first, at Salem Church, lost 276 out of 453, and at Spottsylvania 
it lost 155. On both occasions it was led by Emory Upton, 
afterward general. Its total of killed and wounded in the war 
was 839, out of an enrolment of 1,426. The One 
Hundred and Twenty- 


six other officers killed. The One Hundred and Seventieth, 
another Irish regiment, lost 99 men at the North Anna and 136 
in the early assaults on Petersburg. Its total of killed and 
wounded during the war was 481 out of 1,002 enrolled. 

Thus runs the record to the end. These regiments are not 
exceptional so far as the State or the section is concerned. 
Quite as vivid a picture of the perils and the heroism of that 
great struggle could have been presented with statistics concern¬ 
ing the troops of any other States. Looking over all the records, 
one discovers no difference in the endurance or fighting qualities 
of the men from different States. For instance, the Eighth New 
Jersey lost, at Chancellorsville, 125 men out of 268; and in the 
same battle the Twelfth New Jersey lost 178; while at Gettys¬ 
burg less than half of the regiment made a charge on a 
barn filled with sharp-shooters, and captured 99 men. 
The Fifteenth New Jersey had 116 men killed, 

out of 444, at Spottsyl- 


COLONEL 

, Of Daniel Webster.- 


(_> r\ 1 vj nu 1 u r\ - L.iiurtnL v * 11_1« ivi r . i_r\ j. 

Killed at Knoxville, Tenn. 


-Killed at Second Bull Run. 

Omysonotuarne".. fourth lost at 

Chancellorsville 204 out of 550, and at Gettysburg 90 out of 290. 
The One Hundred and Twenty-sixth lost at Gettysburg 231 men, 
including the colonel, who was killed, and another colonel was 
killed before Petersburg. The One Hundred and Thirty-seventh 
lost 137 at Gettysburg, where it formed a part of the brigade that 
held Culp’s Hill. At Wauhatchie it lost 90, and in the Battle 
above the Clouds 38 more. The One Hundred and 1 'ortieth lost 
133 men at Gettysburg, where it formed part of the force that 
occupied Little Round Top at the critical moment, and helped 
to drag up Ilazlett’s battery. Its colonel was killed in this 
s truggle. In the Wilderness it lost 255, and at Spottsylvania 
another colonel and the major were killed. The One Hun¬ 
dred and Forty-seventh was in the brigade that opened the 
battle of Gettysburg, and there lost 301 out of 380 men. The 
One Hundred and Forty-ninth was one of the regiments that 
saw service both at the East and the West. It lost 186 men at 
Chancellorsville, and at Lookout Mountain lost 74 and captured 
five flags. In the Atlanta campaign it lost 136 out of 380 men. 
The One Hundred and Sixty-fourth, an Irish regiment, partici¬ 
pated in the assault at Cold Harbor and carried the works in 
its front, but at the cost of 157 men, including the colonel and 




The Eleventh 

Pennsylvania, at Fredericksburg, lost 211 killed 
or wounded out of 394, and in its whole term of service it had 681 
men disabled in an enrolment of 1,179; an d the Twenty-eighth 
lost 266 men at the Antietam. The Forty-ninth Pennsylvania 
had 736 men disabled, in an enrolment of 1,313, its heaviest 
loss being at Spottsylvania, where it participated in the charge 
at the bloody angle and lost 260 men, including its colonel and 
lieutenant-colonel killed. The Seventy-second lost 237 at the 
Antietam, and 191 at Gettysburg, where it was in that part of 
the line aimed at by Pickett’s charge. The Eighty-third Penn¬ 
sylvania suffered heavier losses in action than any other regi¬ 
ment, save one, in the National service. At Gaines’s Mill it lost 
196, at Malvern Hill 166, at Manassas 97, and at Spottsylvania 164. 
At Gettysburg it formed part of the force that seized Little 
Round Top. Its total losses were 971 in an enrolment of 1,808. 
The Ninety-third, like a regiment previously mentioned, was raised 
and commanded by a Methodist minister. It rendered specially 
gallant service at Fair Oaks, the Wilderness, and Spottsylvania. 
The One Hundred and Nineteenth made a gallant charge at Rap¬ 
pahannock Station, capturing guns, flags, and many prisoners, and 
losing 43 men. It fought at the bloody angle of Spottsylvania, and 
there and in the Wilderness lost 231 out of 400, including two 


vania. 







CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


481 



CAPTAIN W. N. GREENE, OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND NEW YORK REGIMENT, 
Capturing the Battle Flag of the Twelfth Georgia Regiment at Chancellorsville. 


regimental commanders killed. The One Hundred and Fortieth 
was in the wheat-field at Gettysburg, and there lost 241 men out 
of 589. Its total killed and wounded numbered 732 in an enrol¬ 
ment of 1,132. 

Delaware, a slave State, contributed its quota to the armies 
that fought for the Union. At the Antictam its First Regiment 
lost 230 men out of 650. At Gettysburg it was among the troops 
that met Pickett’s charge. 

Maryland, another slave State, contributed many good troops 
to the Union cause. Its Sixth Regiment lost 174 men at Win¬ 
chester, and 170 in the Wilderness. 

The Seventh West Virginia lost 522 men killed or wounded, 
in an enrolment of 1,008. 

The Seventh Ohio lost, at Cedar Mountain, 182 out of 307 
men. At Ringgold all its officers except one were either killed 
or wounded. At Chickamauga the Fourteenth lost 245 men out 
of 449. At Jonesboro it carried the works in front of it by a 
brilliant charge, but at heavy loss. The Twenty-third, at South 
Mountain and Antietam, lost 199 men. Two of its four succes¬ 
sive colonels were William S. Rosecrans and Rutherford B. Hayes. 


It was not in the famous battles alone that heavy regimental 
losses were sustained. At Honey Hill, an action seldom men¬ 
tioned, the Twenty-fifth Ohio had 35 men killed, with the usual 
proportion of wounded; and at Pickett’s Mills, hardly recorded 
in any history, the Eighty-ninth Illinois lost 154. 

The Fifth Kentucky, at Stone River, lost 125 out of 320 men, 
and at Chickamauga 125. It was commanded by Lovell H. Rous¬ 
seau, an eminent soldier. Its total loss was 581, in an enrolment 
of 1,020. The Fifteenth, at Perryville, lost 196 men, including all 
its field officers killed. Its “boy colonel,” James B. Forman, was 
killed at Stone River. Its total killed and wounded numbered 
516, in an enrolment of 952. 

The Fourteenth Indiana lost 181 men at the Antietam, out of 
320. At Gettysburg it formed part of the brigade that annihi¬ 
lated the Louisiana Tigers. The Nineteenth suffered, during its 
whole term of service, a loss of 712 killed and wounded, in an 
enrolment of 1,246. The Twenty-seventh lost 616 from an en¬ 
rolment of 1,1o1. 

The Eleventh Illinois lost, at Fort Donelson, 339 men out of 
500. It was commanded by W. H. L. Wallace, who was after- 












(FROM A WAR DEPARTMENT PHOTOGRAPH.) 















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


483 


ward a brigadier-general and fell at Shiloh. The Twenty-first 
lost 303 men at Stone River, and 238 at Chickamauga. Its first 
colonel was Ulysses S. Grant. The Thirty-first lost 176 at Fort 
Donelson. Its first colonel was John A. Logan. The Thirty- 
sixth lost 212 at Stone River. The Fortieth lost 216 at Shiloh, 
and gained special credit for keeping its place in the line after its 
ammunition was exhausted. The Fifty-fifth lost 275 at Shiloh 
out of 512. The Ninety-third lost 162 at Champion Hill, and 
89, including its colonel, at Mission Ridge. 

I he hirst Michigan lost, at Manassas, 178 out of 240 men, 
including the colonel and fifteen other officers. The Fourth 
lost 164 at Malvern Hill, including its colonel. At Gettysburg 
it was in the wheat-field, and lost 165 men. Here a Confederate 
officer seized the regimental colors and was shot by the colonel, 
who the next moment was bayoneted by a Confederate soldier, 
who in his turn was instantly killed by the major. This regiment 
had three colonels killed in action. The Twenty-fourth, at 
Gettysburg, lost 363 men, including the colonel and twenty-one 
other officers, out of 496. 

The Second Wisconsin lost 112 men at the first Bull Run and 
298 at the second, including its colonel killed ; and the Seventh 
had a total loss in killed 
and wounded of 1,016 
from an enrolment of 
1,630; and the Twenty- 
sixth lost 503 from an en¬ 
rolment of 1,089. 

The Fifth Iowa lost 217 
men at Iuka, and the 
Seventh, at Belmont, lost 
227 out of 410. At Pea 
Ridge the Ninth lost 218 
out of 560. In the as¬ 
sault on Vicksburg the 
Twenty-second lost 164, 
and was the only regiment 
that gained and held any 
portion of the works. Of 
a squad of twenty-one 
men that leaped inside 
and waged a hand-to-hand 
fight, nineteen were 
killed. 

The Eleventh Missouri 
had a total loss of 495 
from an enrolment of 945. 

Its heaviest loss was in the assault on Vicksburg, 92. Joseph A. 
Mower, afterward eminent as a general, was at one time its colo¬ 
nel. The Twelfth Missouri lost 108 in the assault on Vicksburg, 
and the Fifteenth lost 100 at Chickamauga. General Osterhaus 
was the first colonel of the Twelfth. 

The First Kansas lost 106 men killed and wounded at Wil¬ 
son’s Creek. 

The losses in the cavalry were not so striking as those of the 
infantry, because they were seldom so heavy in any one engage¬ 
ment. But the cavalry were engaged oftencr, sometimes in a 
constant running fight, and the average aggregate of casualties 
was about the same as in other arms of the service. 

In the artillery there were occasionally heavy losses when the 
enemy charged upon a battery and the gunners stood by their 
pieces. At Iuka, Sands’s Ohio battery had 105 men, including 
drivers. It was doing very effective service when two Texas 


regiments charged it, and 51 of its men were killed or wounded. 
It was captured and recaptured. Seeley's battery at Chancel- 
lorsville lost 45 men, and at Gettysburg 25. Campbell’s lost 40 
at the Antietam, and Cushing’s 38 at Gettysburg. The Fifth 
Maine battery lost 28 at Chancellorsville, 28 at Cedar Creek, and 
23 at Gettysburg. 

The colored regiments, which were not taken into the service 
till the third year of the war, suffered quite as heavily as the 
white ones. They lost over 2,700 men killed in battle (not in¬ 
cluding the mortality among their white officers), and, with the 
usual proportion of wounded, this would make their total of 

casualties at least 
12,000. 

The regimental 
losses in the Confed¬ 
erate army were at 
least equal to those 
in the National, and 
were probably great¬ 
er, for the reason that 
for them “ there was 
no discharge in that 
war.” Every organi¬ 
zation in the Nation¬ 
al service was enlisted 
on a distinct contract 
to serve for a definite 
term—three months, 
nine months, two 
years, or three years 
—and when the term 
expired, the men were 
sent home and mus¬ 
tered out. But when 
a man was once mus¬ 
tered into the Confed¬ 
erate army, he was 
there till the end of the war, unless he deserted or was dis¬ 
abled. But no records are available from which complete 
statistics can be compiled. And in May, 1863, General Lee 
issued an order forbidding commanders to include in their 
reports of casualties in battle any wounds except such as 
disabled the men for further service, and also forbidding 
them to mention the number of men engaged in an action. 
This makes any mathematical comparison with the casu¬ 
alties in the National armies impossible; and without infor¬ 
mation as to the number engaged, the percentage of loss, which 
is the true test, cannot be computed. Still, there were a con¬ 
siderable number of regiments the statistics of which were 
recorded and have been preserved. The heaviest loss known 
in any Confederate regiment was that of the Twenty-sixth 
North Carolina, at Gettysburg. It went into the fight with 
somewhat more than 800 men, and lost 588 killed or wounded, 
besides 120 missing. One company went into the first day’s 
battle with three officers and 84 men, and all but one man 
were either killed or wounded. Another North Carolina regi¬ 
ment, the Eleventh, went in on the first day with three offi¬ 
cers and 38 men, and two of the officers and 34 men were 
killed or wounded. At Fair Oaks, the Sixth Alabama lost 373 
out of 632, and the Fourth North Carolina, 369 out of 687. At 
Gaines’s Mill the First South Carolina lost 319 out of 537; 
and at Stone River the Eighth Tennessee lost 306 out of 444. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL J. W. SILL. 
Killed at Stone River. 



COLONEL JOHN W. LOWE. 
Killed at Carnifex Ferry. 





















484 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



South Carolina, 66 per 
cent. ; the Twelfth 
South Carolina and 
the Fourth Virginia, 
each 54 per cent.; 
and the Seventeenth 
Georgia, 50 per cent. 
At Stone River the 
Eighth Tennessee lost 
68 per cent. ; the 
Twelfth Tennessee, 


North Carolina, 61 per cent.; the Eighteenth and Tenth Georgia, 
each 57 per cent. ; the Seventeenth Virginia, 56 per cent.; the 
Fourth Texas, 53 per.cent.; the Seventh South Carolina, 52 
per cent. ; the Thirty-second Virginia, 45 per cent.; and the 
Eighteenth Mississippi, 45 per cent. Some of the losses at 
Chickamauga were equally appalling. The Tenth Tennessee 
lost 68 per cent.; the Fifth Georgia, 61 per cent.; the Second 
and Fifteenth Tennessee, 60 per cent.; the Sixteenth Alabama 
and the Sixth and Ninth Tennessee, each 58 per cent.; the 
Eighteenth Alabama, 56 per cent.; the Twenty-second Alabama, 
55 per cent.; the Twenty-third Tennessee, 54 per cent.; the 
Twenty-ninth Mississippi and the Fifty-eighth Alabama, each 
52 per cent. ; the Thirty-seventh Georgia and the Sixty-third 
Tennessee, each 50 per cent. ; the Forty-first Alabama, 49 
per cent. ; the Twentieth and Thirty-second Tennessee, each 

48 per cent.; and the First Arkan- 
SaS ’ 45 P er cent * And these 
' \ losses include very few pris- 

/ oners. AtGettysburg.be- 

- \ sides the regiments 

' A already mentioned, the 

v -7* heaviest losers 

among _ - — \ 


COLONEL E. E. ELLSWORTH, 


Killed at Alexandria, Va. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
GEORGE D. BAYARD 


'NT-COLONEL EDWARD CARROL. 
3t * he Bat,,e ° f Wilderness. 


Killed at Fredericksburg. 


the Con¬ 
federates were: the Sec¬ 
ond North Carolina, 64 
per cent. ; the Ninth 
Georgia, 55 per cent.; 
the Fifteenth Georgia, 
51 per cent.; and the 
First Maryland, 48 per 
cent. At Shiloh the 


The heaviest percentage of loss, so far as known, was that of the 
First Texas, at the Antietam, 82 per cent. In that same battle 
the Sixteenth Mississippi lost 63 per cent. ; the Twenty-seventh 


Seventeenth South 
Carolina, 67 per cent.; 
the Twenty-third 


COLONEL EDWARD E. CROSS. 
Killed at Gettysburg. 


Sixth Mississippi lost 70 
per cent. At Manassas 
the Twenty-first Georgia 
lost 76 per cent.; the 


erate service, as soon as a man was put in command of a 
brigade he was made a brigadier-general, but the National gov¬ 
ernment was more chary of rank, and often left a colonel for a 
long time at the head of a brigade. Counting such colonels who 




























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


485 


actually fell at the head of their brigades as brigadiers, we find 
that eighty-five brigade-commanders were killed on the National 
side, and seventy-three on the Confederate. 

On any other subject, the figures that crowd this chapter 
would be “ dry statistics,” but when we remember that every 
unit here presented represents a man killed or seriously injured, 
a citizen lost to the Republic—and not only that, but its loss of 
the sons that should have been born to these slaughtered men— 
every paragraph acquires a deep, though mournful interest. We 
may well be proud of American valor, but we should also feel 
humiliated by the supreme folly of civil war. 


Note. —For the statistics of this chapter, we are largely indebted to Col. William 
F. Fox’s admirable compilation of “ Regimental Losses in the American Civil War” 
(Albany, 1893). 



LAST DAYS OF THE CONFEDERACY.* 

BY GEN. JOHN B. GORDON, C. S. A. 

I WILL give you from my personal knowledge the history of 
the struggles that preceded the surrender of General Lee’s army, 
the causes that induced that surrender—as I had them from 
General Lee—the detailed account of the last assault ever made 
upon the Federal lines in pursuance of an offensive purpose, and 
a description of the last scenes of the bloody and terrible civil 
war. This history has never been published before. No official 
reports, I believe, were ever made upon the Confederate side; 
for after the battle of Hare’s Hill, as the attack upon Fort 
Steadman was called, there was not an hour’s rest until the 
surrender. From the 25th of March, 1865, until the 9th day of 
April, my men did not take their boots off, the roar of cannon 
and the rattle of musketry was scarcely stilled an instant, and 

* This article was dictated by Gen. John B. Gordon to the late Henry W. Grady, 
and prepared by him for publication. It appeared originally in the I'hiladelphia 
Times. It is reprinted here by permission, after revision and correction by General 
Gordon. 


the fighting and marching was continuous. Hence no report of 
these operations was ever made. 

You will remember the situation of affairs in Virginia about 
the first of March, 1865. The Valley campaign of the previous 
summer, which was inaugurated for the purpose of effecting a 
diversion and breaking the tightening lines about Richmond and 
Petersburg, and from which so much had been expected, had 
ended in disaster. Grant had massed an enormous army in front 
of Petersburg and Richmond, and fresh troops were hurrying to 
his aid. Our army covered a line of over twenty miles, and was 
in great distress. The men were literally starving. We were 
not able to issue even half rations. One-sixth of a pound of 
beef a day, I remember, was at one time the ration of a portion 
of the army, and the men could not always get even that. I saw 
men often on their hands and knees, with little sticks, digging 
the grains of corn from out of the tracks of horses, and washing 
it and cooking it. The brave fellows were so depleted by the 
time Grant broke our lines, that the slightest wound often killed 
them. A scratch on the hand would result in gangrene and 
prove fatal. The doctors took me to the hospitals and showed 
me men with a joint on their fingers shot off, and their arms 
gangrened up to the elbows. “The men are starved,” they 
said, “and we can do little for them.” 

A TERRIBLE SITUATION. 

The sights that I saw as I walked among these poor, emaci¬ 
ated, hungry men, dying of starved and poisoned systems, were 
simply horrible. Our horses were in no better condition ; many 
of them were hardly able to do service at all. General Lee had 
gone in person into Petersburg and Richmond, and begged the 
citizens to divide what little they had with his wretched men. 
The heroic people did all that they could. Our sole line of sup¬ 
plies was the railroad running into North Carolina and pene¬ 
trating into “ Egypt,” as we called Southwest Georgia, which 
was then the provision ground for our armies. Such was the 
situation. My corps (Stonewall Jackson’s old corps), after severe 
and heroic work in the Valley campaign, had been ordered back 
to Petersburg and placed upon the right wing of the army. I 
had general instructions to protect the flank of the army, prevent 
General Grant from turning it, and, above all, to protect the 
slender line of road from which solely we received our scanty 
supplies. We were almost continually engaged in fighting, 
making feints, and protecting our skirmish lines, which the 
enemy were feeling and pressing continually. Before daylight 
on the morning of the 2d of March, 1865, General Lee sent for 
me. I mounted my horse at once and rode to the general’s 
headquarters. I reached the house in which he was staying at 
about four o’clock in the morning. As I entered the room 
to which I had been directed, I found General Lee alone. I 
shall never forget the scene. The general was standing at 
the fireplace, his head on his arm, leaning on the mantelpiece 
—the first time I ever saw him looking so thoroughly de¬ 
jected. A dim lamp was burning on a small centre-table. 
On the table was a mass of official reports. General Lee 
remained motionless for a moment after I opened the door. 
He then looked up, greeted me with his usual courtesy, 
motioned me to the little table, and, drawing up a chair, sat 
down. I sat opposite him. “ I have sent for you, General Gor¬ 
don,” he said, “ to make known to you the condition of our 
affairs and to confer with you as to what we had best do.” The 
night was fearfully cold. The fire and lamp both burned low 












4S6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


as General Lee went on to give me the details of the situation. 
“ I have here,” he said, “ reports sent in from my officers to¬ 
night. I find, upon careful examination, that I have under my 
command, of all arms, hardly forty-five thousand men. These 
men are starving. They are already so weakened as to be hardly 
efficient. Many of them have become desperate, reckless, and 
disorderly as they have never been before. It is difficult to con¬ 
trol men who are suffering for food. They are breaking open 
mills, barns, and stores in search of food. Almost crazed from 
hunger, they are deserting from some commands in large num¬ 
bers and going home. My horses are in equally bad condition. 
The supply of horses in the country is exhausted. It has come 
to be where it is just as bad for me to have a horse killed as a 
man. I cannot remount a cavalryman whose horse dies. Gen¬ 
eral Grant can mount ten thousand men in ten days, and move 
around your flank. If he were to send me word to-morrow that 
I might move out unmolested, I have not enough horses to 
move my artillery. He is not likely to send this message, how¬ 
ever; and yet,” smiling, “he sent me word yesterday that he 
knew what I had for breakfast every morning. I sent him word 
that I did not think this could be so, for if he did know he 
would surely send me something better. But, now, let us look 
at the figures. I have, as I have shown you, not quite 45,000 
men. My men are starved, exhausted, sick. His are in the best 
condition possible. But beyond this there is Hancock, at Win¬ 
chester, with a force of probably not less than 18,000 men. To 
oppose this force I have not a solitary vidette. Sheridan, with 
his terrible cavalry, has marched almost unmolested and unop¬ 
posed along the James, cutting the railroads and canal. Thomas 
is approaching from Knoxville with a force I estimate at 30,000, 
and to oppose him I have a few brigades of badly disciplined 
cavalry, amounting to probably 3,000 in all. General Sherman 
is in North Carolina, and, with Schofield’s forces, will have 
65,000 men. As to what I have to oppose this force, I submit 
the following telegram from General Johnston. The telegram 
reads: ‘General Beaureguard telegraphed you a few days ago 
that, w i t h Governor 
Vance’s Home Guards, 
we could carry 20,000 
men into battle. I find, 
upon close inspection, 
that we cannot muster 
over 13,000 men.’” 

(This, General Gordon 
said, was, as nearly as 
he could recollect, Gen¬ 
eral Johnston’s tele¬ 
gram.) “ So there is the 
situation. I have here, 
say, 40,000 men able for 
duty, though none of 
my poor fellows are in 
good condition. They 
are opposed directly by 
an army of 160,000 
strong and confident 
men, and converging on 
my little force four sep¬ 
arate armies, number¬ 
ing, in the aggregate, 

130.000 more men. 

This force, added to 


General Grant’s, makes over a quarter million. To prevent these 
from uniting for my destruction there are hardly 60,000 men 
available. My men are growing weaker day by day. Their suf¬ 
ferings are terrible and exhausting. My horses are broken down 
and impotent. I am apprehensive that General Grant may press 
around my flank and cut our sole remaining line of supplies. 
Now, general,” he said, looking me straight in the face, “ what is 
to be done ? ” With this he laid his paper down and leaned back 
in his chair. 

WHAT IS TO BE DONE ? 

I replied : “ Since you have done me the honor to ask my 
opinion, I will give it. The situation as you portray it is infi¬ 
nitely worse than I had dreamed it was. I cannot doubt that 
your information is correct. I am confident of the opinion, 
therefore, that one of two things should be done, and at once. 
We must either treat with the United States Government for 
the best terms possible, or we should concentrate all our strength 
at one point of Grant’s line—selecting some point on the right 
bank of the Appomattox—assault him, break through his lines, 
destroy his pontoons, and then turn full upon the flank of his 
left wing, sweep down it and destroy it if possible, and then join 
General Johnston in North Carolina by forced marches, and, com¬ 
bining our army with his, fall upon Sherman.” 

“ And what then ? ” 

“ If we beat him or succeed in making a considerable battle, 
then treat at once for terms. I am forced to the conclusion, 
from what you say, sir, that we have no time for delay.” 

“ So that is your opinion, is it ? ” he asked, in a tone that sent 
the blood to my face. I ought to have remembered that it was 
a way that General Lee had of testing the sincerity of a man’s 
opinion by appearing to discredit it. 

“ It is, sir,” I replied ; “ but I should not have ventured it, had 
it not been asked; and since you seem to differ from the opin¬ 
ion I hold, may I ask you what your opinion is ?” 

At once his manner changed, and, leaning forward, he said, 

blandly: “I entirely 
agree with you, gen¬ 
eral.” 

“Does President 
Davis and the Congress 
know these facts ? Have 
you expressed an opin¬ 
ion as to the propriety 
of making terms, to 
President Davis or the 
Congress ? ” 

General Lee replied 
to this question : “ Gen¬ 
eral Gordon, I am a 
soldier. It is my duty 
to obey orders.” 

“ Yes," I replied; 

“ but if you read the 
papers, General Lee, 
you can’t shut your 
eyes to the fact that the 
hopes of the Southern 
people are centred in 
and on your army, and 
if we wait until we are 
beaten and scattered 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


487 



into the 
m o u n - 
tains be- 


LIEUTEN A NT-GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON, C. S. A. 


fore we 
make an 

effort at terms, the people will not be satisfied. Besides, we 
will simply invite the enemy to hunt us down all over the 
country, devastating it wherever they go.” 

General Lee said nothing to this for some time, but paced the 
floor in silence, while I sat gloomily enough, as you may know, 
at the fearful prospect. He had, doubtless, thought of all I said 
long before he sent for me. I don’t wish you to understand that 
I am vain enough to believe for a moment that anything I said 
induced him to go to Richmond the next day. As I said before, 
he had probably decided on his course before he sent forme, and 
only feigned a difference of opinion or hesitation in order to see 
with what pertinacity I held my own. He did go to Richmond, 
and on his return sent for me again, and in reply to my question 
as to what had occurred, he said : 

“ Sir, it is enough to turn a man’s hair gray to spend one day 
in that Congress. The members are patriotic and earnest, but 
they will neither take the responsibility of acting nor will they 
clothe me with authority to act. As for Mr. Davis, he is 
unwilling to do anything short of independence, and feels that 
it is useless to try to treat on that basis. Indeed, he says that, 
having failed in one overture of peace at Hampton Roads, he is 
not disposed to try another." 

“ Then,” said I, “ there is nothing left for us but to fight, and 
the sooner we fight the better, for every day weakens us and 
strengthens our opponents.” 

It was these two conferences that led to the desperate and 
almost hopeless attack I made upon the 25th of March on 
Grant’s lines at Fort Steadman and Hare’s Hill, in front of 
Petersburg. My corps was, as I tell you, at that time on the 


LEE, c - 


ROBES 1 




extreme right of General Lee’s army, 
stretching from Hatcher’s Run, south¬ 
ward along the Boydton plank road. 
He proposed to transfer my corps to 
lines in and around Petersburg, and 
have me familiarize myself with the 
strong and weak points, if there were 
any weak ones, on Grant’s line near 
the bank of the Appomattox River. 
He ordered my command into 
Petersburg to replace the troops 
which were there. I spent a week 
examining Grant’s lines, learning 
from deserters and men captured 
the names of the Federal officers 
and their commands in the front. 
At last I selected a point which 
I was sure I could carry by a 
night assault. I so reported to 
General Lee. It was in the last 
degree a desperate undertake 
ing, as you will presently see ; 
but it was the best that could 
be suggested—better than to 
stand still. Almost hopeless 
as it was, it was less so than 
the certain and rapid disintegration, 
through starvation and disease and desertion, of the 
last army we could ever organize. The point on my line from 
which I decided to make the assault was Colquitt’s salient, which 
had been built by Governor Colquitt and his men and held by 
them, when, to protect themselves, they had to move under cov¬ 
ered ways and sleep burrowed in the ground like Georgia gophers. 

I selected this point because the main lines here were closest to¬ 
gether, being not more than two hundred yards apart, I should say, 
while the picket lines were so close that the Confederate, and the 
Federals could easily converse. By a sort of general consent the 
firing between the pickets nearly ceased during the day, so that I 
could stand upon my breastworks and examine General Grant’s. 
It is necessary that you should know precisely the situation of 
the lines and forts, as I can illustrate by a rough diagram: 


A, Colquitt’s salient. B , the main line of Federal intrenchment, with Fort Stead¬ 
man in the centre and two other forts flanking' it. C, line of Federal reserves to 
support Fort Steadman and the troops in the main trenches D , second line of 
Federal forts, so arranged as to command Fort Steadman and the main line of 
intrenchments, should these be broken. 












488 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


A STRONG POSITION. 

You can see at a glance how desperately strong was even this, 
the weakest point on Grant’s line. It was close to Colquitt’s 
salient where the fearful mine was sprung called the Crater. 
The whole intervening ground between Fort Steadman and 
Colquitt’s salient, over which I had to make the assault, was 
raked not only by a front fire, but by flank fires from both 
directions from the forts and trenches of the main line, B. An 
attack, therefore, by daylight would have been simply to have 
the men butchered, without any possibility of success, so that 
nothing but a night attack was to be thought of. Between the 
main line of trenches and forts and the rear line of forts, D, was 
a heavy line of Federal reserves, C, and the rear forts were 
placed with such consummate engineering skill as to command 
any point on that portion of Grant’s line which might be cap¬ 
tured. It was, therefore, necessary to capture or break through 
the reserves and take the rear line of forts as well as the front. 
This rear line of forts was so protected by abatis in front that 
the whole of General Lee’s army could not have stormed them 
by a front attack, and the only possibility of securing them was 
to capture them from the rear, where there was an opening. 
This could only be done by stratagem, if it could be done at all. 

I finally submitted a plan of battle to General Lee, which he 
approved and ordered executed. It was briefly this: To take 
Fort Steadman by direct assault at night, then send a separate 
body of men to each of the rear forts, who, claiming to be 
Federals, might pass through the Federal reserves and take pos¬ 
session of the rear line of forts as if ordered to do so by the 
Federal commander; next, then to press with my whole force 
to the rear of Grant’s main line and force him out of the 
trenches, destroy his pontoons, cut his telegraph wires, and 
press down his flank. Of course, it was a most desperate and 
almost hopeless undertaking, and could be justified only by our 
desperate and hopeless condition if we remained idle. We both 
recognized it as the forlornest of forlorn hopes. Let me par¬ 
ticularize a little more. The obstructions in front of my own 
lines had to be removed, and removed silently, so as not to 
attract the attention of the Federal pickets. Grant’s obstruc¬ 
tions had to be removed from the front of Fort Steadman. 
These obstructions were of sharpened rails, elevated to about 
breast high, the other end buried deeply in the ground, the 
rails resting on a horizontal pole and wrapped with telegraph 
wire. They could not be mounted or pushed aside, but had to 
be cut away with axes. This had to be done immediately in 
front of the guns of Fort Steadman. These guns were at night 
doubly charged with canister, as I learned from Federal prison¬ 
ers. The rush across the intervening space between the lines 
had to be made so silently and swiftly as to take the fort before 
the gunners could fire. The reserves had to be beaten or passed 
and the rear line of forts taken before daylight. All this had to 
be accomplished before my main forces could be moved across 
and placed in position to move on Grant’s flank, or rather left 
wing. 

THE PLAN OF ATTACK. 

My preparations were these : I called on my division com¬ 
manders for a detail of the bravest men in their commands. To 
rush over the Federal pickets and into the fort and seize the 
Federal guns, I selected a body of only one hundred men, with 
empty rifles and fixed bayonets. To precede these, to clear an 
opening to the fort, I selected fifty of the most stalwart and brave 


men I could find, and armed them with axes to cut down the 
obstructions in front of the fort. They were ordered to remove 
my own abatis, rush upon the Federal obstructions, and cut 
away a brigade front. The one hundred with empty rifles and 
fixed bayonets were to follow immediately, and this one hundred 
and fifty men were not to falter or fire, but to go into Fort 
Steadman, if they had to do it in the face of the fire from all the 
forts. Immediately after these axemen and the one hundred 
had cleared the way and gained the fort, three other squads of 
one hundred each were to rush across, pass through Fort Stead¬ 
man, and go pell-mell to the rear, and right through the Federal 
reserves, crying as they went: “The rebels have carried our 
lines in front, captured Fort Steadman, and we are ordered by 
General McLaughlin, Federal commander of Fort Steadman, to 
go back to the rear forts and hold them against the rebels.” I 
instructed each commander of these last squads as to what par¬ 
ticular fort he was to enter ; and a guide, who had been raised on 
the ground, was placed with each of these three squads, or com¬ 
panies, who was to conduct them through the reserves and to 
the rear of the forts. If they were halted by the Federal 
reserves, each commander was instructed to pass himself off as 
one of the Federal officers whose names I had learned. I remem¬ 
ber that I named one commander of one of the companies Lieu¬ 
tenant-Colonel Pendergrast, of a Pennsylvania regiment—I think 
that was the name and regiment of one of the Federal officers 
in my front. As soon as Fort Steadman should be taken, and 
these three bodies of one hundred men each had succeeded in 
entering the rear forts, the main force of infantry and cavalry 
were to cross over. The cavalry was to gallop to the rear, cap¬ 
ture the fugitives, destroy the pontoons, cut down the telegraph 
wires, and give me constant information, while the infantry was 
to move rapidly down Grant’s lines, attacking and breaking his 
division in detail, as they moved out of his trenches. Such, I 
say, was the plan of this most desperate and last aggressive 
assault ever made by the Confederate army. 

General Lee had sent me, in addition to my own corps, a por¬ 
tion of Longstreet’s corps (Pickett’s division) and a portion of 
A. P. Hill’s and a body of cavalry. During the whole night of 
the 24th of March I was on horseback, making preparations and 
disposing of troops. About four o’clock in the morning I called 
close around me the fifty axemen and four companies, one hun¬ 
dred each, of the brave men who were selected to do this hazard¬ 
ous work. I spoke to them of the character of the undertaking, 
and of the last hope of the cause, which was about to be confided 
to them. Around the shoulders of each man was bound a white 
strip of muslin, which Mrs. Gordon, who sat in a room not far 
distant listening for the signal gun, had prepared, as a means of 
recognition of each other. The hour had come, and when every¬ 
thing was ready I stood on the breastworks of Colquitt’s salient 
and ordered two men to my side, with rifles, who were to fire 
the signal for attack. The noise of moving our own obstructions 
was going on and attracted the notice of a Federal picket. In 
the black darkness his voice rang out: 

“ Hullo there, Johnny Reb ! what are you making all that fuss 
about over there?” 

The men were just leaning forward for the start. This sudden 
call disconcerted me somewhat; but the rifleman on my right 
came to my assistance by calling out in a cheerful voice: 

“ Oh ! never mind us, Yank ; lie down and go to sleep. We are 
just gathering a little corn ; you know rations are mighty short 
over here.” 

There was a patch of corn between our lines, some of it still 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


489 


hanging on the stalks. After a few moments there came back 
the kindly reply of the Yankee picket, which quite reassured me. 
He said : 

“All right, Johnny; go ahead and get your corn. I won’t 
shoot at you.” 

As I gave the command to forward, the man on my right 
seemed to have some compunctions of conscience for having 
stilled the suspicions of the Yankee picket who had answered 
him so kindly, and who the next moment might be surprised 
and killed. So he called out to him : 

“ Look out for yourself now, Yank ; we’re going to shell the 
woods.” 

This exhibition of chivalry and of kindly feelings on both sides, 
and at such a moment, touched me almost as deeply as any minor 
incident of the war. I quickly ordered the two men to “ Fire.” 

Bang! Bang! The two shots broke the stillness, and “For¬ 
ward ! ” I commanded. The chosen hundred sprang forward, 
eagerly following the axemen, and for the last time the stars and 
bars were carried to aggressive assault. 

FORT STEADMAN TAKEN. 

In a moment the axemen were upon the abatis of the enemy 
and hewing it down. I shall never know how they whisked 
this line of wire-fastened obstructions out of the way. The one 
hundred overpowered the pickets, sent them to the rear, rushed 


through the gap made by the axemen up the slope of Fort 
Steadman, and it was ours without the firing of a single gun, and 
with the loss of but one man. He was killed with a bayonet. 
The three companies who were to attempt to pass the reserves 
and go into the rear forts followed and passed on through Fort 
Steadman. Then came the other troops pouring into the fort, 
We captured, I think, nine pieces of artillery, eleven mortars, 
and about six hundred or seven hundred prisoners, among whom 
was General McLaughlin, who was commanding on that portion 
of the Federal line. Many were taken in their beds. The prison¬ 
ers were all sent across to our lines, and other troops of my 
command were brought to the fort. I now anxiously awaited 
to learn the fate of the three hundred who had been sent in 
companies of one hundred each to attempt the capture of the 
three rear forts. Soon a messenger reached me from two officers 
commanding two of these chosen bodies, who informed me that 
they had succeeded in passing right through the line of Federal 
reserves by representing themselves as Federals, and had cer¬ 
tainly gone far enough to the rear for the forts, but that their 
guides had abandoned them or been lost, and that they did not 
know in what direction to move. It was afterward discovered, 
when daylight came, that these men had gone further out than 
the forts, and could have easily entered and captured them if the 
guides had not been lost, or had done their duty. Of course, after 
dawn they were nearly all captured, being entirely behind the 
Federal reserves. 



CITY POINT, VIRGINIA. 
(From a War-time Photograph.) 

















GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. 









CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


49I 


other troops 


FAILURE OF THE ATTACK. 

In the mean time, the few Federal soldiers who had escaped 
from the fort and intrenchments we had captured had spread the 
alarm and aroused the Federal army. The hills in the rear of 
Grant’s lines were soon black with troops. By the time it was 
fairly daybreak the two forts on the main line flanking Fort 
Steadman, the three forts in the rear, and the reserves, all opened 
fire upon my forces. We held Fort Steadman, and the Federal 
intrenchments to the river, or nearly so. But the guides had 
been lost, and as a consequence the rear forts had not been cap¬ 
tured. Failing to secure these forts, the cavalry could not pass, 
the pontoons could not be destroyed, and the telegraph wires 
were not cut. In addition to these mishaps, the trains had been 
delayed, and Pickett's division and 
sent me by General Lee had not 
arrived. The success had been 
brilliant so far as it had gone, and 
had been achieved without loss 
of any consequence to our army ; 
but it had failed in the essen¬ 
tials to a complete success or 
to a great victory. Every hour 
was bringing heavy reinforce¬ 
ments to the Federals and 

J 

rendering my position less 
and less tenable. After a 
brief correspondence with 
General Lee, it was decided 
to withdraw. My loss, what¬ 
ever it was, occurred in 
withdrawing under concen¬ 
trated fire from forts and 
infantry. The fighting 
over the picket lines and main 
lines from this time to the surrender was too 

incessant to give me an opportunity to ascertain my loss. It 
was considerable; and although I had inflicted a heavy loss 
upon the enemy, I felt, as my troops reentered Colquitt’s salient, 
that the last hazard had been thrown, and that we had lost. 

I will give you here the last note I ever received from General 
Lee, and one of the last he ever wrote in his official capacity. It 
is as follows: 

4.30 p.m., Headquarters, March 24, 1865. 

General : I have received yours of 2.30 p.m., and telegraphed for Pickett’s 
division, but I do not think it will reach here in time ; still we will try. If 
you need more troops, one or both of Heth’s brigades can be called to Col¬ 
quitt's salient, and Wilcox’s to the Baxter road. Dispose of the troops as 
needed. I pray that a merciful God may grant us success, and deliver us 
from our enemies. 

Very truly, 

R. E. Lee, General. 

Gen. J. B. Gordon. 

P. S.—The cavalry is ordered to report to you at Halifax Road and Nor¬ 
folk Railroad (iron bridge) at three A.M. to-morrow. W. F. Lee to be in 
vicinity of Monk's Comer at six A.M. R. E. L. 


THE DEATH STRUGGLE. 

I had very little talk with General Lee after our withdrawal. 
I recognized that the end was approaching, and of course he 
did. It will be seen from his semi-ofificial note, quoted above, 
that he became very much interested in the success of our 



Major 


movement. While he had known as well as I that it was a 
desperate and forlorn hope, still we had hoped that we might 
cut through and make a glorious dash down the right and seek 
Johnston in North Carolina. The result of the audacious 
attempt that had been made upon his line, and its complete 
success up to the time that it was ruined by a mischance, was to 
awaken General Grant’s forces into more aggressive measures. 
A sort of respite was had, for a day, after the night attack on 
Fort Steadman, and then the death-struggle began. Grant 
hurried his masses upon our starved and broken-down veterans. 
His main attack was made upon our left, A. P. Hill’s corps. 
Grant’s object was to turn our flanks, and get between us and 
North Carolina. The fighting was fearful and continuous. It 
was a miracle that we held our lines for a single day. With 
barely six thousand men I was holding six miles of line. I had 
just one thousand men to the mile, or about one to every 
—-two yards. Hill and Longstreet were in not much 
better trim, and some part of this thin line was being 
forced continually. The main fight was on my line 
and Hill’s, as General Longstreet was nearer Rich¬ 
mond. Heavy masses of troops were hurled upon 

our line, and we would 
have to rally our forces 
at a certain point to 
meet the attack. By 
the time we would re¬ 
pel it, we would find 
another point attacked, 
and would hurry to de¬ 
fend that. Of course, 
withdrawing men from 
one part of the line 
would leave it exposed, 
and the enemy would 
rush in. Then we 
would have to drive 
them out and reestab¬ 
lish our line. Thus the 
battle raged day after 
day. Our line would 
bend and twist, and 
swell and break, and 
close again, only to be battered against once more. Our people 
performed prodigies of valor. How they endured through those 
terrible, hopeless, bloody days, I do not know. They fought 
desperately and heroically, although they were so weakened 
through hunger and work that they could scarcely stand upon 
their feet and totter from one point of assault to another. But 
they never complained. They fought sternly, grimly, as men 
who had made up their minds to die. And we held our lines. 
Somehow or other—God only knows how—we managed day by 
day to wrest from the Federals the most of our lines. Then the 
men, dropping in the trenches, would eat their scanty rations, 
try to forget their hunger, and snatch an hour or two of sleep. 

THE EVACUATION OF PETERSBURG. 

Our picket lines were attacked somewhere every night. 
This thing went on till the morning of the 2d of April. Early 
that day it became evident that the supreme moment had come. 
The enemy attacked in unusually heavy force, and along the line 
of mine and Hill’s corps. It became absolutely necessary to 


MAJOR-GENERAL THOS. L. ROSSER, C. S. A. 







492 


CAMPFIRE AND 

concentrate a few men at points along my line, in order to make 
a determined resistance. This left great gaps in my line of 
breastworks, unprotected by anything save a vidette or two. 
Of course, the Federals broke through these undefended passes, 
and established themselves in my breastworks. At length, hav¬ 
ing repulsed the forces attacking the points I defended, I began 
reestablishing my line. My men fought with a valor and a des¬ 
perate courage that has been rarely equalled, in my opinion, in 
military annals. We recaptured position after position, and by 
four o’clock in the afternoon I had reestablished my whole line 


BA T TIE FI ELD. 

torious army, fresh and strong, pressing upon our heels! We 
turned upon every hilltop to meet them, and give our wagon- 
trains and artillery time to get ahead. Instantly they would 
strike us, we invariably repulsed them. They never broke 
through my dauntless heroes ; but after we had fought for an 
hour or two, we would find huge masses of men pressing down 
our flanks, and to keep from being surrounded I would have to 
withdraw my men. We always retreated in good order, though 
always under fire. As we retreated we would wheel and fire, or 
repel a rush, and then stagger on to the next hill-top, or vantage 



APPOMATTOX COURT-HOUSE. 
(From a War Department Photograph.) 


except at one point. This was very strongly defended, but I 
prepared to assault it. I notified General Lee of my purpose and 
of the situation, when he sent me a message, telling me that 
Hill’s lines had been broken, and that General Hill himself had 
been killed. He ordered, therefore, that I should make no fur¬ 
ther fight, but prepare for the evacuation which he had deter¬ 
mined to make that night. That night we left Petersburg. 
Hill’s corps, terribly shattered and without its commander, 
crossed the river first, and I followed, having orders from Gen¬ 
eral Lee to cover the retreat. We spent the night in marching, 
and early the next morning the enemy rushed upon us. We 
had to turn and beat them back. Then began the most heroic 
and desperate struggle ever sustained by troops—a worn and ex¬ 
hausted force of hardly four thousand men, with a vast and vic- 


ground, where a new fight would be made. And so on through 
the entire day. At night my men had no rest. We marched 
through the night in order to get a little respite from fighting. 
All night long I would see my poor fellows hobbling along, pry¬ 
ing wagons or artillery out of the mud, and supplementing the 
work of our broken-down horses. At dawn, though, they would 
be in line ready for battle, and they would fight with the steadi¬ 
ness and valor of the Old Guard. 

THE LAST COUNCIL OF WAR. 

This lasted until the night of the 7th of April. The retreat 
of Lee’s army was lit up with the fire and flash of battle, in 
which my brave men moved about like demigods for five days 






CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


493 


and nights. Then we were sent to the front for a rest, and 
Longstreet was ordered to cover the retreating army. On the 
evening of the 8th, when I had reached the front, my scout 
George brought me two men in Confederate uniform, who, he 
said, he believed to be the enemy, as he had seen them counting 
our men as they filed past. I had the men brought to my 
campfire, and examined them. They made a most plausible 
defence, but George was positive they were spies, and I ordered 
them searched. He failed to find anything, when I ordered him 
to examine their boots. In the bottom of one of the boots I 
found an order from General Grant to General Ord, telling him 
to move by forced marches toward Lynchburg and cut off Gen¬ 
eral L ee’s retreat. The men then confessed that they were 
spies, and belonged to General Sheridan. They stated that they 
knew that the penalty of their course was death, but asked that 
I should not kill them, as the war could only last a few days 
longer, anyhow. I kept them prisoners, and turned them over 
to General Sheridan after the surrender. I at once sent the 
information to General Lee, and a short time afterward received 
orders to go to his headquarters. That night was held Lee’s last 
council of war. There were present General Lee, General Fitz- 
lnigh Lee, as head of the cavalry, and Pendleton, as chief of 
artillery, and myself. General Longstreet was, I think, too 
busily engaged to attend. General Lee then exhibited to us the 
correspondence he had had with General Grant that day, and 
asked our opinion of the situation. It seemed that surrender 
was inevitable. The only chance of escape was that I could cut 
a way for the army through the lines in front of me. General 
Lee asked me if I could do this. I replied that I did not know 
what forces were in front of me ; that if General Ord had not 
arrived—as we thought then he had not—with his heavy 
masses of infantry, I could cut through. I guaranteed that 
my men would cut a way through all the cavalry that could be 
massed in front of them. The council finally dissolved with 
the understanding that the army should be surrendered if I 
discovered the next morning, after feeling the enemy’s line, 
that the infantry had arrived in such force that I could not cut 
my way through. 

NEARING THE END. 

My men were drawn up in the little town of Appomattox that 
nigfht. I still had about four thousand men under me, as the 
army had been divided into two commands and given to General 
Longstreet and myself. Early on the morning of the 9th I pre¬ 
pared for the assault upon the enemy’s line, and began the last 
fighting done in Virginia. My men rushed forward gamely and 
broke the line of the enemy and captured two pieces of artillery. 
I was still unable to tell what I was fighting; I did not know 
whether I was striking infantry or dismounted cavalry. I only 
knew that my men were driving them back, and were getting 
further and further through. Just then I had a message from 
General Lee, telling me a flag of truce was in existence, leaving 
it to my discretion as to what course to pursue. My men were 
still pushing their way on. I sent at once to hear from General 
Longstreet, feeling that, if he was marching toward me, we might 
still cut through and carry the army forward. I learned that he 
was about two miles off, with his face just opposite from mine, 
fighting for his life. I thus saw that the case was hopeless. 
The further each of us drove the enemy the further we drifted 
apart, and the more exposed we left our wagon trains and 
artillery, which were parked between us. Every line either of 


us broke only opened the gap the wider. I saw plainly that the 
Federals would soon rush in between us, and then there would 
have been no army. I, therefore, determined to send a flag of 
truce. I called Colonel Peyton of my staff to me, and told 
him that I wanted him to carry a flag of truce forward. He 
replied: 

“ General, I have no flag of truce.” 

I told him to get one. He replied : 

“ General, we have no flag of truce in our command.” 

Then said I, “ Get your handkerchief, put it on a stick, and go 
forward.” 

“ I have no handkerchief, General.” 

“ Then borrow one and go forward with it.” 

fie tried, and reported to me that there was no handkerchief 
in my staff. 

“ Then, Colonel, use your shirt ! ” 

“ You see, General, that we all have on flannel shirts.” 

At last, I believe, we found a man who had a white shirt. He 
gave it to us, and I tore off the back and tail, and, tying this to 
a stick, Colonel Peyton went out toward the enemy’s lines. I 
instructed him to simply say to General Sheridan that General 
Lee had written me that a flag of truce had been sent from his 
and Grant’s headquarters, and that he could act as he thought 
best on this information. In a few moments he came back 
with some one representing General Sheridan. This officer 
said: 

“ General Sheridan requested me to present his compliments 
to you, and to demand the unconditional surrender of your 
army.” 

“ Major, you will please return my compliments to General 
Sheridan, and say that I will not surrender.” 

“ But, General, he will annihilate you.” 

“ I am perfectly well aware of my situation. I simply gave 
General Sheridan some information on which he may or may 
not desire to act.” 

THE FLAG OF TRUCE. 

He went back to his lines, and in a short time General Sheri¬ 
dan came forward on an immense horse, and attended by a very 
large staff. Just here an incident occurred that came near hav¬ 
ing a serious ending. As General Sheridan was approaching I 
noticed one of my sharp-shooters drawing his rifle down upon 
him. I at once called to him : “ Put down your gun, sir ; this 
is a flag of truce.” But he simply settled it to his shoulder and 
was drawing a bead on Sheridan, when I leaned forward and 
jerked his gun. He struggled with me, but I finally raised it. 
I then loosed it, and he started to aim again. I caught it again, 
when he turned his stern white face, all broken with grief and 
streaming with tears, up to me, and said : “ Well, General, then 
let him keep on his own side.” The fighting had continued up 
to this point. Indeed, after the flag of truce, a regiment of my 
men, who had been fighting their way through toward where we 
were, and who did not know of a flag of truce, fired into some 
of Sheridan’s cavalry. This was speedily stopped, however. I 
showed General Sheridan General Lee’s note, and he determined 
to await events. He dismounted, and I did the same. Then, 
for the first time, the men seemed to understand what it all 
meant, and then the poor fellows broke down. The men cried 
like children. Worn, starved, and bleeding as they were, they 
had rather have died than have surrendered. At one word from 
me they would have hurled themselves on the enemy, and have 


4 f j4 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD 


cut their way through or have fallen to a man with their guns 
in their hands. But I could not permit it. The great drama 
had been played to its end. But men are seldom permitted to 
look upon such a scene as the one presented here. That these 
men should have wept at surrendering so unequal a fight, at 
being taken out of this constant carnage and 
storm, at being sent back to 
their families ; 


then turn and wring their empty hands together and bend their 
heads in an agony of grief. Their sobs and the sobs of their 
comrades could be heard for yards around. Others would tear 
the flags from the staff and hide the precious rag in their bosoms 
and hold it there. As General Lee rode down the lines with me, 
and saw the men crying, and heard them cheering “ Uncle Rob¬ 
ert ” with their simple but pathetic remarks, he turned to me 
and said, in a broken voice : “Oh, General, if it had only been 
my lot to have fallen in one of our battles, to have given my life 
to this cause that we could not save ! ” I told him that he 
should not feel that way, that he had done all that mortal man 



g ene rM - l££ that they should 

have wept at having their starved 
and wasted forms lifted out of the jaws of death and 
placed once more before their hearthstones, was an exhibi¬ 
tion of fortitude and patriotism that might set an example 
for all time. 

Till-; END. 

Ah, sir, every ragged soldier that surrendered that day, from 
the highest to the lowest, from the old veteran to the beardless 
boy, every one of them, sir, carried a heart of gold in his breast ! 
It made my heart bleed for them, and sent the tears streaming 
down my face, as I saw them surrender the poor, riddled, battle- 
stained flags that they had followed so often, and that had been 
made sacred with the blood of their comrades. The poor fel¬ 
lows would step forward, give up the scanty rag that they had 
held so precious through so many long and weary years, and 


SOUTHTERN PLANTER'S RESIDENCE 


IN RUINS. 


could do, and that every man and woman in the South would 
feel this and would make him feel it. “ No, no ! ’’ he said, “ there 
will be many who will blame me. But, General, I have the con¬ 
solation of knowing that my conscience approves what I have 
done, and that the army sustains me.” 

In a few hours the army was scattered, and the men went back 
to their ruined and dismantled homes, many of them walking all 
the way to Georgia and Alabama, all of them penniless, worn 
out, and well-nigh heartbroken. Thus passed away Lee’s army; 
thus were its last battles fought, thus was it surrendered, and 
thus was the great American tragedy closed, let us all hope, 
forever. 































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


495 



PUNISHMENT INFLICTED FOR MINOR OFFENCES 


CAMP LIFE. 

BY GENERAL SELDEN CONNOR. 

A. MAJORITY OF SOLDIERS IN THE UNION ARMY WERE YOUNG MEN- 

THE WAR A COLOSSAL PICNIC-THE ATTRACTIONS OF CAMP LIFE 

FOR YOUNG MEN—DRILLING AND GUARD DUTY—STYLES OF TENTS 

USED IN THE ARMY-LOG HUTS FOR WINTER QUARTERS—A NEW 

USE FOR WELL-SEASONED FENCE RAILS—RISE AND FALL OF A 
LIGHT “TOWN OF CANVAS”—GENUINE LOVE FOR HARD-TACK— 

THE TRIALS AND DANGERS OF AN ARMY SUTLER-DRAMATIC AND 

MINSTREL ENTERTAINMENTS IN CAMP — HORSE-RACING AND THE 

“DERBY’’ OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC-CARD-PLAYING AND 

OTHER GAMES—CAMPS OF NORTHERN SOLDIERS KEPT IN BETTER 
CONDITION THAN THOSE OF SOUTHERN SOLDIERS—FENCING, BOX¬ 
ING, AND DRILLING—STUDYING GEOLOGY. 

FROM one point of view the war for the Union was a colossal 
picnic. Not that it was in the spirit of a summer holiday, with 
pure gayety of heart, that a million of the bravest and best of the 
country took to the tented field to interpose their lives between 
their country and all that would do her harm. No soldiers were 
ever more impressed with the serious nature of the contest for 
which they had enlisted than were those of ’61. But the “ men ” 
who composed the Union armies -were by far and away a majority 
very young men ; they were then really “ the boys ” in the sight 
of all the world, as they are now to each other when veteran com¬ 
rades meet and “ Bill ” greets “ Joe,” and the wrongs of time are 
forgotten in the vividness of their memories of the time when 
they wore the blue livery and ate the very hard bread of Uncle 
Sam. They were real human boys, like those of to-day, and as 


the boys of ’76 very likely were; and so, 
mingled with the glow of patriotic ardor in 
their breasts, and the determination to do 
their duty whatever might betide, there 
was a keen sense of the novelty of the 
soldier’s life. They had read of wars and 
soldiers from Caesar to Zack Taylor, and 
were filled with the traditional pride of 
American citizens in the heroism and ex¬ 
ploits of the men who achieved independ¬ 
ence. The greater number of them had 
recollections, more or less clear, of cheering 
for Buena Vista and Resaca de la Palma. 
But wars were “ old, unhappy, far-off 
things,” entirely out of date, inconsistent 
alike with “ the spirit of the times ” and “ the 
principles of free popular government.” 
“ The American boys of this peaceful age 
would never be called upon ”— But, hark! 
the drum ! Partings were sad, with home, 
kindred, friends. The old life-plans with 
all their courses, ambitions, hopes, and 
dreams, were temporarily turned to the 
wall. There was no room for regrets or 
forebodings. Duty called, and their coun¬ 
try’s flag waved its summons to them. 
War’s dangers were before them ; but there 
were in prospect also the experience of a 
soldier’s life, the zest of the sharp change 
from the dull monotony of peaceful pur¬ 
suits to the stir and novelty of the camp. 
They took up the new life with a kind of “ fearful joy.” It 
had its drawbacks, but on the whole it had many and strong 
attractions to lusty and imaginative youth. “ It amuses me,” 
said a veteran of the Mexican war to a company just enlisted in 
a three-months regiment under the President’s first call for troops, 
“ to hear you boys talk about coming home when your term of 
service is out. When you once follow the drum you are bound 
to keep on just as long as the music lasts.” The boys found 
that the veteran was right. At the conclusion of their three 
months’ service they reenlisted almost, if not quite, to a man, 
and most of them became officers. 

It did not quite suit the dignity of the young soldiers, as free 
and independent American citizens, to yield implicit obedience to 
any man, and especially to be “ bossed ” by officers who, as their 
neighbors, had no claim to superiority, and to have all their in¬ 
comings and outgoings regulated by the tap of the drum. When 
they realized, as they were not long in doing, that officers as 
well as men had to obey at their peril, and that good discipline 
was essential to their well-being and efficiency as soldiers, they 
accepted the situation, and rendered a ready and dutiful obedi¬ 
ence. 

The secret of the charm of the soldier's life is not far to seek. 
The soldier is care-free, absolved from that “ pernicious liberty of 
choice ” which makes ordinary life weary and anxious, and his 
responsibility is limited to his well-defined line of duty. Above 
all, the bond of sympathy is closer than in any other form of 
association. To pursue the same routine, to go to bed and rise 
up at a common call, to be served with the same food, drink, and 
clothes by a common master, to share the same hardships and 
perils, to own one leadership, and to be engaged in a common 
purpose with hundreds of thousands of others, constitutes in the 









49 6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


highest degree that unity which Cicero found to be the essence 
of friendship, the bond of nearness and dearness known to the 
soldier as “comradeship.” Allied to this feeling, and aiding to 
exalt the soldier’s profession, is that “esprit de corps” which 
fills his heart with pride in his company, his regiment, corps, and 
army. As a rider feels that he shares the sinewy strength of the 
steed under him, so the soldier, though a unit among thousands, 
exults in the dread power and beauty of the bounding column or 
long line of which he forms a part; in the order and precision 
which transform a multitude of individuals into one terrible 
engine. The Roman citizen was not more proud of his country 
than the Union soldier was of his army. A soldier of the Army 
of the Potomac writes in a home letter dated April, 1863: “ I 
have just taken a ride of about fifteen miles through the army. 
It is really a sight worth while to go through this vast army and 
see how admirably everything is conducted. The discipline is 
. fine, the men look healthy and are in the best possible spirits, 
and the cleanliness of the camps and grounds is a model for 
housewives.” The delights of the gypsy-like way of living of the 
soldier had a large part in forming the bright side of the new 
vocation. It seemed good to turn from the comforts and luxuries 
of easeful homes, and go back to the simple and nomadic habits 
of the hardy primitive man ; to live more closely with Nature, and 
be subject to her varying moods ; to have the sod for a couch, 
and the winds for a lullaby, and to be constantly familiar with 
the changing skies from early morning through the day and the 
watches of the night. The pork and beef boiled in the kettles 
hung over the campfire, the beans cooked in Dutch ovens buried 
in the embers, owed their sweet savor to the picturesque manner 
of the cooking as well as to uncritical appetites sharpened by 
living in the open air, and by plenty of exercise, drilling, guard 
duty, and “ fatigue.” And what feast could compare with the 
unpurchased chicken broiled on the coals, sweet potatoes roasted 
in the ashes—trophies of his “ bow and spear ” in foraging—and 
his tin cup of ration coffee; the product of the marauder’s own 
culinary skill, over his private fire, served “ a la fourchette ” and 
smoking hot ; with perhaps the luxury of a soft hoe-cake, 
acquired by barter of some “ auntie,” in lieu of the daily hard 
bread ! 

Not least among the fascinations of the soldier’s life is the 
uncertain tenure he has of his camp. He has no local habita¬ 
tion. He may flatter himself that the army is going to remain 
long enough to make it worth his while to provide the comforts 
and conveniences within the compass of his resources and inge¬ 
nuity, and when he has fairly established himself and contem¬ 
plates his work with complacency, the ruthless order comes to 
“ break camp,” and down goes his beautiful home as if it were 
but a child’s house of blocks. He grumbles a little at the sacri¬ 
fice, but the prospect of fresh scenes and adventures is sufficient 
solace of his disappointment, and he cheerfully makes himself 
at home again at the next halt of his regiment. 

In the matter of habitation the soldier did not pursue the 
order of the pioneer who begins with a brush lean-to, then builds 
a log house, and continues building nobler mansions as his labors 
prosper and fortune smiles, until, maybe, a brownstone front 
shelters him. The home of the soldier of the War for the 
Union was, like the bumble-bee, “the biggest when it was 
born.” In 1861 the volunteer regiments were generally fitted 
out, before leaving their respective States, with tents, wagons, 
mess furniture, and all other “ impedimenta,” according to the 
requirements of army regulations. The tents commonly fur¬ 
nished for the use of the rank and file were the “ A ” and the 


“ Sibley ” patterns. The “ A ” was wedge-shaped, as its name 
indicates, and was supposed to quarter five or six men. The 
“Sibley” was a simple cone, suggested by the Indian “ tepee,” 
with an opening at the apex for ventilation and the exit of the 
smoke of the fire, for which provision was made in the centre 
of the tent by the use of a tall iron tripod as a foundation for 
the pole. It comfortably accommodated fifteen or sixteen men, 
lying feet to the pole, and radiating thence like the spokes of a 
wheel. This tent, improved by the addition' of a curtain, or 
wall, is now in use by the regular army, and it is known as the 
“conical wall tent.” Officers were provided with wall tents, 
canvas houses, two to each field or staff officer above the rank 
of captain, one to each captain, and one to every two subaltern 
officers. Each company had a “ cook tent,” and the cooking 
was done over a fire in the open. The fires of the cooks of 
companies from the northern lumbering regions could always be 
distinguished by the “ bean holes,” in which the covered iron 
pot containing the frequent “ pork and beans,” the favorite and 
distinctive article of Yankee diet, was buried in hot embers and, 
barring removal by unauthorized hands, allowed to remain all 
night. The lumberman and the soldier declare that he who 
has not eaten them cooked in this manner does not really 
“ know beans.” The regimental camp of infantry was arranged 
according to regulations, with such modifications as the nature 
of the ground might make desirable. The company “ streets ” 
were at right angles with the “ color line” or “ front” on which 
the regiment was formed, and began ten paces in rear of it. 
The tents of the “ rank and file” of each company were pitched 
on both sides of its street. In rear of them, with an interval of 
twenty paces between the lines, and in successive order, was the 
line of “kitchens,” the line of non-commissioned staff, sutler and 
police guard, the line of company officers, and the line of field 
and staff officers. In the rear of the camp were the baggage 
train and officers’ horses. 

The first winter of the Army of the Potomac was to a large part 
of the army one of much suffering from cold. The hills of Vir¬ 
ginia, along the Potomac, are anything but tropical in the winter. 
The frequent light snows and rains, followed by thawy, sunny 
days, produced a moisture in the air which, combined with winds 
from the mountains, struck a chill to the very marrow of the 
bones of even the men from the far North accustomed to a much 
lower temperature but in a dry atmosphere. The commander 
of the army gave no encouragement to the building of winter 
quarters, and the prevailing impression was that the army must 
remain on the qui vive, ready to move on slight notice whenever 
the commander (or the enemy) might give the word. There was 
plenty of fine timber in the section of country occupied by the 
army, and it would have been an easy matter to the skilled 
axemen and mechanics in which most regiments abounded, and 
entailing comparatively slight expense, to build log huts that 
would have housed them in comfort and saved many a stout 
soldier for the impending days of battle. Some commands, 
either by special permission or taking the responsibility upon 
themselves, did build huts, and were snugly and warmly housed 
for months, while their less fortunate or unenterprising neighbors 
were shivering under their canvas. The rude fireplaces made 
of stones, with the tenacious Virginia mud for mortar, having 
chimneys of sticks and clay, or barrels, served fairly well to heat 
a well-chinked hut; but their small, sputtering fires could make 
but little impression on the temperature of a space which had 
only a thin cotton barrier as a defence against the keen wintry 
blasts. The unnecessary hardships of such exposure inflicted 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


497 


severe loss on the army, especially in those regiments which had 
been visited in the autumn by that scourge common to new 
levies, the measles. That disease, though not dangerous in 
itself, leaves its subjects in an enfeebled condition for a long 
time after apparent recovery, and incapable of withstanding ex¬ 
posures and ailments ordinarily regarded as slight. In the camps 
of regiments which had been afflicted with it, the burial party 
marching with slow and solemn step to the wail of the dirge was 
an all too frequent ceremony through the long winter, and far 
from inspiriting to young soldiers, while the number of the dead 
was as great as that of the slain in a hard-fought battle. Perhaps 
the relentless necessities attending the hasty gathering and 
organization of a great army made it difficult or impossible to 
bestow upon convalescents the care necessary to preserve their 
lives ; but, leaving aside the question of humanity, an intelligent 
self-interest should have induced the responsible head of the 
army to make every effort to guard against such deplorable im¬ 
pairment of the strength of his command as arose from causes 
which seem to have been preventable. If the men who per¬ 
ished miserably on the bleak hillsides of Virginia, and who never 


had a chance to strike a blow for the cause that was so dear 
to them, had been sent where they could have received proper 
care and treatment, the number of these restored to health 
and strength would have constituted a powerful reinforcement 
in the following campaign where the cry for help was raised so 
lustily. 

The mistake of the first winter was not repeated. The fact 
was recognized that the army must go into winter quarters, and 
timely and adequate preparations to encounter the rigors of the 
season were made by the whole army. An officer writing from 
“ Camp near White Oak Church, Virginia,” in the winter of 
1862-63, says: “We have fixed up our camp so that it is quite 
comfortable. Each squad of four men has its hut, made by 
digging into the ground a foot or two and then placing on the 
ground at the sides several logs, and roofing with their shelter 
tents. At the side they dig a fireplace, and build a chimney 
outside with sticks and mud. It is Paddy-like, but much more 
comfortable than no house at all. My ‘house’ is very nice; it 
is built up with split hardwood logs about four feet above the 
ground, and on this foundation my wall tent is pitched, making 



HOSPITAL CORPS-AMBULANCE DRILL 















49 s 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


a room nine by nine, with walls six feet high. At one end there 
is a fine fireplace, which does not smoke at all. I told Captain 
C., who was just in, that if I had a cat on the hearth it would be 
quite domestic.” The general style of architecture throughout 
the army was the same; but there were wide differences in the 
manner of construction and the details of the work. The huts 
of some commands were rudely built and without uniformity, 
giving to the camp a mean and squalid appearance, while other 
camps were very attractive with their rows of solid and trim¬ 
looking structures, as like each other as the houses of a builder 
in a city addition. 

The real soldiering and camping began when, after a period of 
stripping for the campaign by sending the sick to hospitals and 
all unnecessary baggage to the rear for storage, of outfitting 
with all the required clothing, arms, equipments, and ammuni¬ 
tion, and of repeated inspections and reviews to make sure that 
everybody and everything was in readiness, the troops were 



A NEW RECRUIT BEING INITIATED. 


drawn out of winter quarters and put on the march toward the 
enemy. Every man had to be his own pack animal and carry 
upon his shoulders and hips his food—rations for one day or a 
week, according to the nature of the enterprise in hand and the 
prospect of making a connection with the wagon trains ; drink 
in his canteen ; cartridges—a cartridge box full and oftentimes 
as many more as could be crowded into knapsacks and pockets; 
and, lastly, his lodging, a woollen blanket and one of rubber, and 
the oblong piece of cotton cloth which was his part of the 
“shelter tent.” This tent was invented by the French and had 
long been in use by them. It is one of the most useful articles 
of the soldier’s equipment. It is but a slight addition to his 
burden, and a very great one to his comfort. Two or more com¬ 
rades, by buttoning their several sections together, and the use 
of a few slight sticks, or sticks and cord, can speedily prepare a 
very effective protection against the dew, the wind, and “ the 
heaviest of the rain.” Generally three comrades joined their 
sections to form a tent; two sections made the sides and one an 
end, the other end either remaining open to admit the heat of a 
fire or being closed by a rubber blanket. When four men tented 
together, which they could do by “packing close,” the extra 


section was used instead of the rubber blanket, and then the 
squad was very thoroughly housed. 

Schiller’s word-picture of a military camp vividly recalls to the 
soldier one of the most characteristic and impressive pictures of 
his army life: 

“ Lo there ! the soldier, rapid architect! 

Builds his light town of canvas, and at once 
The whole scene moves and bustles momently. 

With arms and neighing steeds, and mirth and quarrel, 

The motley market fills : the roads, the streams, 

Are crowded with new freights ; trade stirs and hurries. 

But on some morrow morn, all suddenly, 

The tents drop down, the horde renews its march. 

Dreary and solitary as a churchyard 

The meadows and down-trodden seed-plot lie. 

And the year’s harvest is gone utterly.” 

The rise and fall of “the light towns of canvas,” movable 
cities that attended the progress of the army, seemed 
wonderful and magical. Imagine a broad plantation 
stretching its sunny acres from river to forest, a vast 
and lonely area with no signs of human occupancy 
anywhere, except, perhaps, the toil-bent figures of a 
few bondservants of the soil at their tasks in the fields, 
under the eye of the overseer, lending by the unjoyous 
monotony of their labor an air of gloom and melancholy 
to the oppressive loneliness of the scene. Suddenly 
and quietly from the road at the edge of the forest a 
few horsemen ride into the open, a banneret bearing 
some cabalistic device fluttering over them, closely 
followed by a rapidly moving column of men whose 
gleaming muskets indicate afar off their trade; and 
presently, when the centre of the regiment breaks into 
view and Old Glory appears in all its beauty against 
the background of dark forest, it announces to all who 
may behold that one of the grand armies of the Repub¬ 
lic is on the march. As the regiment emerges in the 
easy marching disorder of “ route step ” and “ arms at 
will,” it seems to be a confused tide of men flowing 
steadily along and filling the whole roadway. A few 
sharp orders ring out, and the throng is transformed al¬ 
most instantly to a solid military machine; officers take 
their posts, “ files cover,” arms are carried uniformly, the cadence 
step is taken—“ short on the right ” that the men may “ close up ” 
to the proper distance—and, under the guidance of a staff officer, 
the regiment marches to its assigned camping-ground, where it is 
brought to a front, arms are stacked, and ranks broken. With 
whoops and cries expressing their gratification that the day’s 
march is over and a rest is in prospect, the released soldiers 
scatter, unstrapping their irksome knapsacks and throwing them 
off with sighs of relief, and betake themselves to the prepara¬ 
tion of their temporary home. If there be any prize which 
these old campaigners have discovered as with wise prevision 
and hawk-like ken they surveyed their environment in marching 
to the camping-ground—a comely fence of well-seasoned rails, 
for instance—they “ make a break ” for it on the instant of their 
deliverance from the restraint of discipline, and with a unanimity 
and alacrity that give little hope of a share to the slow-footed, 
and fill the hearts of the incoming regiment, not yet released, 
with envy and unavailing longing. When the scramble is over, 
and the foragers have swarmed in like ants, laden with their 
plunder, each squad with practised skill proceeds to its domestic 
duties. One man pitches the “dog tent.” and utilizes any 
























CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


499 


material that may be at hand for making the couch dry and soft. 
Another, laden with the canteens, explores the hollows and 
copses for the cool spring of which he has had tantalizing vis¬ 
ions on the dusty march. The rest build the fire, if one is 
needed for warmth, or for cooking in case the wagons contain¬ 
ing the company mess kettles and rations are not with the 
command or have not come up, and therefore every man is left 
to boil his coffee and fry his pork to his own taste, and lend a 
hand whenever needed. Every man is expected to contribute 
of the best that the country affords, and not to be nice as to the 
method of acquisition, to eke out the plain fare of the marching 
ration. Foraging in Virginia, except to the cavalry, was not a 
very prosperous pursuit after the country had been occupied a 
few months by the army. There was, however, game almost 
anywhere for those emancipated from vulgar prejudices in the 
matter of diet, as De Trobriand’s Zouaves appear to have been, 
for he says of them that they “ discovered the nutritive qualities 
of the black snake.” The menu including a black snake hash 
suggests a wide range of possibilities. By the time the first 
arrivals have leisure to look about them, the plain far and near 
is covered with tents: the “rapid architect ” has done his work, 
and the “ light town ” is established. 

Perhaps before the next morning’s sun was high in the heavens 
the town had disappeared like a scene conjured up by a magi¬ 
cian, leaving the plain to resume its wonted loneliness so strangely 
interrupted. 

The routine of camp-life so absorbed the time of the soldier 
that there was little left to hang heavy on his hands. The odd 
minutes between drills, roll-calls, police and fatigue duty, could 
be well utilized in cleaning his musket and equipments, washing 
and mending his clothes, darning his stockings, procuring fuel, 
improving his quarters, writing home, and re-reading old let¬ 
ters. After a hard night’s duty on camp guard or picket, with 
sleep on the instalment plan, it was luxury to lie warm and make 
up the arrears undisturbed by fear of the dread summons, 
“Fall in, second relief.” Very restful it was, too, to stretch out 
at full length on the spring bunk, made of barrel staves across 
poles, with a knapsack for a pillow, and indulge in the fragrant 


briarwood, conversing with comrades of home and friends, or 
discussing the gossip of the camp. In spring and summer 
camps each tent commonly had an arbor of foliage fora porch, and 
when there swung in its shelter a shapely hammock ingeniously 
woven of withes and grapevines, attached to spring poles driven 
into the earth, and filled with the balmy tips of cedar boughs, the 
extreme of sybaritish appointments was attained. It was always 
in order to hunt for “something to eat,”not perhaps so much to 
appease absolute hunger as to vary the tiresome monotony of the 
regulation diet. Desirable articles of food were acquired in all 
ways'recognized by civilized peoples as legitimate: by purchase, 
by barter, and by—right of discovery. In camp and all accessi¬ 
ble places on the march the sutler tempted appetites weary of 
hard-tack and pork, with dry ginger cakes, cheese, dried fruits, 
and apples in their season. Sardines, condensed milk, and other 
tinned food preparations were so expensive that they could not 
be indulged in to a great extent. The canning industry was 
then in its infancy. If it had then attained its present develop¬ 
ment, and all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and meats had been ac¬ 
cessible to the soldier, he would have been in full sympathy with 
the Arizona miner who said to his “ pard,” as they were consum¬ 
ing the customary flapjacks and bacon, “Tom, I hope I shall 
strike it rich; I should just like to strike it rich."—“Well, Bill, 
s’pose you should strike it rich, what then?”—"If I should 
strike it rich, Tom, I’d live on canned goods one six months.” 

Although the old soldier would growl about his hard-tack and 
feign to have slight regard for it, the sincerity of his attachment 
was attested by an incident occurring in a command which 
halted for a few days, after the battle of Gettysburg, at a rural 
town in Pennsylvania. It was far from the base of supplies, and 
the commissary’s supplies had become exhausted, and he was 
obliged to purchase flour and issue it to the companies. Hav¬ 
ing no facilities for baking, they had their flour made into bread 
at the farmhouses in their vicinity. The bread was fairly good 
and there was plenty of it; nevertheless, when the wagons 
appeared laden with the familiar boxes of veteran “squares,” 
cheers went up all along the line as if for a victory or the return 
of missing comrades. 



THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.—FIRST YEAR IN WINTER QUARTERS, 
(From a War Department Photograph.) 





LANDING REINFORCEMENTS FOR FORT PICKENS, FLORIDA, JUNE, 1861 














CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


Set 



The sutler was an institution of the camp not to be over¬ 
looked. When transportation was safe and not expensive, he 
kept a general store of everything that officers and men required 
or could be tempted to buy, save such articles as were prohib¬ 
ited by the Council of Administration which had the general 
oversight of his business. Where carriage was difficult and 
dangerous, a choice of articles had to be made in order to 


most surrounded by men in friendly uniform, that there might 
be “ unguarded moments ” when the cry, “ Rally on the sutler,” 
would be followed by a speedy division of his goods, leaving 
him lamenting. Personally the sutler was generally a prudent 
and tactful man, and gained the goodwill of his customers by an 
obliging disposition and a readiness to take a joke even if it was 
a little rough and at his expense. When the command was in 
the field he made himself especially serviceable as a medium 
of communication with the “ base,” and many and various 
were the commissions he was called upon to execute. 

Camp life had its diversions in addition to the many 
interesting and enjoyable features of the daily round of 
duties. Military life in itself is necessarily spectacular, 
abounding in scenes of animation and display. He must 
be of an unsusceptible nature and void of enthusiasm who 
is indifferent to the splendid pageantry which attends the 
business of war; whose senses are not pleased and imagi¬ 
nation excited by charging squadrons, batteries dashing 
across the field with a rumble and clang suggestive of the 
thunderbolts they bear, and by “ heavy and solemn ” bat¬ 
talions moving with perfect order and precision to the 
stormy music of martial airs, with banners flying, rows of 
bright arms reflecting the rays of the sun in streams of 
silver light, and horses proudly caracoling in excited enjoy¬ 
ment of the music, the glitter, and the movement. 


SOLDIERS' WINTER HUTS—TWO VIEWS. 

Such spectacles thrill the breast of the soldier with pride in 
his profession, and cause him to feel that 

“ All else to noble hearts is dross. 

All else on earth is mean.” 

The daily ceremonies of “ guard mounting ” and “ dress 
parade,” and the frequent reviews and brigade and division 
drills, afforded splendid entertainments, entirely gratuitous ex¬ 
cept the contribution of personal services. Candor compels the 
admission that the soldier sometimes considered the show dear 
at the price. When weather and ground were favorable, the 
men played the game that then passed for “ball”—not so war- 


supply those most needed. Tobacco and matches 
were easily first in order of selection. Soldiers of 
the Army of the Potomac will remember the 
blue-ended matches that left such a track behind 
when struck; they touched nothing they did not 
adorn. 

The sutlers of German-American regiments were 
expected to accomplish the impossible in order to 
supply lager, Rhine wine, and bolognas. When¬ 
ever a fresh stock of such goods had been received, 
the crowd around the sutler’s tent mustered in far 
greater numbers than appeared at the parade of 
the regiment. It was popularly considered very 
desirable to have a German regiment in a brigade. 

In one respect the sutler’s business was a safe one: 
he could collect at the paymaster’s table the sums 
due him, if he took care not to give men credit in excess of the 
proportion of their pay permitted by regulations. On the other 
hand, his profits were in danger of diminution from many quar¬ 
ters. In camp the sutler and his clerks could not always distin¬ 
guish, among a crowd of customers coming and going, who paid 
and who did not ; storehouses were slight and penetrable, and 
marauders were watchful and cunning. Those commands were 
very exceptional that were in Falstaff’s condition, “heinously 
unprovided with a thief.” On the march, dangers to the sutler’s 
stock multiplied. To say nothing of ordinary risks attending 
carriage over bad roads, and of the watchful guerilla, there was 
always an uneasy feeling in the breast of the purveyor when 




















502 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


like an affair as the present contest by that name—and pitched 
quoits, using horse-shoes, when attainable, for that purpose. 
The Virginia winter often afforded material for snowballing, and 
there were occasions when whole regiments in order of battle 
were pitted against each other in mimic warfare, filling the air 
with snowy pellets, and Homeric deeds were done. Theatrical 
and minstrel entertainments were given by “ native talent,” and 
were liberally patronized. The first warm days of spring opened 
the season of horse-racing. The “ Derby ” of the Army of the 
Potomac was St. Patrick's Day. Running and hurdle races were 
held on a grand scale. The fine horses and their dashing riders, 
the grand stand filled with generals and staff officers, visiting 
dignitaries and ladies, the band composed of many regimental 
bands consolidated for the occasion and pouring forth a perfect 
Niagara of sound, mounted officers and soldiers in thousands 
occupying the central space of the track, and General Meagher, 
in the costume of “ a fine old Irish gentleman,” presiding as 
grand patron of the races—all combined, with the military 
accessories of glittering uniforms and comparisons, to make a 
scene of unusual animation and brilliancy. For “ fireside games” 
the various inventions played with the well-thumbed pack of 
cards were greatly in favor. Sometimes it was a simple, inno¬ 
cent game “just to pass away the time.” At other times it was 
a serious contest resulting to the unfortunate in “ passing away ” 
all that was left him of his last pay and perhaps an interest 
in his next stipend. The colored retainers and camp followers 
were generally votaries of the goddess of chance and were skilled 
in getting on her blind side. One day Major Blank, a gallant 
officer of the staff, was showing a friend some tricks with cards. 
Bob, his colored boy, was apparently very busy brushing up the 
quarters and setting things to rights, paying no attention to the 
exhibition. The next day the major saw his retainer counting 
over a whole fistful of greenbacks. “ Why, Bob,” said he, 
“ where did you get all that money?” Bob, looking up with a 
grin and a chuckle: “ I'se down ter de cavalry last night, major, 
and dem fellers down dar didn’t know nuffin ’bout dat little 
trick wid de jacks what you’s showin’ to de cunnel.” Bob had 
tasted the sweets of philosophy, and proved that “ knowledge is 
power.” The colored “ boys ” who came into camp when the 
army was in the enemy’s country, for the purpose of gazing at 
the “ Linkum ” soldiers, or marching along with them in any 
capacity that would give them rations, gave much entertainment 
to their hosts by their simplicity, their stolidness, or their accom¬ 
plishments as whistling, singing, or dancing darkies. The morn¬ 
ing after “ Williamsburg,” half a dozen boys from some planta¬ 
tion in the vicinity came near several officers grouped about a 
fire. “ Good morning, boys,” said Captain C., “ where did you 
all come from?”—“ We come from Marsa Jones’s place, right over 
yer,” said the spokesman. “ We h’ar de fightin’ goin’ on yes’er- 
day, an’ we jes come over dis mornin’ to see about it and see you 
all.”—“ Do you think, boys,” resumed the captain, “ that it is 
quite the polite thing to wear such clothes as you have on when 
you come to visit gentlemen of President Lincoln’s army?”— 
“ Dese yer’s de bes’ close we got,” was the earnestly uttered 
reply. “You must certainly have better hats than those?” 
—“No! no! no!” came in chorus, “we has only one hat to 
w’ar.”—“ It is a shame,” said the captain, drawing a memoran¬ 
dum book from his pocket with a business-like air and poising 
his pencil, “ that such good-looking boys as you are should only 
have one hat, and such bad ones at that; I must send back to 
Fortress Monroe and have some hats sent up for you. What 
kind of a hat do you want ? ” addressing himself to the spokes¬ 


man. “ I wants a low-crowned hat, massa,” was the quick and 
earnest response; and then each boy in turn eagerly expressed 
his personal preference, “ I wants a wide-rimmed hat,” “ I wants 
a hat ter fit me,” etc., until the order was completed and appar¬ 
ently taken down by the guileful scribe. Their confidence made 
the deceit so easy as to greatly dull the point of the practical 
joke. Maybe they never questioned the good faith of their gen¬ 
erous friend, and ascribed the non-delivery of the hats to other 
causes than his neglect. 

It was not often that a camp had such a sensational and 
pleasurable incident as that which occurred to the First Ver¬ 
mont volunteer infantry, a three months’ regiment, at Newport 
News, in the summer of 1861. The Woodstock company 
formed a part of the detachment of that regiment, which partici¬ 
pated in the unfortunate expedition to Big Bethel; and on the 
return of the company, private Reuben Parker was missing. 
The company had been somewhat broken up in making an 
attack in the woods. Several men remembered seeing Parker, 
who was a brave fellow and a skilled rifleman, somewhat in 
advance of the rest of the company, busily loading and firing. 
Some were even quite sure they had seen him fall. Days and 
weeks having passed without his appearance or any further news 
of him, there seemed no doubt about his fate, and he was 
reported “killed in action.” Funeral services were held at his 
home in Vermont, and his wife and children put on mourning 
for the lost husband and father. One day the surprising and 
joyful report spread swiftly through the camp, that Parker was 
alive and had returned. He came from Richmond under the 
escort of two Louisiana “tigers,” sent in for exchange. He had 
been taken prisoner uninjured and carried to Richmond, where 
he enjoyed the distinction of being the first Yankee captive 
exhibited in that city, and the first occupant of “ the Libby.” 
Parker was the lion of the day for many days after his return 
to the company, and his accounts of the colloquies he held with 
curious rebels, and of the insults and revilings he was subjected 
to in prison, made him in great request among his comrades. 
His case was the first of the instances occurring in the war when 
Southern prisons “yawned” and yielded “ their dead unto life 
again.” 

Mr. H. V. Redfield, whose home in Lower East Tennessee was 
visited several times by both the Union and the Confederate 
armies, observed and noted some of the differing characteristics 
of the two sides. It was the opinion of his neighbors that they 
would see none of the soldiers throughout the war, because 
they “ could not get their cannon over the mountains.” But it 
was not long before they learned to their cost that mountains 
offered no insurmountable obstacles to modern armies, or to 
their artillery either. 

The first time that it dawned upon the inhabitants of this 
section that there was a possible fighting chance for the North, 
and that one Southern soldier was not necessarily equal to five 
from the North, was after the Confederate defeat at Mill Spring, 
Ky., where Zollicoffer was killed. The Confederate panic was 
so complete and so lasting, that some of the refugees ran fully 
one hundred and fifty miles from the scene of battle before they 
dared stop to take their breath and rest. They arrived wild¬ 
eyed and in confusion, and not only to the men themselves, but 
to all the neighborhood, it was an “ eye-opener ” as to the fact 
that there was a war on hand that was likely to last until there 
had been some hard fighting on both sides. 

It was not long after this that General Floyd, the disloyal 
Secretary of War, who had done so much before his resignation 


Campfire and battlefield. 


$C3 


to prepare the South for the conflict, came to Lower Tennessee 
in his flight from Fort Donelson. He sent for the Northern 
men in the town, and told them, in explanation of his flight 
from Donelson, that he would “ never be captured in this war. 

I have a long account to settle with the Yankees, and they can 
settle it in hell ! ” 

The Southern soldiers were always prone to talk back at their 
officers, lacking the discipline which was quickly established in 
the Union army; and when they suffered defeat they took it as 
a personal disappointment, for which they meant to get even 
with the Yanks after the war; and they also had a bad habit of 
laying the responsibility for every reverse on the shoulders of 
their superiors. When General Bragg retreated through Ten¬ 
nessee, his men were greatly cast down, though they insisted 
that their retreat did not mean that they were 
whipped, which they insisted they were not. “ It 
is bad enough,” said one of the soldiers, “ to run 

when we are whipped ; but d-n this way of 

beating the Yankees and then running away from 
them ! ” One of them was asked where they were 
retreating to. “To Cuba,” he said angrily, “if 
old Bragg can get a bridge built across 
from Florida.” A horse trade was pro¬ 
posed on this retreat, be¬ 
tween two soldiers whose 
horses were pretty well 
spent, and a farmer who was 
willing to exchange fresher 
ones for these and a bonus. 

One of the soldiers objected 
to the horse that was offered 
to him, because it had a 
white face that the enemy 
could see for a mile. “ Oh, 
that’s no objection,” said his 
companion; “it’s the other 
end of Bragg’s cavalry that is 
always toward the Yankees.” 

At the beginning of the 

war the Confederate cavalry was rather the better 
mounted, because so many of the men owned their 
own horses; but as the original supply gave out, 
and the renewing of the mounts became a question 
of the respective ability of the governments to fur¬ 
nish the best animals, this difference changed in favor of the 
Northern cavalry. Also, at the beginning the Confederates were 
by far the best riders, as might be expected of a race of men 
who spent much time in the saddle before the war. But it was 
not long before the Union cavalryman learned to ride, too, and 
then, with better horses, better equipments, and better fodder, 
the efficiency of the cavalry of the North was superior. 

Before the war had gotten very far along, the greater facility 
of the Union Government for equipping, subsisting, and gener¬ 
ally preparing its army, brought about a contrast between the 
two hostile armies distinctly favorable to that of the North. 
The Union men were better fed. To be sure, the Confederates 
had plenty of tobacco, while often the Union troops were rather 
short of that luxury, and were ready to make trades with the 
pickets of the enemy in order to secure it. But the Unionists 
had plenty of coffee, and that good, while coffee was an item 
that quickly disappeared from the Southern bill of fare. Meat 
and flour also became scarce, and through a good many cam¬ 


paigns corn-meal was the staple of the Confederate diet. The 
advantage of having coffee appeared in some cases to be a dis¬ 
tinct military advantage. The story is told of a man who had 
volunteered in the Confederate army, and had been captured, 
paroled, and sent home. The Union army presently encamped 
near his home, and his two boys went down to camp to take a 
look around; and when some friends whom they met there 
regaled them with all the crackers and coffee they wanted, they 
made up their minds to enlist under Uncle Sam just to get an 
amount and quality of “ grub ” to which they had long been 
strangers. The old man was much disturbed, and went down to 
see what he could do to get the boys out of the scrape. But he 
found that he himself was like the man who said he could 
“ resist anything except temptation,” for his first taste of the 


Yankee coffee seduced him from his allegiance to the Stars and 
Bars, and he, too, enlisted for the war. This story is vouched 
for as a fact, illustrating the seductive power of a good commis¬ 
sariat for the enticement of recruits. 

The Northern soldier was the best clothed, and the clothing was 
uniform, which could not be said of that of the Southern soldier, 
who, although he was supposed to be dressed in gray or butter¬ 
nut, was really dressed in whatever he could pick up, which often 
did not include overcoats or oil-blankets. Supplied with good 
materials, and plenty of them, the Northern soldier was expected 
to take care of them, and he did so. But the Confederate soldier 
seldom took care to keep his weapons bright and free from dirt 
and rust. The Confederate lacked thoroughness in his camp 
housekeeping; he almost never fixed up the little comfortable 
arrangements that characterized a Union camp, if occupied for 
any length of time, nor did he “police” his camp carefully, to 
keep it neat or even clean, the lack cf ordinary cleanliness being 
so marked as really to contribute materially to losses through 


























504 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 



disease. The way in which the Union soldier made even a tem¬ 
porary camp homelike was well described by an army correspond¬ 
ent, Benjamin F. Taylor: “No matter where or when you halt 
them, they are at once at home. They know precisely what to 
do first, and they do it. I have seen them march into a strange 
region at dark, and almost as soon as the fires would show well 
they were twinkling all over the field, the Sibley cones rising 
like the work of enchantment everywhere, and the little dog- 
tents lying snug to the ground, as if, like the mushrooms, they 
had grown there, and the aroma of coffee and tortured bacon 
suggesting creature comforts, and the whole economy of life in 
canvas cities moving as steadily on as if it had never been inter¬ 
mitted. The movements of regiments are as blind as fate. No¬ 
body can tell to-night where he will be to-morrow, and yet with 
the first glimmer of morning the camp is astir, and the prepara¬ 
tions begin for staying there forever. An axe, a knife, and a will 
are tools enough for a soldier house-builder. He will make the 
mansion and all its belongings of red cedar, from the ridge-pole 
to the forestick, though a couple of dog-tents stretched from wall 
to wall will make a roof worth thanking the Lord for. Having 
been mason and joiner, he turns cabinetmaker ; there are his table, 
his chairs, his sideboard; he glides into upholstery, and there is 
his bed of bamboo, as full of springs and comfort as a patent 
mattress. He whips out a needle and turns tailor; he is not 
above the mysteries of the saucepan and camp-kettle; he can 
cook, if not quite like a Soyer, yet exactly like a soldier, and you 
may believe that he can eat you hungry when he is in trim for 
it. Cosey little cabins, neatly fitted, are going up ; here is a boy 
making a fireplace, and quite artistically plastering it with the 
inevitable red earth ; he has found a crane somewhere, and 
swung up thereon a two-legged dinner-pot; there a fellow is 
finishing out a chimney with brick from an old kiln of secession 
proclivities ; yonder a bower-house, closely interwoven with ever¬ 
green, is almost ready for the occupants; the avenues between 
the lines of tents are cleared and smoothed—policed,’ in camp 
phrase ; little seats with cedar awnings in front of the tents give 
a cottage-look, while the interior, in a rude way, has a genuine 
homelike air. The bit of looking-glass hangs against 
the cotton wall ; a handkerchief of a carpet just be¬ 
fore the bunk marks the stepping-off 
place to the land of dreams; a violin 
case is strung to a convenient 
flanked by a gorgeous picture of 
some hero of somewhere, mount¬ 
ed upon a horse rampant and 
saltant, ‘ and what a length of 
tail behind ! ' 

“ The business of living has 
fairly begun again. There is 
hardly an idle moment; and save 
here and there a man brushing 
up his musket, getting that 
‘ damned spot ’ off his bayonet, 
burnishing his revolver, you 
would not suspect that these 
men had but one terrible errand. 

They are tailors, they are tinkers, 
they are writers; fencing, box¬ 
ing, cooking, eating, drilling—■ 
those who say that camp life is 
a lazy life know little about it. 

And then the reconnoissances 


hook, 


‘on private account;’ every wood, ravine, hill, field, is ex¬ 
plored ; the productions, animal and vegetable, are inventoried, 
and one day renders them as thoroughly conversant with the 
region round about as if they had been dwelling there a life¬ 
time. Soldiers have interrogation points in both eyes. They 
have tasted water from every spring and well, estimated the 
corn to the acre, tried the watermelons, bagged the peaches, 
knocked down the persimmons, milked the cows, roasted the 
pigs, picked the chickens ; they know who lives here and there 
and yonder, the whereabouts of the native boys, the names of 
the native girls. If there is a curious cave, a queer tree, a strange 
rock anywhere about, they know it. You can see them with 
chisel, hammer, and haversack, tugging up the mountain, or 
scrambling down the ravine, in a geological passion that would 
have won the right hand of fellowship from Hugh Miller, and 
home they come with specimens that would enrich a cabinet. 
The most exquisite fossil buds just ready to open, beautiful 
shells, rare minerals, are collected by these rough and dashing 
naturalists.” 

In the larger equipments of the army there was again a 
superiority in those of the North. Their wagon trains were 
better, the wagons of a uniform style, and they were marked 
with the name of regiment and brigade, so that there never was 
any doubt as to where a stray wagon belonged. The Confed¬ 
erate wagons were of all sorts and shapes and sizes, a job lot, 
ill-matched, ill-kept, and ill-arranged, and the harnesses were 
patchwork of inferior strength. 

Residents of the South observed with pain one distinction 
between the armies, which reminds one of Henry W. Grady’s 
remark about General Sherman, that he was a smart man, “but 
mighty careless about fire.” Encamped in a Southern com¬ 
munity, a Southern army was careful not to forage promiscu¬ 
ously, or appropriate to its own uses the various provisions and 
live-stock of the non-combatant people who lived near. But 
the Northern troops had a feeling that they were in the enemy’s 


AN OLD-FASHIONED TRAINING DAY. 













































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


505 


country and that they were entitled to live on it. There were 
orders against unauthorized foraging; but the temptation to 
bring into camp an occasional chicken, sundry pigs, cows, vege¬ 
tables, and in some cases even money and jewelry, is said by 
Southern residents to have sometimes overcome a soldier here 
and there; so that the visit of a Northern army was the signal 
for the good people of the neighborhood to get as much of their 
belongings out of sight as possible. What was taken in this 
way was taken without the formality of a request, of payment, 
or of a receipt given, except when the victim claimed to be a 
loyal Unionist. The Southern soldiers usually paid for what 
they took, even if it was in Confederate script; but the North¬ 
ern pillagers did not do even that. Those who recall and chroni¬ 
cle this habit, admit that it was due in great measure to the 
foreign element in the Northern army, and to the recruits from 
the large cities, elements which in the Confederate army were 
comparatively scarce. 

The practical jokes that were played on some of the Southern 
farmers illustrate the tendency on the part of the Northern sol¬ 
dier to “do” a rebel. One farmer drove into a Union camp 
with a forty-gallon barrel of cider, which he sold by the quart to 
the men, over the side of his wagon. He was astonished to 
find that his barrel was empty after he had sold only about 
twenty quarts, and on investigating the cause, he discovered 
that while he was engaged in peddling the cider over the side 
board, some soldiers had put an auger through the bottom of 
his wagon and into the barrel, and had drawn the rest off into 
their canteens. Another trader lost the contents of a barrel of 
brandy which he had stored in a shanty overnight, in a similar 
manner; while several farmers concluded that it was in vain to 
go to the Yankee camp with wagon loads of apples or other 
fruit, unless they had a detachment to guard every side of the 
wagon, for while they dealt fair over one side, their stock would 
disappear over the other. One who had suffered in this way 
came to the conclusion that “the Yankees could take the short¬ 
ening out of a gingercake without breaking the crust.” 


SOUTHERN SPIES AND SCOUTS IN THE 

WAR. 

BY F. G. DE FONTAINE. 

THE INGENIOUS DEVICE OF A WOMAN—DESPATCHES CONCEALED UNDER 
THE HIDE OF A DOG—“ DEAF BURKE,” THE MAN OF MANY DIS¬ 
GUISES— FREQUENT COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE LINES— 
BISCUIT A MEDIUM OF CORRESPONDENCE—DEATH OF COON HAR¬ 
RIS AT SHILOH—A BOLD UNION SPY—AN EXECUTION AT FRANK¬ 
LIN, TENN. 

Tiie secret service or “spy” system of the South did not 
differ greatly from that of the North. There may have been 
in that section a lack of available gold with which to pay 
expenses when desirable information was required, but there 
was certainly no absence of courage or patriotism on the part 
of those who were willing to risk their lives or imprisonment 
in the event of capture. This was especially true of Southern 
women; and those who are familiar with their achievements in 
this field of war will bear witness to the shrewdness, persistence, 
and fidelity with which they often pursued their dangerous 
investigations. 


One or two incidents will illustrate. It was of the utmost 
importance to General Beauregard, in 1862, to learn the strength 
of McClellan’s army and whatever facts might relate to his sus¬ 
pected designs on Centreville, Va. For this mission a woman 
was chosen. She was a young widow whose husband had been 
killed at the second battle of Manassas; a Virginian of gentle 
birth ; prior to the war a resident of Washington, and a frequent 
visitor in the society circles of Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York. Making her way across the lines, she promptly entered 
upon her task, and through trusty agents was soon enabled to 
obtain a complete roster of the Federal army, together with 
much valuable information concerning its probable movements. 
She was absent two months. 

Returning at the end of this time, she crossed the Potomac 
opposite Dumfries, Va., an outpost then under the command 
of Col. (afterward Gen.) Wade Hampton, and the fair spy was 
promptly forwarded to the Confederate headquarters at Centre¬ 
ville. Her baggage consisted of a small grip-sack and a tiny 
Scotch terrier. Warmly welcomed by Beauregard, she pro¬ 
ceeded with true womanly volubility to entertain him with a 
description of her adventures and their result. The general 
patiently permitted the lingual freshet to flow on without inter¬ 
ruption, supposing that when she got tired she would produce 
the expected despatches from other secret agents in the North. 
But the little woman’s tongue seemed to be hung in the middle 
and to wag at both ends ; moreover, she was too pretty to be 
abruptly silenced by the polite creole commander. 

Finally, unable to restrain his anxiety any longer, he said, 
“ Well, Mrs. M., I shall be glad to see your papers .”—“ I didn’t 
dare to bring them on my person,” was the reply; “it was 
unsafe. In fact, I have been suspected and searched already, 
and so I familiarized myself with their contents. You see it is 
fortunate that I have a good memory.” At this remark, Beau¬ 
regard showed his chagrin, and frankly told the lady he could 
place but little reliance on her memory of so many figures and 
details, and therefore that her mission had proved of little use. 

Listening to his scolding with a demure air, and looking at 
him with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she called her dog: 
“Here, Floy!” The Skye terrier jumped in her lap. “Gen¬ 
eral, have you a knife about you ? ” The knife was produced. 
Then she turned the animal over on its back, and, to the amaze¬ 
ment of Beauregard, deliberately proceeded to rip him open. 
In less time than it takes to tell the story, she held in one hand 
the precious papers and in the other the skin of the Skye terrier, 
while prancing about the floor was a diminutive black-and-tan 
pup overjoyed at his relief from an extra cuticle. 

The shrewd woman had sewed the despatches between the 
two skins in a manner that defied detection, and under the very 
noses of the Federal outposts had brought through the lines 
some of the most important information transmitted during the 
war. It is needless to say that Beauregard was delighted, and it 
was but a little while after this incident that McClellan advanced 
on Centreville only to find deserted camps, batteries of “ Quaker 
guns,” and the Confederate army falling back toward Richmond 
and Yorktown. 

***** 

Combining in his person the qualities of scout, sharp-shooter, 
dare-devil, and spy, a Texan known as “ Deaf Burke ” made him¬ 
self famous among the higher officers of Longstreet’s corps dur¬ 
ing the early part of the war. Like Terry of Texas, afterward 
notorious in California, Adams of Mississippi, Mason of Virginia 
(brother of the United States senator who with Slidell of Louisi- 


506 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


ana, became the subject of international complications with Eng¬ 
land), and many other daring spirits, he was at first merely a 
volunteer or independent fighter subject to no orders; but his 
temerity in passing the lines, mingling in disguise with Union 
officers and soldiers, and his adroitness in securing valuable infor¬ 
mation quickly brought him to the notice of Lee and Longstreet. 
He was about forty-five years of age, a natural mimic and dia¬ 
lectician—could talk to you like a simpleton from the backwoods, 
or a thoroughbred gentleman—and he never lost his nerve. Not 
far from the Potomac, the writer met him in the garb of a Quaker, 
but only recognized him at night when incidentally he became a 
tent mate. Then it was learned that he had just returned from 
Washington, where during the preceding three weeks he had 
mingled among Southern sympathizers and secured the infor¬ 
mation for which he had been sent. Prior to this, disguised as 
an old farmer living in Fairfax County, Va., he had driven a 
load of wood across the Federal lines. In one of the logs were 
concealed the despatches intended for headquarters. Later in 
the war, when transferred to the West, he distinguished himself 
as one of twelve sharp-shooters chosen to handle as many Whit¬ 
worth rifles that had been im¬ 
ported ; and still later was 
killed in battle among the 
Texans, of whom it was his 
pride to be considered one. 

The comparative ease with 
which communications were 
established between the lines 
is further illustrated by an 
incident. General Rosecrans 
and a portion of his staff, when 
in Tennessee, occupied a man¬ 
sion not far from the outposts 
of the two armies. The host¬ 
ess, Mrs. Thomas, was the wife 
of a Confederate colonel whose 
regiment was but a few miles 
distant. Her negro cook made 
excellent biscuit, which had 
become the subject of frequent 
comment at the table, the gen¬ 
eral being especially pleased. 

Mrs. Thomas taking advantage 
of this circumstance, and her 
acquaintance with him, sug¬ 
gested the propriety of sending some of the warm breakfast to 
their mutual friend—her husband. Rosecrans readily agreed, 
and under his own flag of truce, and through one of his own 
orderlies, a package of biscuit was duly forwarded to Colonel 
Thomas with an open letter from his wife. Two hours later, 
the Confederate officer was in possession of all the available 
secrets at Federal headquarters, and for weeks afterward the 
bake oven was the mute agent of communications, some of 
which proved important to the Southern commanders. The 
housewife had enclosed her tissue-written missives in the pastry, 
and the ruse was not discovered until after the war, when the 
story was told to mutual friends. 

In the category of Southern women who in one way or another 
made their way through the lines, might be included many who 
carried to the Confederacy supplies of quinine and other articles 
that could be easily concealed on the person. It is safe to say 
that hundreds passed backward and forward across the borders 



of Virginia and Maryland, and with but rare exception their 
native shrewdness enabled them to escape the vigilance of the 
pickets on guard. 

The bravery of Northern spies in the South is a theme not to 
be forgotten in this connection. Before General Sherman in his 
“ March to the Sea ” reached the several cities through which 
he was to pass, one or more of his secret agents was sure to be 
found mingling sociably among the residents. In Savannah, a 
gentleman appeared as a purchaser of the old wines for which 
that city was once famous, and remained undiscovered until the 
end came. In Charleston, news was communicated to the Union 

officers through the me¬ 
dium of two or three whites 
and of negroes who made 
their way to the islands on 
the coast, and there met 
and delivered to waiting 
boats’ crews the papers 
consigned to their care. In 
Columbia, S. C., an officer 
wearing the uniform of the 
Confederate navy visited 
the best families for more 
than a month; escorted 
young ladies to fairs held 
for the benefit of army 
hospitals and other enter¬ 
tainments, and made him¬ 
self generally popular. 
One of these newly made 
acquaintances was the 
daughter of the mayor. 
After Sherman entered, 
and the conflagration that 
destroyed the city was in 
progress, he repaired to her 
Then for the first time she 
the saying that she had “ entertained 
He aided materially in saving the 



(A 


BELL BOYD. 
Confederate Spy.) 


PAULINE CUSHMAN. 
(A Federal Spy.) 


house and tendered his services, 
learned the truth of 

an angel unawares.” He aided materially in 
property of the family and affording desired protection. 

The task of a spy in the army was not so easy. It was 
full of personal danger. Success meant the praise of his 
superiors and possible promotion. Failure might mean an 
ignominious death. After the battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg 
Landing as it is sometimes known, one Coon Harris, a Ten¬ 
nesseean, went through the Confederate army without detec¬ 
tion, but in a skirmish a few days afterward he was captured 
while acting as guide to a column moving to attack a weak 
point in the Confederate lines. Bragg was in command, and the 
poor fellow had but a short shrift. Tried by a drum-head court 
martial, he was sentenced to be shot at daylight. 

In his calm demeanor he illustrated how a brave man ani 
mated by a high principle can die. There was no pageantry, no 
clergyman with his last rites, no nothing, save a handful of curi¬ 
ous spectators following a rude army wagon wherein, on a rough 
box called by courtesy a coffin, sat unbound a middle-aged 
farmer in his butternut suit, riding to his death. Not the closest 
observer could have discovered any difference in coolness be¬ 
tween him and a bystander. Arriving at the place of execution 
he jumped lightly from the wagon, lingered a moment to see his 
coffin removed, and then sauntered carelessly down the little 
valley to the tree beneath which he was to meet his fate. 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


507 


The ceremony was brief. The officer in charge of the shoot¬ 
ing squad asked him if he had any final message to leave. 
“ Yes,” was the reply; “tell my family that my last thoughts 
were of them, and that I died doing my duty to my State and 
country!” Then his arms were pinioned, the faded brown coat 
was buttoned across his breast, and he sat down upon his coffin. 
A handkerchief was tied over his eyes, and voluntarily he laid 
his head back against the tree. Even now, preserving his re¬ 
markable self-possession, he called for a piece of tobacco, and, 
chewing upon it vigorously, occupied several seconds in adjust¬ 
ing his head to the bark of the tree, as one would fit himself to a 
pillow before going to sleep. Then he quietly said, “ Boys, 
ready ! ” 

A file of eight men stepped forward until within ten paces of 
the doomed man ; the order was given to “ Fire ! ” and with a 
splash of brains, and a trickling rivulet of blood down his hairy 
breast, the soul of the brave man passed into the keeping of the 
Creator. 

During the first march of the Confederate army into Mary¬ 
land, a handsome young fellow, one Charles Mason, who gave 
his home as Perrysville, Penn., boldly intercepted a courier who 
was carrying an order. “ What division do you belong to?” he 
inquired. “ Longstreet’s,” was the reply; “what’s yours?” 
asked the courier. “Jackson’s.” The presence of a gray uni¬ 
form favored this statement, and the two rode together. The 
courier, however, observed a disposition on the part of his com¬ 
panion to drop behind, and suddenly was confronted by a pistol 
and a demand for the delivery of his despatches. Not being 
promptly forthcoming, the spy fired, secured the papers, and 
galloped away. The Confederate lived long enough to describe 
his assailant and make his identification certain. 

A few hours afterward the man became a victim to his own 
daring. Riding up to the head of a column, he said to the 
general in command: “I am from General Jackson ; he desires 
me to request you to halt and await further orders.”—“ I am 
not in the habit of receiving my orders from General Jackson,” 
answered the officer; “what command do you belong to?” 
Hesitating an instant, the spy said: “To the Hampton Legion.” 
“ In whose brigade and division is that ? ” continued th# general. 
The pretended courier confessed that he had forgotten. Taken 
into custody, a search revealed his true character. On his per¬ 
son were found shorthand and other notes, a pair of lieutenant’s 
shoulder straps, and other evidences of his calling. A drum¬ 
head court martial was promptly convened, and he was sen¬ 
tenced to be hanged then and there. He met his fate stoically, 
and without other expressed regret save that, since his mission 
had been a failure, he could not die the death of a soldier. 

“On June 9, 1863,” wrote a correspondent of the Nashville 
Press, “two strangers rode into the Union camp, at Franklin, 
Term., and boldly presented themselves at Colonel Baird’s head¬ 
quarters. They wore Federal regulation trousers and caps, the 
latter covered with white flannel havelocks, and carried side 
arms. Both showed high intelligence. One claimed to be a 
colonel in the United States army, the other a major, and they 
represented that they were inspecting the outposts and de¬ 
fences. Official papers purporting to be signed by General 
Rosecrans, and also from the War Department at Washington, 
seemed to confirm this statement. So impressive was their 
manner, in fact, that Colonel Baird, at the request of the elder 
officer, loaned him fifty dollars, the plea being that they had 
been overhauled by the enemy and had lost their wardrobe and 
purses. 


“Just before dark they left camp, saying they were going to 
Nashville, and started in that direction. Suddenly, said Colonel 
Baird, in describing the occurrence, the thought flashed upon 
him that they might be spies ; and turning to Colonel Watkins, 
of the Sixth Kentucky cavalry, who was standing near by, he 
ordered him to go in pursuit. Being overtaken, they were 
placed under arrest, and General Rosecrans was informed by 
telegraph. He quickly answered that he knew nothing of the 
men, and had given no passes of the kind described. 

“With this evidence in hand their persons were searched, and 
various papers still further showing their guilt were found. On 
the major’s sword was found etched the name, ‘Lieutenant W. 
G. Peter, Lieutenant Confederate Army.’ They then confessed. 

“ Colonel Baird at once telegraphed the facts to General 
Rosecrans, and asked what should be done. The reply was: 
‘Try them by a drum-head court martial, and if found guilty, 
hang them immediately.’ The court was convened, and before 
daylight the prisoners knew they must die. A little after nine 
o’clock that morning the whole garrison was marshalled around 
the place of execution, the guards, in tribute to their gallantry, 
being ordered to march with arms reversed. The unfortunate 
men made no complaint of the severity of their punishment, but 
regretted, as brave men might do, the ignominy of being hung, 
and a few hours afterward both were buried in the same grave.” 

The history of the war on both sides is full of similar in¬ 
stances of daring, and since the curtain has fallen upon the 
bloody drama, and the voices of passion are hushed amid the 
anthems of peace, it is no longer in the hearts of true Americans 
to withhold the honor that belongs to all our heroes, whether 
they wore the blue or the gray. 


NORTHERN SPIES AND SCOUTS IN THE 

WAR. 

BY HENRY W. B. HOWARD. 

IS THE ROLE OF A SPY DISHONORABLE ?-THE SPY A NECESSARY ELE¬ 
MENT IN A CAMPAIGN—REMARKABLE HEROISM-ONE OF GEN¬ 

ERAL grant’s SPIES—HOW HE ESCAPED BEING BURIED ALIVE 
—THE FIGHT OF A SPY WITH A BLOODHOUND—THE PERILOUS 
ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN LEIGHTON, OF MICHIGAN—THE VARIED 
AND THRILLING ADVENTURES OF COL. L. C. BAKER—HIS EXPERI¬ 
ENCES AS A YANKEE SPY IN RICHMOND-MISS EMMA EDMONDS, A 

NOTED NORTHERN SPY-PASSING THROUGH THE CONFEDERATE 

LINES DISGUISED AS A NEGRO BOY-A FEMALE UNION SPY IN 

THE CONFEDERATE CAVALRY. 

Military writers have not been entirely agreed as to whether 
the role of spy is an honorable part to play in warfare. Much 
stress has been laid on the necessarily disgraceful nature of a 
calling that can justly subject one to the hangman. The 
ignominy of this punishment is held to relieve all soldiers from 
the duty of service as spies, even under orders, and in conse¬ 
quence all spies are necessarily volunteers. But it is agreed, 
on the other hand, that the death penalty which is inevitable 
for the detected spy is intended, not as a punishment for the 
individual, but as a measure of preventing the spy from carrying 
on his work, so full of danger to his enemy. This lack of per¬ 
sonal responsibility is so well understood, that a spy successful 
in his expedition is not liable to death after its completion, and 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL RANDALL LEE GIBSON. BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS L. CLINGMAN. 



BRIGADIER-GENERAL EPPA HUNTON. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL A. R. LAWTON. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL M. W. GARY. 



MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM SMITH. 


LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIMON B. BUCKNER. 


MAJOR 


-GENERAL 


HENRY 


A GROUP OP" CONFEDERATE OFFICERS. 



















































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


509 


if subsequently captured in battle may not be executed for hav¬ 
ing previously been a spy. 

But however at variance they may be as to the nature of his 
calling, all critics are of one mind in regarding the work of the 
spy an absolutely necessary element in the conduct of a campaign 
by the commander. Without it, he would be at a loss as to 
the most essential facts that must govern his movements. The 
strength of the enemy, the nature and advantages of his position, 
the best approaches to it, the ground commanded by his batter¬ 
ies, as well as his intentions—all these and many other details 
must be in some degree known to a commander who would 
direct his troops with safety or success. Some of this informa¬ 
tion he can pick up from resident non-combatants ; some he can 
wrest from his unwilling prisoners; some he can purchase from 
treacherous members of the force opposing him. But for most 
of it he is absolutely dependent on the brave men in his own 
command who are willing, for the sake of their cause, to risk 
the death that awaits the spy caught in the enemy’s country. 

These men certainly cannot be regarded with the contempt 
which a commander feels for the mere tools of whose treachery, 
cupidity, or indifference he avails himself while scorning the 
instrument. And, if not that, then they must be regarded as 
heroic even beyond those of their fellows who are as brave as lions 
on the field of battle. For their mission is a solitary one, and 
they have none of the cheering companionship and stimulating 
emulation that bring courage for the charge. Instead of being 
under fire for a few brief moments or hours, their nerves are on 
the rack for days and weeks. With no commanding officer to 
obey as he orders them here or there, they are thrown on their 
own resources in the most perilous and trying situations. They 
must avoid dangerous meetings, disarm suspicions, turn aside 
questions, invent lies by the hundred without having one contra¬ 
dict another. A constant play of quick wits, steady nerves, and, 
at the right moment, prompt and courageous physical force, ele¬ 
vates the work of a spy to a fine art, in comparison with which 
the mere enthusiastic bravery of the battlefield is child’s play. 
Darkly threatening throughout all this perilous work is the 
imminent and ever-present risk of detection, with its certainty 
of a death, not glorious like that of those who fall in the hand- 
to-hand conflict, not the ordinary fortune of war like that of the 
sharp-shooter’s victim brought down at long range, not even 
invested with the pathos of a death, however sudden, among 
sympathizing comrades—but the death of a dog, promptly dealt 
out, without a friendly face among the spectators. 

A good illustration of the consummate skill, coolness of head, 
and strength of will and nerve required in this duty was given 
by a scout named Hancock, attached to General Grant’s army in 
Virginia. He had failed to escape detection, and was sent under 
guard to Castle Thunder, in Richmond. His situation was most 
perilous; but this did not prevent his utilizing his innate jovial¬ 
ity to lighten the life of his fellow-prisoners, and bringing his 
wonderful power of facial expression to bear on the great object 
of his own escape. In the midst of one of his songs in the 
prison he suddenly threw up his hands with a cry, fell to the 
ground in a heap, and lay there so obviously dead that the post 
surgeon—not over-solicitous to keep a Yankee above ground— 
pronounced him a case for the grave-digger, and he was bundled 
into a pine coffin and started on his last journey. But when the 
driver reached the burying-place, the coffin was empty. Han¬ 
cock had dexterously slid from the wagon, and, it being night, 
had joined the followers on foot without detection. When the 
driver reported back to the prison, the trick was suspected, and a 


sharp lookout was ordered, which he evaded in the most unex¬ 
pected way. He went direct to the best hotel in Richmond and 
registered from Georgia, had a good night’s rest, and spent the 
following day, in the character of a government contractor, in 
learning what he wanted to know about the city. He was twice 
arrested by the guards, and escaped the first time through the 
intervention and identification of the hotel clerk. The second 
time he was returned to the prison, where for seven days he 
concealed his identity by assuming a squint and a distortion of 
feature, which he abandoned when he learned that imprisonment 
was all he had to fear, as by that time the war was virtually over. 
Ten days later he was set at liberty with his fellow-prisoners. 

The peril of a spy’s career is not intermittent, like that of 
active fighting; it is continuous. A moment may give him his 
liberty or may bring him face to face with death. An unnamed 
scout of the Army of the Potomac—-so many of these heroic 
men are even to this day unnamed—had collected his intelli¬ 
gence in the enemy’s country, and had arrived close to the 
stream beyond which were the Union lines. In the darkness of 
the night, with the sense of danger keen within him, he groped 
his way along the shore, seeking the skiff he had concealed there 
for his return. To his horror it dawned on him that he had 
missed his landmark and could not find the boat. There he 
stood, the evidences of his calling unmistakably on him, knowing 
that he had been suspected and followed, and realizing that only 
a few minutes were his in which to complete his escape. Noth¬ 
ing could exceed the mental agony of the next quarter hour. 
Under stress of danger he had just let himself into the water, 
determined to attempt to swim the wide stream as a forlorn 
hope, when suddenly the baying of a bloodhound dashed even 
this faint hope from him, and presently the crackling of twigs 
announced the near approach of the savage pursuer. But there 
were evidences that for the moment the dog was at fault, and in 
mere desperation the hunted man waded beneath the overhang¬ 
ing banks where he might sell his life as dearly as possible. 
Something struck against his breast. He could not restrain a 
cry as he seized what proved to be his missing boat. In an 
instant he had clambered in and cast off the line, when a sudden 
gleam of moonlight breaking through the clouds revealed at the 
other end of the log to which the boat had been moored the 
crouching figure of the bloodhound, poising for a spring. Simul¬ 
taneously with the leap of the dog, the skiff darted out into 
the stream. A blow with the oar aimed at the head of the 
animal nearly upset the fragile craft and was easily eluded by 
the dog, which, swimming forward, laid its forepaws on the gun¬ 
wale and attempted to seize the edge of the boat with his teeth. 
The situation was desperate. Laying aside his revolver, a shot 
from which would have drawn a volley from the shore, the brave 
scout seized his bowie-Tnife, and with one frenzied stroke cut 
the throat cf the bloodhound, severing its neck clean to the 
back. The dog sank from sight, and the man was free ! A few 
minutes’ quiet pulling landed him on the further shore, whence 
a brief walk brought him to camp, to tell his adventures and 
turn in his stock of information. 

Perhaps as thrilling an experience as ever was reported was 
that which fell to the lot of Captain Leighton, formerly of a 
Michigan battery, but led by the fascination of adventure into 
scout and spy duty. It was brief, but so charged with peril and 
nerve-tension that in a few short hours he seemed to have lived 
days, and needed a long sleep after it, as though he had been 
awake for a week. In a single afternoon he left his own camp 
and rode into the enemy’s country, passing two pickets, killed a 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


5io 


guard, listened to the council of war in the 
tent of the rebel general, fought his way back 
through the pickets, who now knew his mis¬ 
sion, set off the signal agreed on, and rode to 
safety on his unusually fleet horse. The first 
picket he met on his way out was misled by 
supposing him to be a spy of their own return¬ 
ing with information, and from them he got 
what sounded like the countersign, but was 
not, as he discovered when, riding on, he at¬ 
tempted with it to pass the sentry near the 
rebel general’s tent. The sentry pulled trigger 
on him, but the cap snapped on the musket, 
there was a hand-to-hand scuffle not a hun¬ 
dred yards from the camp, and the sentry was 
stabbed to the heart. Clad in the sentry’s 
uniform, under cover of the night, he heard 
from the very lips of the general and his coun¬ 
cil the secret he was in search of—that the 
enemy would mass on the left wing to meet 
the attack of the morrow—sauntered care¬ 
lessly about as the council dispersed, and then 
mounted his superb gray and was off. It was a perilous ride, 
for every picket he had passed in the afternoon fired on him 
as he rode through, and it was indeed a charmed life that 
escaped their bullets. The 
last picket he had to pass— 
the same that had mistaken 
him for a rebel scout—was 
numerous, and met him 
with a volley, followed up 
by a sharp attack with 
sabres and revolvers. 

Shooting, stabbing, slash¬ 
ing, and swearing like a 
fiend, wounded and wound¬ 
ing, he fought his way 
through them, and then 
fled onward, reeling in his 
saddle with excitement and 
loss of blood, until, arrived 
at the hollow stump where 
his rockets were concealed, 
he set them both off (thus 
giving the desired informa¬ 
tion to his own commander). 

Then, emptying his revolver 
at his nearest pursuer, he 
again rode away, unharmed 
further by the shots that 
followed him like hail. 

What added to the bravery 
of this deed was the fact 
that he knowingly went out 
to replace a scout who had 
been killed the night before 
on the very same mission. 

All spies were not so for¬ 
tunate as to complete their 
expeditions in one day. 

Sometimes, although in 
comparative safety, they 



JOHN WILKES BOOTH. 


War Department Washington. April 20. 1865. 

si oaooo k»i i 

THE MURDERER 

Of four late j beloved President, .ABRAH AM ,LIN COLN, 

IS SKILL AT LARGE. 

$50,000 REWARD! 

will be paid bv this: Department for^bU apprehension, in addition t to anj> reward olfored 
by Municipal Authorities or State Executives. 

$25,000 REWARD! 

will bepaidfor (he apprehension of JOHN H. si RRAl'T. one ot Booth's'accomplices. 

$25,000 REWARD! 

will be paid for the apprehension ot DANIEL C HARROLD, another of Booth's accomplices* 

LIBER4L REWARDS will be paid lor aoy i Dior million tbaf whall rooduce~loltbearrestofeilher 
or the above-named criminals, or their accomplices.. 

All persons baroorintr or secret inr tbc. uaid persons.^ or cither of (them, or aiding or assisting; their 
concealment or escape, will be treated as accomplices in the murder ol the .President and the attempted 
assassination ol,lbe Secretary ol State, and.shall be subject to trial belore N aiMilitary .Commission and 
the punishment ol DEAl’H.^ 

Let the> 1 ain.ol innocent., blond IbeTrcmovedlfrumllkiel land by.the.arrest and punishment ol the 
murderers/., 

All good citizens'are;exhorted to• aid public justice ou this occasion. Every man should consider 
bn own conscience, charged .with Ibis solemn duty, and rest oeither night, nor. day until it be accomplished. 

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. 


DESCRIPTIONS — BOOTH is 6 l»n'7 or S inefees high, •Irode/Tboild. high fan*rad. bUek hair Mack eym. aod wears a heAT> blaeh moustache.\ 

JOHN H Sl’RRATT is about 5 feel 0 inches Hair ra'her thio ad<J dark . eyes i.lAu light, no besrd . Would weigh 145 or 160 pounds. Complexion rather p»j r 
sac clear * ilk color in his check*. * Wore light clothes hoc quality. Shoulder* square, cheek booes rather prominent, chin narrow, ear* projecting at the top /or*, 
bend rather low and equate but broad. Parts hie hair on the right aide; neck rather long. Hie lips are firmly set. A atim mas 

DANIEL C HABROLP la t3 > e+n ot age, 5,fe*t inchw high, rathar l«rpad jdtooldered, otherwise tight boilt;, dark hair, little (i/^any) moustache Aarj 

•ye* weighs about 140 pound* 

GEO..F-*J'iKSBIXX*A*t .Printers aod Sirtuooers, cor. Pearl .and Pine (Nraeie, N. WJ 

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF POSTER ISSUED BY THE WAR DEPARTMENT, 


were unable to get out of the enemy’s terri¬ 
tory for many days. An Illinois private, 
named Newcomer, who had just missed some 
important battles, was accustomed to vary 
the monotony of his camp life in Alabama by 
making secret trips after information over¬ 
night. This work suited him so well that he 
determined on a more extensive expedition 
among the guerilla cavalry that he learned 
from a negro lay some miles below the Union 
camp. His first bold act was to crawl into 
a corn-crib where a number of these men lay 
sleeping, their horses picketed outside, and, 
feeling around, he calmly drew a good re¬ 
volver from the belt of one of the unconscious 
sleepers, having the good luck to wake none 
of them up. He had provided himself with 
a forged certificate of discharge from the 
rebel army, by means of which he was by 
some unsuspecting Southern sympathizers 
put in communication with a Southern agent 
for the purchase of stores, named Radcliffe, 
who was known to everybody in and about Franklin, Tenn., 
and who vouched for him throughout his stay among the Con¬ 
federates. He took on the character of one seeking office in the 

rebel army, and as a seller 
of contraband articles ob¬ 
tained from the North. In 
this guise, turning up at 
Radcliffe’s house as oc¬ 
casion required, he explored 
the situation and reported 
back to his superiors at 
Nashville. Before he got 
back he had serious trouble 
in getting away from 
Shelbyville, for lack of a 
pass. A good-natured 
crowd, to whom he had 
dispensed the contents of 
his whiskey flask, were will¬ 
ing to help him away, but 
stuck at telling the provost 
marshal that they knew 
him; but it was finally 
managed by writing his 
name on the collective pass 
on which they travelled. 
Lagging behind them on 
the road, he turned off in 
the direction he wanted to 
go, only to fall into the 
hands of one of Morgan’s 
bands of scouts, who swore 
he was a Yankee, and 
actually had the halter 
around his neck to hang 
him on the spot, when he 
succeeded in persuading 
them to take him back to 
Radcliffe for identification, 
where he was released, and 









CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


then was furnished by Radcliffe with a written voucher on which 
he succeeded in making his way, after many exciting and peril¬ 
ous adventures, to his commander. He brought him the im¬ 
portant news, confided to him by a rebel who took him for a 
fellow spy, of a projected attack on the Union fleet on the river, 
and steps were taken that saved the ships. 

Perhaps the most varied experience was that of Col. L. C. 
Baker, who organized the secret service, and performed himself 
every duty, from that of actual spy to that of chief of the 
national police, beginning with a personal expedition to Rich¬ 
mond and ending with the capture of Wilkes Booth, the assassin 
of President Lincoln. His first Richmond trip was made in 
July, 1861, under cover of a general movement of Southern 
sympathizers away from the North. General Scott himself sent 
him to obtain information concerning the strength and disposi¬ 
tion of troops in the Confederate capital. His greatest diffi¬ 
culty at the outset was to get through the Northern lines 
without betraying his errand, and three times he was sent back 
to General Scott as a Southern spy. Finally he got through, 
and, armed with letters to prominent residents of Richmond, he 
was promptly forwarded on his way, but was carefully turned 
over to Jefferson Davis himself, who kept him under guard while 
he made up his mind whether the stranger was a spy or the “ Mr. 
Munson ” he pretended to be with business in Richmond. 
Succeeding in getting satisfactorily identified through a sort of 
“bunco” self-introduction to a man from Knoxville, where he 
claimed to have lived, he was paroled and turned loose in Rich¬ 
mond. When he had picked up the information he desired, he 
began his efforts to get back to Washington with his precious 
news. A pass to visit Fredericksburg enabled him to leave 
Richmond, but an attempt to go further on the same pass only 
got him into the hands of a patrol. But he soon not only 
eluded his sleepy guard, but rode off on the sentry’s horse as 
well. Followed and surrounded in a negro cabin where he had 
stopped to rest, he managed to hide under a haystack, where he 
narrowly escaped the searching sabre-thrust of his pursuers, and 
then made again for the Potomac. Hunger induced him to 
risk introducing himself to two German pickets guarding the 
bank on the Confederate side of that river, and they, hospitably 
kept him in their tent overnight, though they watched him 
closely and made him a semi-prisoner. The watches of the night 
he consumed in vain endeavors to crawl out of the tent while his 
captors slept ; but they slept “ with one eye open,” as it were, 
and it was not until dawn that he managed unobserved to get 
down to the river-bank, secure the pickets’ boat with its single 
broken oar, and push for liberty out into the stream. The men 
were quickly after him, however, and he had to shoot one of 
them to save himself, while the other ran for assistance. The 
detachment that quickly reached the shore made the water 
about his craft uncomfortably lively with their bullets; but he 
fortunately managed to paddle out of range without being hit, 
and after a row of four miles, which was the width of the river 
at that point, he reached the Maryland shore and made his way 
to Washington. 

The papers with which Baker had been intrusted at Richmond 
gave him much information involving Northern traitors who 
were aiding the Southern cause, and for some time he was 
engaged in the work of bringing them to justice. But he occa¬ 
sionally returned to special duty, as he did in the autumn of 
1863, when, after Pope’s defeat by Lee, great solicitude was felt 
for the safety of Banks’s army, the whereabouts of which even 
was unknown, and in ignorance of Lee’s success Banks was sup¬ 


5 H 

posed to be seeking a junction with Pope. Baker undertook to 
carry informing despatches to Banks, and to bring that officer’s 
report back to Washington. Mounted on the famous race-horse 
“ Patchen,” he succeeded in reaching Banks near Manassas with¬ 
out adventure, but his return trip was full of peril. Conscious 
of the great importance of haste, he started straight for the rebel 
lines between himself and Washington, and after riding two 
miles to the eastward he caught sight of the hostile army near 
the old Bull Run battlefield. To save time, instead of making 
a detour to avoid them, he halted and awaited an opportunity of 
slipping through, availing himself of the detached order of march 
in which the enemy was proceeding. A break in the column 
soon gave him this chance, and although he knew that he would 
become a target for every marksman that saw him, the intrepid 
Baker nerved himself for a quick and desperate dash and gave 
spurs to his splendid steed. Lying close to Patchen’s neck, he 
flew like an arrow within thirty feet of a squad of infantry, but had 
the good luck to bring both himself and his horse through with¬ 
out harm from the bullets that whistled thick about them. A 
squad of cavalry quickly took up the pursuit; but, tired as he 
was, Patchen soon distanced all but a few who were particularly 
well mounted. For nine miles the chase continued, the pursuers 
dropping off until only three remained, when fatigue began to 
tell on both horse and rider. Then, turning a low hill, Baker 
wheeled sharply about and concealed himself in a clump of 
pines, while his pursuers rode past unconscious of his presence. 
But they soon discovered that there was no longer any one in 
front of them. Returning, one of them was apprised of Baker’s 
whereabouts by a slight movement of the latter’s horse, and the 
crisis of the adventure was at hand. Baker shot down one Con¬ 
federate cavalryman, and then turned sharply off the path to 
avoid the other two, who were now on their way back. But, 
although he passed them, it was not without their seeing him, 
and, firing their carbines, they renewed the pursuit. Spurring 
Patchen to a final burst of speed. Baker plunged into the swollen 
waters of Bull Run, hoping to get across before his pursuers 
could reach the bank and fire at him in mid-stream. This he 
accomplished, and had even clambered up the almost perpendic¬ 
ular bank beyond by the time the rebels had plunged in to follow 
him over. Before Baker could fire on them the Union pickets, 
attracted by the shots, came running to the edge of the bluff. 
Baker shouted out his errand, and the pickets with a volley 
emptied one of the Confederate saddles, while the remaining 
pursuer escaped to tell the tale. This was a pretty close call for 
Baker, but it was typical of the scout’s experience, and illus¬ 
trated well the many serious chances taken by every successful 
seeker after information in the enemy’s territory. 

The spies of the war were not all men. Many women on both 
sides did effective secret work for the cause they espoused. 
Perhaps this agency was more common among the Southern 
than the Northern sympathizers. Residence in the North was 
free from the necessity of accounting for one’s presence and 
business as rigidly as in the South ; and not only in Washington 
and the border towns, but in all the cities of the North, the 
rebels had fair emissaries who kept them pretty well informed 
of passing events. Among the Northern women who did good 
service during the war, both as spy and nurse, was Miss Emma 
Edmonds. After spending several months in the hospitals of 
the Army of the Potomac, she volunteered to take the place 
of a spy who had been executed at Richmond. Disguised as a 
colored boy, she soon found herself within the rebel lines, where 
she joined a gang of negroes who were carrying provisions to 


512 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


the pickets, and afterward working on the fortifications at 
Yorktown. After doing a man’s day’s work, she used her 
evening liberty in making a careful inspection of the defences, 
counting the guns, etc., and picked up much other information 
through the free discussion of what was going on, common in 
the rebel army among both officers and men. Her opportunity 
to get back to the Union lines came when, on visiting the 
pickets with their evening meal, she was for a time stationed on 
the post of a picket who had just been shot; for while the 
adjacent pickets had their backs turned, she slipped away into 


own quarters, and the Union troops were soon able to cross the 
Chickahominy with a pretty fair knowledge of the enemy’s dis¬ 
positions and purposes. 

Miss Edmonds had a strange career for a woman. She kept 
with the Union advance, varying her womanly ministrations in 
camp and field hospital with occasional duty as an orderly and 
on secret service. She entered the Confederate lines, now as a 
contraband, now as a rebel soldier. In the latter character she 
was impressed into the Confederate cavalry and went into action, 
where she managed to change sides during the fight and to 



CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AND CEMETERY, RICHMOND, VA, 


the darkness, carrying her valuable information with her. Later 
on she made another secret expedition, this time in the guise of 
an Irish female peddler. Her first experience on this trip was 
the discovery of a wounded and dying Confederate officer in a 
deserted house, and the mementos and messages for home 
which he confided to her proved to be her passport to the rebel 
headquarters. She had already gained from the pickets and the 
men about the camp the information she was seeking, and was 
quite ready to return, when she was sent, mounted, to guide a 
detachment to bring back the dead officer’s body from the house 
near her own lines, and thus was fairly started on her way. The 
expedition of the detachment was a somewhat perilous one for 
them, and they sent her farther down the road to watch for 
Yankees and give them timely warning of the approach of any 
from the Union side. Not seeing any Yankees in that vicinity, 
she kept on until she did—and then she was safe back in her 


wound the rebel officer who had conscripted her. After this 
adventure her secret service had perforce to be confined to the 
Union lines, for she had become pretty well known in all the 
disguises she could assume. 

The experiences of all scouts and spies can be well understood 
from the instances that have now been given. Their work was 
most important, and their days were filled with thrilling adven¬ 
ture, most fascinating to adventurous spirits. Many of them 
never lived to tell their story, but received the prompt justice 
of a drum-head court martial and a short shrift. Their per¬ 
formances rose often to the height of heroism, and their prowess, 
when they found themselves in close quarters, equalled anything 
ever done on the battlefield. 


















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


5i3 


IMPORTANT HISTORY SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE GROUP OF SHERMAN AND HIS 

GENERALS. (See page 30.) 


This picture was to consist of General Sherman, his two 
army-commanders, and the four corps-commanders in charge 
at the close of the war. 

It does not, however, contain the portrait of General Blair, 
who was absent on a short leave. At the time the photograph 
was taken, I [General Howard] was no longer connected with 
General Sherman’s army. My picture was included for the 
following reason : 

After the army’s arrival near Washington, I was assigned to 
other duty, and General Logan took my place in command of 

the Army of the Ten¬ 
nessee. When the 
group was made up, 
as I had been so long 
identified with that 
army, General Sher¬ 
man desired me to be 
included. General 
Logan was seated for 
the picture where I 
would have sat, had 
there been no late 
change of command¬ 
ers. In all the field 
operations from At¬ 
lanta to the sea, and 
from Savannah 
through theCarolinas 
to Raleigh, and on to 
Washington, I was 
denominated “the 
right wing com¬ 
mander,” and General 
Slocum “ the left 
wing commander.” The division of cavalry under Kilpatrick 
was sometimes independent of either wing, but usually re¬ 
ported for orders to one wing or the other, as Sherman di¬ 
rected. 

The right wing was the “ Army of the Tennessee ; ” the left 
wing, the “ Army of Georgia.” In the field service, from Atlanta 
on, each wing had two army corps, as follows : the right wing, 
the Fifteenth and Seventeenth ; the left wing, the Fourteenth 
and Twentieth Corps. When General Logan passed to the 
charge of the Army of the Tennessee, General Hazen was 
assigned to command the Fifteenth Corps. I hough absent, 
General Blair retained the Seventeenth Corps. After our march, 
for some reason—I think for Mower’s promotion—Gen. A. S. 
Williams had been relieved from the Twentieth Corps, and 
General Mower assigned to his place. The Fourteenth Corps, 
which Gen. George H. Thomas had so long and so ably com¬ 
manded, was during all that march under the direction of 
Gen. Jefferson C. Davis. 

It may be of interest, while inspecting this noted picture, to 
recall something characteristic of the men who compose it. Let 
us begin with the junior officer of the group. 


MAJOR-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. 

General Davis, promoted to a volunteer appointment from 
the regular army, became early conspicuous as a successful com¬ 
mander in Missouri and other Western fields. For example, he 
captured one thousand prisoners at Milford, repelled Confederate 
attack upon Sigel’s centre at Pea Ridge, commanded a division 
at Stone River, and took as prisoners one hundred and fourteen 
of Wheeler’s raiders. 

In August, 1862, ill-health constrained him to leave the front 
for a short time, when he visited his home in Clarke County, 
Ind. The northward movement of the Confederates against 
Louisville subsequently caused him to hasten to that city and 
volunteer his services to General Nelson. 

This general, William Nelson, a native of Kentucky, was a 
middle-aged naval officer at the breaking out of the war. His ex¬ 
perience in Mexico, his strong character as a loyal Kentuckian, 
had caused his transfer to the army. Among undisciplined 
masses of volunteers he 
had already done wonders. 

He attained special dis¬ 
tinction as a division com¬ 
mander under Buell at the 
fiercely contested battle 
of Shiloh; but with all 
his patriotism, energy, and 
capability, he was a mar¬ 
tinet in discipline, very 
often giving great offence 
by his rough language and 
impatient ways. 

Gen. Jefferson C. Davis 
had hardly come in con¬ 
tact with Nelson when 
he was subjected to treat¬ 
ment that offended him 
greatly. 

Davis was of slender 
build, while Nelson was a 
large and powerful man. Davis endeavored, without success, 
to get an apology from Nelson for hard words and mistreat¬ 
ment. Abbott, in his History of the Civil War, shows how he 
was met: 

“ Here he (Davis) was outrageously insulted by General 
Nelson, and after demanding an apology and receiving only 
reiterated abuse, he (Davis) shot him on the stairs of the Galt 
House. General Nelson died in a few hours. General Davis 
was arrested, but was soon released, sustained by the almost 
universal sympathy of the public and of the army.” 

In subsequent years it was my lot to be on duty with General 
Davis. He reported to me and was under my command while 
pursuing the Confederates under Bragg, just after the battle of 
Missionary Ridge, November 25, 1863. His method of covering 
his front and flanks with skirmishers, and holding his troops well 
in hand for the prompt deployment, greatly pleased me. He 
was one of those officers constantly on the qui vive, impossible 




MAJOR-GENERAL JEFFERSON C. DAVIS. 











CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


514 

to surprise, difficult to defeat, and ever ready, at command, 
effectively to take the offensive. He succeeded to the Four¬ 
teenth Corps because Gen. John M. Palmer, offended at a deci¬ 
sion of General Sherman, resigned the position. While Davis 
was a just man, he was strongly prejudiced against negroes, 
often, in his conversations, declaiming against them. But subse¬ 
quent to the war, when commanding the State of Kentucky, 
acting as Assistant Commissioner for Freedmen, he took strong 
grounds against all lawless white men who sought to do them 
injury. In 1874, when a confusion of counsels had caused end¬ 
less complications during the Modoc War in Southern Oregon, 
General Davis was, as a final resort, selected and despatched 
to the scene of operations. His unfailing courage and steady 
action soon ended the war. The Modocs were conquered, 
taken prisoners, and their savage and treacherous leaders pun¬ 
ished. 

I had many a conversation with General Davis. He would lead 
me when we were alone, in a few minutes, according to the bias of 
his heart, to the subject of his difficulty with Nelson. Though 
others exculpated him, his own heart never seemed to be at rest. 
It was more to himself than to others the one cloud in his other¬ 
wise unblemished, patriotic career. 

MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM B. HAZEN 

entered the military academy one year after me (1851), so that I 
was associated with him there for three years. As a young man, 
he was very thin of flesh, so much so as to cause remark. The 
first time I saw him after graduation, he was on a visit to West 
Point, in i860. He had been in many Indian engagements in 
Texas and New Mexico, and had been brevctted for gallant con¬ 
duct in battle ; his arm at that time was in a sling, he having 
been wounded with an arrow. 

A most wonderful change had taken place in his personal 
appearance. Instead of a young man of cadaverous build, he was 
large, fleshy, handsome. As a cadet he had been very retiring; 
now quite the opposite—in fact, he soon became remarkable 
among us for his bold frontier stories and an increased self-esteem. 

Such was Hazen at 
the breaking out of 
the war. He went 
to the front in Ken¬ 
tucky, commanding 
the Forty-first Ohio 
Volunteers. During 
the series of opera¬ 
tions and battles in 
which he was en¬ 
gaged, he maintained 
in his commands un¬ 
usual neatness of 
attire and excellent 
discipline, and re¬ 
ceived for himself 
four brevets for gal¬ 
lant and meritorious 
service; the last 
being that of major- 
general in the regular 
army. Probably his 

most distinguished major-general william b. hazen. 


effort, one which called the especial attention of General 
Sherman to his merit, was the taking, under my orders, of 
Fort McAllister, December 13, 1864. He at that time had 
charge of a division, assisted in building a long bridge over the 
Ogeechee, crossed with his men, and, pushing on rapidly south¬ 
ward, completely environed Fort McAllister from sea-shore to 
sea-shore. General Sherman, with myself, more inland, were 
watching his operations in plain view from a rice-mill on the 
other side of the Ogeechee. The sudden and persistent attack, 
the exploding of numerous torpedoes, the tremendous vigor of 
the defence, afforded us an exciting scene, which ended in a 
much-needed victory; for this fort at the mouth of the river was 
the last obstruction between our army and the supplies which 
were coming from the sea. This success of Hazen caused me to 
recommend him for further promotion to the command of the 
Fifteenth Army Corps; and this was his crowning honor in the 
great war. 

MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH A. MOWER. 

I found General Mower in command of the First Division 
Sixteenth Army Corps (a little later, of a division in the Seven¬ 
teenth Army Corps, under General Blair) ; that was when I came 
to the Army of the 
Tennessee at Atlanta. 

He was already well 
known in that army. 

In conversation 
around campfires 
staff-officers spoke of 
him in this way 
“ Mower is a rough 
diamond;" “He is 
rather a hard case in 
peace ; ” “ He cannot 
be beaten on the 
march : ” “ You ought 
to see him in battle.” 

These expressions 
indicate somewhat 
the character of the 
man. About six feet 
in height, well propor¬ 
tioned and of great 
muscular strength, 
probably there was no 
officer in our picture 
group who was better fitted in every way for hard campaigning. 
On one occasion during the march through the Carolinas, as we 
approached the westernmost branch of the Edisto, all the coun¬ 
try had apparently been swept by the inhabitants clean of sup¬ 
plies. The cattle and horses had been driven eastward beyond 
the river, and all food carried off or hidden. As I approached 
a house near the river crossing, I saw General Mower and his 
staff apparently in conversation with the owner, who had, for 
some purpose, remained behind his fleeing people in his almost 
empty tenement. Mower was asking him questions; these the 
man at first evaded, or answered derisively. Then, becoming 
angry at Mower’s persistence, he refused to tell anything. The 
general, just as I was passing through the gate, said to an orderly, 
in his deep, strong, decisive voice : “ Orderly, fetch a rope ! ” He 
did not intimate what he proposed to do with the rope, but one 






MAJOR-GENERAL J. A. MOWER. 










CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


515 


glance at Mower’s face was sufficient for the stranger. He im- 

o 

mediately became courteous, and gave Mower all the information 
he desired as to the roads, bridges, and neighboring country. A 
few days later I was with Mower’s division when he foueht his 

o 

way across the main stream near Orangeburgh. His energy in 
leading his men through swamps, directing them while they were 
cutting the cypresses, making temporary bridges, wading streams, 
constructing and carrying the canvas boats, ferrying the river, 
and appearing with marvellous rapidity upon the enemy’s right 
or left flank on the open fortified bluff of the eastern shore, drew 
my attention more than ever to Mower’s capabilities. I remem¬ 
ber when we stood together inside the first captured work, while 
our men were rushing for the railroad above and below the city, 
Mower dismounted, and looking at me with his face full of glad 
triumph, said : “ Fait accompli ! General, fait accompli ! ” 

At Bentonville, the 20th and 21st of March, 1865, I saw 
Mower ride into battle. As he approached the firing, the very 
sound of it gave him a new inspiration ; his muscular limbs 
gripped his horse, and he leaned forward apparently carrying 
the animal with him into the conflict. He was the only officer 
I ever saw who manifested such intense joy for battle. At last, 
having brought his division through the woods and a little 
beyond the left flank of the Confederate commander (General 
Johnston), Mower and one or two of his staff dismounted, so as 
to work himself with his men through a dense thicket where he 
could not ride. The point sought in Johnston’s left rear was 
just gained by the indomitable Mower, when General Sherman 
called us off, saying “ that there had been fighting enough.” 
Concerning this event, General Sherman, in his “ Memoirs,” 
makes a significant remark: 

“ The next day (21st) it began to rain again, and we remained 
quiet till about noon, when General Mower, ever rash, broke 
through the rebel line, on his extreme left flank, and was push¬ 
ing straight for Bentonville and the bridge across Mill Creek. I 
ordered him back, to connect with his own corps ; and lest the 
enemy should concentrate on him, ordered the whole rebel line 
to be engaged with a strong skirmish fire.” 

MAJOR-GENERAL FRANCIS PRESTON BLAIR, Jr., 

whose biography is in every public library, is too well known to 
require a detail of introduction. 

As early as 1843 he formed a law partnership with his brother 
Montgomery, in the city of St. Louis, Mo.; here he worked till 
his health gave way. Requiring a change of climate, he went to 
New Mexico. While he was there General Kearney, as soon as 
the Mexican war came on, began operations which ended in 
his grand march to the Pacific coast. Young Blair was a volun- 
teer aid, and by his intelligence and energy gave that general 
the effective help which he needed. This short service in the 
Mexican war was enough to beget in Blair a taste for military 
reading and study; so that, being in St. Louis at the fever 
period of the outbreak of the great rebellion in 1861, he was 
not unprepared for the double part he was soon called upon to 
play. 

Having been elected and sent to Congress in 1858, previously 
having had a term in the Missouri Legislature, in both as a 
“ Freesoiler,” he threw all his political ability and knowledge 
upon the side of the Union. As a military man, he promptly 
acted and greatly helped in organizing and raising troops. Prob¬ 
ably it is due to his energy more than to anything else that 


St. Louis and Missouri were kept to the Union. Mr. Lincoln, 
who had the greatest confidence in Blair, commissioned him a 
brigadier-general in August, 1862. He performed thereafter no 
obscure part in all those battles along the Mississippi, which 
ended in the capture of Vicksburg. He was rapidly advanced 
from command of a brigade to that of a division and corps in 
Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. His name and able work are 
identified with both the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps. 

I he first time I saw General Blair was on November 25, 
1863; it was in the evening after Sherman’s first hot charge up 
the rough steeps on the north end of Missionary Ridge. Part 
of my command had participated in the bloody work of the day, 
and General Grant had detached the remainder of my corps 
from General Thomas on the straight front, and sent us around 
to strengthen Sherman. It was an informal council of war in 

the woods, by 
a small camp¬ 
fire, where I 
met for the 
first time Gen- 
erals Tom 
Ewing, Jeffer¬ 
son C. Davis, 
and Blair. The 
latter, who was 
obliged at 
times to go to 
civil duties in 
Congress, had 
then, as I was 
told, just re¬ 
turned from 
Washington. 
He brought to 
us the latest 
messages from 
Mr. Lincoln. 
He had on a 
light blue sol¬ 
dier’s over¬ 
coat ; it was 
distinguished 

by a broad, elegant fur collar. In repose and in photograph, 
Blair’s countenance might pass one as ordinary; but as soon as 
he spoke it was suffused with light and animation. He was five 
feet ten, and not fleshy. He walked about the fire, and with his 
ready talk, never too serious, kept Sherman and all the party, 
for such a sad night, in fair humor; for our best men had been 
stopped short of the coveted tunnel, and many of them were 
driven with heavy losses down the rugged slopes. The whole 
man so impressed me that night, that I never forgot him. Dur¬ 
ing the march to the sea, in skirmish, campaign, and battle, 
Blair was often with me ; many a day’s journey we rode side 
by side. 

His mind was replete with knowledge. As we, talking to¬ 
gether, recalled the battles of the Revolution in the Carolinas, 
and often differed in discussing them, Blair would say: “Well, 
general, let us go to Sherman; he never forgets anything!” I 
may add that the reference was always the settlement of the 
question, for Sherman’s historic knowledge was unfailing. Blair’s 
forte was the law. I knew fairly well the army regulations; but 
Blair always went back of the regulations to the statute law and 



MAJOR-GENERAL FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR. 













THE BATTLE OF ATLANTA, JULY 22. 1864 —FULLER’S DIVISION RALLYING AFTER BEING FORCED BACK BY THE CONFEDERATES. 








CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


517 


the Constitution. His mind was a compendium—one always at 
hand for me; and it was pleasant to consult him, for he never 
took advantage in an ungenerous manner of the superiority of 
his knowledge, but ever, without abating his most loyal service, 
gave me the information I desired. 

During the great march through Georgia and the Carolinas 
the necessity of “ foraging liberally on the country,” of destroy¬ 
ing property, as cotton in bales, factories of all kinds, store¬ 
houses, and other buildings of a public and private nature, 
troubled General Blair very much. The conduct of bummers, 
camp-followers, and of many robbers, who preceded or followed 
in the wake of the armies in their destruction and depredation 
of private dwellings, vexed him still more. One day in May, 
1865, as we were nearing North Carolina, Blair was riding with 
me for the day. After a period of silence, he said : “ General, I 
am getting weary of all this business. Can’t we do something 
to bring it to a close? All this terrible waste and destruction 
and bloodshed appear to me now to be useless.” I do not 
remember my reply, but I do recall a visit I made to General 
Sherman about that time, when I urged him not to destroy the 
works at Fayetteville Arsenal, N.C. I said: “ General, the war will 
soon be over ; this property is ours [that is, the Government’s]. 
Why should we destroy our own property ? ” The general replied 
with some little asperity to the effect : “ They [meaning the Con¬ 
federates] haven’t given up yet. They shall not have an arsenal 
here!” In this matter General Blair’s sentiment and mine had 
agreed. 

At another time, noticing that Wheeler’s (or Hampton’s) cav¬ 
alry were burning the cotton to prevent its falling into our hands, 
and that we were burning cotton to cripple the Confederate rev¬ 
enue, General Blair remarked : “ Both sides are burning cotton ; 
somebody must be making a mistake ! ” 

These growing sentiments in genuine sympathy with the suf¬ 
fering people of the Carolinas, were Blair’s thus early, and 
account, in a measure, for his subsequent political course; for, 
as Hammersley says: 

“ Brave and gallant soldier as he was, and uncompromisingly 
hostile as he was to the enemies of his country, when the war was 
over, and the Southern army had laid down their arms, he at 
once arrayed himself against those who were in favor of contin¬ 
uing to treat Southern people as enemies, and with voice and 
pen constantly urged the adoption of a liberal and humane 
policy. From this time he united with the Democratic party.” 

Blair died in July, 1875. He was of a jovial turn and con¬ 
vivial, but I think he enjoyed the relief of fun and frolic more 
than the pleasures which attend high living. Like his father 
and his brother, he was a man of marked ability; he had great 
acquirements ; he was a determined enemy, but an unswerving 
and generous friend. In political life his course seemed to lack 
consistency; but when judged from an unpartisan bias, his was, 
we may be sure, the outward manifestation of a persistent, 
patriotic spirit. 

MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 

A young man received a musket-shot wound through both 
thighs ; he repaired to the doctor to have his wound dressed, 
and asked if he could have it dressed at once, so that he might 
return to the fight. The surgeon told him he was in no con¬ 
dition to admit of his return, but should go to the hospital. 
The youth remarked that he had fired twenty-two rounds after 


he was wounded, and thought he could fire as many more if his 
wound were dressed. Finding it impossible to detain him, the 
doctor dressed the wound, and the young man returned to his 
comrades in the struggle, dealing out his ammunition to good 
account until the day was over, as if nothing had happened 
to him. 

This brave young man afterwards became Gen. John A. 
Logan. He had such a striking face that, once seen, it was 
never forgotten. 

There was the straight 
and raven hair, that, 
thrown back from his 
forehead, was long 
enough to cover his 
ears, and make verti¬ 
cal lines just behind 
his eyes. There were 
the broad brow, the 
firm round chin, and 
strong neck. There 
was the broad, well- 
cut mouth, always 
crowned by a dark, 
heavy mustache. But 
the features first seen, 
and never forgotten, 
were those black eyes 
with brows and lashes 
to match. At times 
those eyes were gen¬ 
tle, pleasant, win¬ 
ning ; at times they 
were cold and indifferent ; but at the least excitement they 
would quicken, and under provocation flash fire. Logan’s whole 
fio-ure not above five feet nine, was closely knit. His true 
portrait is everywhere caught by the photographer, the cari¬ 
caturist, the painter; but we seldom meet with a portraiture 
of the man that animated that splendid tenement. Abbott 
compares him with McPherson and contrasts him with Hood. 
He says: “When Logan was McPherson’s successor on the 
field of Atlanta, rivalling his predecessor in bravery, patriot¬ 
ism, and military ability.” . . . When speaking of him and 

Hood, he says: “General Logan was by no means his inferior 
in impetuous daring, and far his superior in all those intellectual 
qualities of circumspection, coolness, and judgment requisite 
to constitute a general.” 

I hardly think that one who knew both would speak just 
that way of Hood and Logan. The fact is, the two men were 
very much alike. Both were impetuous, both brave, and both 
able generals. Hood was put into the place of General Johnston 
by Davis with orders to fight desperately; had Logan been sent 
to Nashville to relieve General Thomas when it was contem¬ 
plated, he would have done precisely as did Hood—he would 
have fought, and at once. He might have been defeated— 
as Thomas was not. Before Sherman threw his forces upon 
Hood’s communications, Logan was greatly depressed con¬ 
cerning the proposed plan. “ How can it succeed?” he asked. 
But when the first battle came on, all his pluck, forethought, 
energy, Samson-like, came to him. Permit me to repeat my 
words at the time concerning him, just after that action : 

“ I wish to express my high gratification with the conduct 
of the troops engaged. I never saw better conduct in battle. 



MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. 





$i8 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


General Logan, though ill and much worn out, was indefati¬ 
gable, and the success of the day is as much attributable to him 
as to any one man. . . . ” 

As I now estimate General Logan, I think him like Napoleon’s 
Marshal Murat. He was made for battle; the fiercer, the better 
it seemed to suit his temper; but the study of campaigns and 
military strategy was not his forte. His personal presence 
was not only striking, but almost resistless. The power of 
love and hate belonged to his nature. If a friend, like Andrew 
Jackson, he was a friend indeed ; but if an enemy, it was not 
comfortable to withstand him. Logan had a good loyal heart; 
he sincerely loved his country and her institutions. He is 
justly enrolled as a hero and patriot. 

MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY WARNER SLOCUM. 

In the very beginning of Slocum’s career, one characteristic 
becomes noticeable from his earliest childhood—he always had 
a wholesome object in view; so that, when he attained one 
elevation, he fixed his eye steadily upon another still higher, 
and bent his energies to attain it. 

Early in life he cherished a desire for a cadetship at West 
Point ; this desire was gratified in 1848. Sheridan speaks in 
his “ Memoirs ” of his (Slocum’s) studious habits and willingness 
to aid others. I was myself at the academy and remember 
his strong character when the pro-slavery sentiment at West 
Point was so great as to lessen the popularity of any one even 
suspected of entertaining abolition views. He fearlessly and 
openly expressed himself as an opponent to human slavery. 

General Slocum graduated high in his class; saw service in 

the Seminole wars in 
Florida, and remained 
stationed in the 
South until 1857, 
when, having studied 
law, he resigned to 
practise his profession 
in Syracuse, N. Y., 
being a representative 
at Albany in 1859, 
and instructor of mi¬ 
litia from 1859 to 
1861. When Fort 
Sumter fell he ten¬ 
dered his services, and 
was given the com¬ 
mand of the Twenty- 
seventh New York 
Volunteers, which he 
led in a charge at Bull 
Run, where he was 
severely wounded. In 
August, 1861, he was 
made brigadier-gen¬ 
eral of volunteers, and took a brigade in General Franklin’s divis¬ 
ion. When Franklin passed to the command of a corps, Slocum 
took the division. His work was noticeable on the Peninsula, 
at Yorktown, West Point, Gaines’s Mill, Glendale, and Malvern 
Hill, and on each occasion he received the praise of his com¬ 
manders. At South Mountain his division drove the enemy 
from its position with such a rush as to prevent any chance of 


rallying, which act brought him still more commendation. It 
was Slocum who led the advance of Franklin’s corps to the field 
of Antietam, and enabled us to recover and hold much ground 
that had been taken from us in the first struggle. 

By October of 1862 Slocum’s manifest ability had given him 
the Twelfth Corps, with which his name is so closely identified. 
In the Chancellorsville campaign it was Slocum who made the 
march around Lee’s left, and showed himself the “ cool, self- 
poised, and prompt commander that he had always been, and 
which made him distinguished even in the brilliant group of 
generals of which he was a member.” It would require the 
whole history of Gettysburg to fairly portray Slocum’s part 
there. The most impressive incident of that battle to me was 
Slocum’s own battle on the 3d day of July, 1863. For five 
anxious hours Slocum commanded the field to our right; that 
dreadful struggle went on until Ewell with Early’s and Edward 
Johnson’s large divisions was forced to give up and abandon his 
prize of the night before. Slocum’s resolute insistence, on 
the 2d, upon leaving Greene and his brigade as a precaution 
when General Meade ordered the Twelfth Corps to be sent to 
his (Meade’s) left, with Greene’s marvellous night battle, and 
more still, Slocum’s organized work and engagement of the 
following morning, in my judgment prevented Meade losing the 
battle of Gettysburg. 

The disaster at Chickamauga took Slocum’s corps from the 
Rappahannock to Tennessee. Soon after his arrival he was sent 
to command the district of Vicksburg, where his work consisted 
of expeditions to break up bridges and railroads and to repel 
rebel raids. When the death of General McPherson, Slocum’s 
department commander, at Atlanta, caused so many changes, 
Slocum was brought to that city to command the Twelfth 
Corps. When, a little later, we swung off on Hood’s communi¬ 
cations, Slocum being located south of the Atlanta crossing of 
the Chattahoochee River, it was his quick perception that recog¬ 
nized the significance of the final explosions, and it was he who 
pushed forward over the intervening six miles and took pos¬ 
session of that citadel of Georgia; and it was his despatch to 
his watchful commander, thirty miles away, that inspired that 
brief proclamation, “ Atlanta is ours, and fairly won ! ” 

In the march to the sea and through the Carolinas, General 
Sherman had given to Slocum the left wing, the Army of 
Georgia. He crossed the Savannah River when the high waters 
made it most difficult, pushing and fighting through the swamps 
of the Carolinas. He fought the battle of Averysboro, and later 
took a leading part at Bentonville, where Johnston, the toughest 
Confederate of them all, surrendered, and we turned our faces 
homeward. 

At the close of the war General Slocum resigned from the 
army and engaged in civil pursuits, adding to his magnificent 
military reputation a civil repute for ability, honesty, and probity 
in business as well as in political affairs. 

GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 

With regard to the central figure of this group, General 
Sherman himself, libraries are so full of his characteristic work 
and worth that I will simply add to the above sketches a few 
items. Those have been chosen which are the more personal. 
It is said that when his father gave him the name of the great 
Indian chief, Tecumseh, he remarked: “Who knows but this 
child may be a fighter?” It is indeed remarkable how often 



MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY WARNER SLOCUM. 









CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


5i9 



names are prophetic. A fighter he was, but one thoroughly 
equipped with that most valuable weapon to a general, namely, 
such knowledge of history as to make him an authority to all 
of us. Any disputed point we carried to him ; we relied upon 
his being able to set us right. Indeed, one of his most marked 
characteristics was his quick perception and exceedingly re¬ 
tentive memory. This he evidenced in many ways; years after 
he ascended the Indian River in Florida he remembered with 
minute distinctness what he saw, from the shape of the inlet to 
the roosting pelicans along the mangrove islands. Talking with 
him before the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, I found him so 
conversant with the Chattahoochee Valley and the roads to and 
from Marietta, and all the features of that region, that I was 
astonished, and asked him where he had gotten such valuable 
information. lie said he had gained it twenty years before, 
when travelling through the country as a member of a board 
of officers detailed to appraise horses lost in the Florida war. 
Durincr his service in the South before the war he travelled 

o 

much, and appears to have remembered ever after, with won¬ 
derful distinctness, the features of the country. 

Sherman was, above all, pure in his patriotism and free from 
thought of self. When, from his position at the Military Semi¬ 
nary in Louisiana, he saw the conflict coming, he wrote: “ I ac¬ 
cepted this position when the motto of the seminary, inserted 
in marble over the main door, was, ‘ By the liberality of the 


General Government of the United States.’—‘The Union’—■ 
‘ Este perpetua.’ . . . If Louisiana withdraws from the 
Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegiance to the old 
Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives;” adding, “ for 
on no account will I do any act or think any thought hostile 
to or in defiance of the old government of the United States.” 
\\ hen his clear perception of the magnitude of the struggle 
before us made him declare to Secretary Cameron that it “was 
nonsense to carry on a picayune war; that sixty thousand men 
were needed for immediate work to clear Kentucky and Ten¬ 
nessee ; and two hundred thousand men to finish the war in 
that quarter;” and when the supposed extravagance of his 
demands led to the suspicion that his mind was unbalanced, 
thus placing him under a cloud, no selfish thought seems to 
have occurred to him. Instead of dwelling upon the injustice 
done him, he devoted all his knowledge, his wonderful energy 
and skill, to aiding General Grant; and, further, while under 
this cloud he gathered and sent forward to Grant much-needed 
supplies and men. He put order among quartermasters and 
commissaries anew, equipped new commands, and pushed them, 
never thinking of himself, to the front. This energy and gen¬ 
erosity General Grant promptly acknowledged ; and it was here, 
after the battle of Fort Donelson, that the celebrated Army 
of the Tennessee was born. 

General Sherman’s organizing powers have been tested by 
results. Doubtless his brilliant genius gave more or less inspira¬ 
tion to his subordinates, and his magnetic influence lifted up to 
prominence some very common men ; yet, no proof-sustaining 
bridge can be condemned ! He generously gave both confidence 
and scope to his officers, just as Grant had given confidence and 
scope to him ; and such sunshine develops men and makes them 
strong. His memory was phenomenal ; he had acquired knowl¬ 
edge with intense rapidity, from observation and from books, 
from childhood to age ; and by a thousand tests he showed that 
he had forgotten nothing that he had once learned. Who could 
estimate the number of officers and men he knew at the close 
of the war? And at the time of his death thousands claimed 
his personal recognition. 

He led his quartermasters in their plans and estimates for his 
army;' he was quicker than his chief commissary in figuring the 
rations for a month’s supply; he was equal to the great engi¬ 
neering general in everything that pertains to the construction 
of railroads and the running of trains ; he was more than a 
match for his Confederate adversaries in field correspondence 
with them at Atlanta — a correspondence rapid and pungent, 
which involved laws of war and of nations. 

When the Hon. Thomas Ewing, in kindness to General Sher¬ 
man’s family, offered to adopt a child, his choice fell upon 
Tecumseh. Mr. Ewing’s testimony, after a little experience 
with him as a member of his family, is, “ That he was a lad 
remarkable for accuracy of memory and straightforwardness.” 

When truthfulness is the corner-stone of a character—all 
things being equal — we have reason to anticipate a strong 
superstructure. How this was realized in Sherman, the world 
knows. 

Loyalty to family, loyalty to friends, loyalty to society about 
him, loyalty to duty and country, he quickly observed in an¬ 
other. And this loyalty was a marked characteristic of his own 
great soul. 

Oliver Otis Howard, 

Major-General U. S. Army. 

Governor’s Island, N. Y., July 6, 1S94. 
































LIBBY PRISON, RICHMOND, VA. 
(From a War-time Photograph.) 


PRISONS AND ESCAPES. 

BY GEORGE L. KILMER. 

ESCAPE OF THREE WAR CORRESPONDENTS FROM SALISBURY PRISON—SEVENTY PRISONERS ESCAPED, BUT ONLY FIVE REACHED THE NORTH— 

LONG AND PERILOUS JOURNEY THROUGH THE ENEMY’S COUNTRY—“OUT OF THE JAWS OF DEATH, OUT OF THE MOUTH OF HELL ”- 

A LEAP FOR LIBERTY—FOUR UNION PRISONERS ESCAPED NEAR CHARLESTON, S. C.-JOURNEY THROUGH SWAMPS AND OVER MOUNTAINS 

TO TENNESSEE—ESCAPES FROM ANDERSONVILLE TUNNELLING UNDER THE STOCKADE—REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF THE CONFEDERATE 

GENERAL MORGAN—COLONEL ROSE’S TUNNEL AT LIBBY PRISON. 

ALBERT D. Richardson and Junius Henri Brown, war correspondents of the New York Tribune , were taken prisoners from 
a Union vessel that attempted to pass the Confederate batteries at Grand Gulf, Miss. After passing some time in Castle Thunder 
and Libby Prison, Richmond, they were sent to Salisbury, N. C., as a punishment for endeavoring to escape, and while there, 
W. T. Davies of the Cincinnati Gazette united his fortunes with the Tribune men. 

Again and again plans to obtain their freedom were frustrated by some trifle, until desperation spurred them to the most 
daring attempts, but these also ended in failure. One day a body of prisoners, led by Robert E. Boulger of the Twenty- 
fourth Michigan, rushed upon a guard relief, seized their muskets, and attacked the sentinels on their posts. In their haste, 
all rushed to one point and attempted to pass the fence; but a couple of field-pieces and the muskets of the reserve guard turned 
upon that one point, quelled the insurrection in three minutes, killing and wounding one hundred men. A scheme of tunnel¬ 
ling was then proposed and pushed far toward success, but the prison commandant took alarm and posted a second line of 
guards, one hundred feet outside the stockade, and that rendered egress by tunnels out of the question. After spending ten 

months in the Salisbury prison, Richardson and his two companions determined to take heavy risks in order to get out and 

make their way to the mountains of East Tennessee. The outlook, according to the statistics of escapes during their experi¬ 
ences in that prison, was not at all promising, for out of seventy prisoners that had passed the guard, but five had reached the 

North. The others had been retaken or had been shot in the mountains. By extraordinary good luck the trio passed the 

guards on the night of December 17, 1864. All three were on duty at the time in the hospital, and Davies and Browne held 
passes permitting them to go outside the first line of sentinels to a Confederate dispensary for supplies. This privilege had 
been enjoyed so long that they were allowed to go on sight. The night of the escape, Browne loaned his pass to Richardson, 
and with Davies walked coolly out to the dispensary. Richardson describes his exit as follows: 

“A few minutes later, taking a box filled with the bottles in which the medicines were usually brought, and giving it to a 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


52 r 


lad who assisted me in my hospital duties, I started to follow 
them. As if in great haste, we walked rapidly toward the fence. 
When we reached the gate, I took the box from the boy and 
said to him, for the benefit of the sentinel, of course: ‘I am 
going outside to get these bottles filled. I shall be back in fif¬ 
teen minutes, and want you to remain right here to take and 
distribute them among the hospitals. Do not go away.’ The 
lad, understanding me perfectly, replied, ‘ Yes, sir,’ and I at¬ 
tempted to pass the sentinel by mere assurance. He stopped 
me with his musket, demanding: 

Have you a pass, sir?’ 

Certainly I have a pass,’ I replied with all the indignation I 
could assume. ‘ Have you not seen it often enough to know it 
by this time ? ’ 

“Apparently a little dumbfounded, he modestly replied: 

‘Perhaps I have; but they are strict with us, and I am not quite 
» »» 

sure. 

The sentinel examined the document which was all right in 

o 

Browne’s hands, but all wrong in Richardson’s. But he did not 
know the difference, and told Richardson to pass on. Once 
outside he met several Confederate officials who knew him, and 
knew too that he was out of his place, but the “ peculiarly honest 
and business-like look of that medicine box ” threw them off 
their guard. Instead of entering the dispensary, Richardson hid 
his box and slipped under a convenient shelter. At dark his 
friends joined him, and the three passed the outer guard with¬ 
out difficulty. For the Tribune men this was the end of twenty 
months of captivity. The first night and day were passed in the 
barn of a friendly citizen within one mile of the prison. The 
second night, a Confederate lieutenant belonging to the Sons of 
America, an order of Southerners who secretly aided the Union, 
met them and gave them full directions how and where to reach 
friends on their journey. Then they set out on their long 
winter tramp, poorly clad, and weak from long confinement. 

The main guide of the refugees was a railroad running west, 
but they were often obliged to leave the line to avoid crowded 
settlements, and were frequently lost in making those detours. 
In such emergencies they relied upon chance friends among the 
slaves to direct them aright. 

On the morning of the seventh day of their escape, they found 
that they had made fifty miles of their direct journey. Decem¬ 
ber 30th they crossed the Yadkin River, now getting into a 
region where Union homes were plenty. Communications had 
to be opened with women, as the men were “ lying out ” in 
order to avoid impressment by the hated Confederacy; and, 
after allaying all suspicion, our refugees found these people of 
great service. 

“The men of the community were walking arsenals. Each 
had a trusty rifle, one or two navy revolvers, a great bowie-knife, 
a haversack, and a canteen.’’ 

Guided and fed by the friends they found here, the three 
reached Tennessee early in January ; but their perils were not 
yet over, for the mountains were constantly patrolled by Con¬ 
federate guerillas. Once they had to pass within a quarter of a 
mile of a notorious rendezvous, called Little Richmond. An 
invalid arose from his bed and guided them past the danger at 
the risk of his life. On another occasion their guide, the cele¬ 
brated Dan Ellis, aroused the party from sleep with the star¬ 
tling announcement: “We have walked right into a nest of 
rebels. Several hundred are within a few miles, and eighty in 
this immediate vicinity ! ” 

They scattered in various directions, Richardson and his party 


—for others had joined them—being led by a young woman 
who often performed this service, though her name, Melvina 
Stephens, was never revealed until the war had closed. 

On the 14th of January, 1865, the Tribune printed this 
despatch from its long-lost correspondent : 

"Knoxville, Tenn., January 13, 1865. 

“ Out of the jaws of death ; out of the mouth of hell. 

“ Albert D. Richardson.” 

He had travelled three hundred and forty miles since leaving 
the prison, twenty-seven days before. 

Of the thousands of prisoners held by either side during the 
four years of the war, those who escaped and succeeded in 
reaching their own lines were exceedingly few, although the 
attempts at escape were numerous, and a good many got away 
from the prisons only to be brought back captives again in a few 
days. The most notable adventure of this kind was an escape 
from Libby Prison by a hundred and eight officers in Febru¬ 
ary, 1864. In that crowded prison, which was an old tobacco 
warehouse, the prisoners had little to do but play checkers on 
squares of the floor marked out with their pocket knives, play 
cards, tell stories, and devise plans for escape. One of them 
discovered a way of getting into the basement, and, by removing 
stones, making a hole through the eastern foundation wall. With 
a few assistants he then proceeded to dig a tunnel across the 
breadth of the yard. The earth that was taken out was dumped 
in a dark corner of the cellar where it never attracted attention. 
The work had to be carried on very secretly, not only to escape 
the notice of the guards, but even to prevent the knowledge of 
it from reaching any prisoner who might not be trustworthy. 
When the tunnel was about ten yards long a slight opening was 
made to the surface of the ground for light and ventilation ; and 
an old shoe thrown out at this opening in the night, and resting 
near it upon the surface, enabled the tunnellers, looking from the 
windows of the prison in the daytime, to get their bearings and 
determine how much farther they must dig in order to pass 
under the fence. When all was done the night of February 
9th was fixed for the escape. One of the officers who passed 
through the tunnel says of himself and two companions: “ Each 
man had an entire suit of clothes, a double suit of underclothes, 
the pair of boots in which he stood on entering the prison, an 
overcoat, and a cap. In common we possessed a coil of rope, a 
diminutive hatchet, one pint of brandy, a half pint of extract of 
Jamaica ginger, two days’ scant rations of dried meat and hard 
bread, one pipe, and a bit of tobacco. The tunnel was about 
fifty-three feet long, and so small in diameter that in order to 
pass through it was necessary to lie flat on one’s face, propell¬ 
ing with one hand and the feet, the other hand being thrown 
over the back to diminish the breadth of the shoulders and carry 
overcoat, rations, etc. Early in the evening, as I was seated at 
the card table, Randolph tapped me on the shoulder. ‘ The 
work is finished,’ he said. ‘ The first party went through soon 
after dark ; there is no time to lose.’ Every one knew it then. 
We possessed only the advantage of being perfectly cool and 
having a plan agreed upon. The excitement in the prison was 
of the wildest kind. Parties were formed, plans arranged, fare¬ 
wells exchanged, all in less time than one can describe. We 
dropped one by one into the cellar. I remember well the 
instructions: “Feet first; back to the wall ; get down on your 
knees ; make a half face to the right, and grasp the spike in the 
wall below with your right hand ; lower yourself down ; feel for 
the knotted rope below with your legs.’ Then one had but to 


'jwF 



CO 

cc 

Ixl 

z 

O 

GO 

s 

CL 

UJ 

h- 

< 

tr 

UJ 

Q 

Ixl 

Lx 

Z 

o 

o 

cd 

z 

O 

q: 

< 

3 

CD 


(FROM A WAR DEPARTMENT PHOTOGRAPH.) 










CAMPFIRE AND BA 1 


523 


drop in the loose straw shaken from hospital beds to be in the 
cellar. To walk across that foul pit in the dark was no easy 
matter; but it was soon accomplished, and together we crouched 
at the entrance of the tunnel. Only one at a time ; and as about 
three minutes were consumed in effecting the passage, progress 
was quite slow. Of our party Randolph was the first to enter. 
‘ 1 m going. Wait till I get through before you start.’ It 
seemed that his long legs would never disappear; but a part¬ 
ing kick in the face, as he wriggled desperately in, quite reassured 
me. YV hen a cool blast of air drawing through the tunnel gave 
the welcome assurance that the passage was clear, in 1 went. 
So well did the garment of earth fit, that at moments my move¬ 
ments corresponded somewhat to those of a bolt forcing its way 


and struck out, strong and hopeful, for home and liberty.” The 
one hundred and eight men who escaped through this tunnel 
followed different plans and routes for getting within the 
National lines, but the greater part of them were recaptured. 
The party of which the officer just quoted was one, after twelve 
days of journeying through swamps and by-ways, fed and guided 
by the friendly negroes, at length reached the National lines on 
the Pamunkey. 

A LEAP FOR LIBERTY* 

On the morning of October 6, 1864, a party of six hundred 
captive Union officers were put on board of a train of box-cars 



RUINS OF CHARLESTON, S. C. 


through a rifled gun. / j, 

Breath failed when I was ^ 

about two-thirds through, but a v 
score or more of vigorous kicks 
brought me to the earth’s surface 
where Randolph awaited my com¬ 
ing. With sundry whispered instructions about getting out with¬ 
out making undue noise and without breaking my skull against the 
bottom of a board fence, he then crept away toward the street, 
keeping in the shadow of a high brick wall, leaving me to assist 
in turn and instruct the colonel, who could now be heard thun¬ 
dering through the tunnel. Dirty but jubilant, we were soon 
standing in the shadow of a low brick arch, outside of which a 
sentinel paced backward and forward, coming sometimes within 
two yards of our position. One after another stole out of the 
archway, and we met, as agreed, at the corner of the second 
street below. Arm in arm, whistling and singing, we turned 


to be transported from the jail yard at 
Charleston to prison quarters at Columbia. 

; Among the number was Capt. J. Madison Drake, of the 
Ninth New Jersey volunteers, who had been a prisoner of 
war five months and an inmate during that time of three 
different prisons—Libby, Macon, Ga., and Charleston. 
Although he had been foiled in many attempts to escape, he 
resolved on one more effort, and, having received warning of 
the trip to Columbia, induced three fellow-prisoners to join him: 
Capt. H. H. Todd, Eighth New Jersey; Capt. J. E. Lewis, 
Eleventh Connecticut; and Capt. Alfred Grant, Nineteenth 
Wisconsin. While the train was crawling slowly on toward 
Columbia, the bold projector of the scheme managed to remove 
the gun-caps from the nipples of the muskets of several guards 


* Rewritten (by permission) from Captain Drake’s narrative as printed in the 
private history of the Ninth New Jersey Volunteers. 

























524 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


on the car where the four friends were; and as soon as dusk 
came on, the party at a signal took their daring leap. They 
landed in a cypress swamp on Congaree River, and found them¬ 
selves waist deep in water and mud. A volley of shots from all 
the guards followed the fugitives, but no one was hurt, as the 
train was running under good headway. A night and a day 
were passed in the swamp, and although the barking of dogs 
and shouting of men indicated that pursuers had been sent out, 
the runaways were not disturbed. The second night a bright 
new moon arose, and they started on a systematic journey 
toward the Union lines in Tennessee. 

Before leaving Charleston, one of the party had found a school 
map of South Carolina, and with this guide a course had been 
studied out. They decided to hug the swamps and woods by 
day, and at night use the fields and roads, and spend as little 
time as possible in sleep until the mountains of North Caro¬ 
lina were reached. Their chief guide-mark in South Carolina 
was the Wateree River. 

At the end of a week their rations had all been consumed, 
and in desperation the wanderers began to think of food to the 
exclusion of all else. Captain Drake says that in these times 
they heartily yearned for the government "hard tack” and the 
contractor’s beef they had so often anathematized on the march 
and in camp. 

But fortune will favor the bold, and one night, as they halted 
on a roadside to debate whether it should be a quest for bread 
or for a road to liberty, a dark form came shambling along the 
road, and in the moonlight they saw at a distance that it was an 
old negro with a basket on his arm. Without ceremony the 
famished men crowded around the old man, and finding that he 
had in his basket a “pone” of corn-bread, they seized it and 
began to devour it ravenously. After a time the situation was 
explained, and when the negro learned who the highwaymen 
were, he supplied a quantity of meal and salt, and sent them 
on their way mentally resolved to cultivate acquaintance with 
colored folks as often as possible. 

Not until several hundred miles had been placed between 
their fainting feet and Charleston did the hapless fugitives feel 
a sense of freedom. Often their fears and alarms were cause¬ 
less, but they suffered loss of vitality all the same. Sometimes 
seeming misfortunes proved to be blessings. One night a pack 
of dogs chased them into a crowded village, and they took 
refuge in a graveyard vault. There Captain Drake found a copy 
of a local newspaper, warning the people to be on guard for 
escaped Union prisoners. The escaped prisoners themselves 
got the benefit of the hint. At another time some Confederate 
cavalrymen chased them on the high-road, and they escaped 
by getting into a dense wood, where the horses couldn’t follow. 
While wandering about, they fell in with a loyal mountaineer, 
who took them to his home, fed them, and directed them to 
other Unionists. 

Many of the men met with in the mountains were of the class 
known as “ lyers out,” deserters from the Confederate army, and 
fugitive conscripts. A hundred or more of these men were per¬ 
suaded to join Drake’s party on their tramp toward the Union 
lines. Thus reinforced with guides and armed companions, the 
prospects of the runaway prisoners began to brighten. But they 
were not out of the woods by a long way, as the sequel proved. 

When the fugitives drew near the Union lines the danger of 
capture increased, for a cordon of mountain rangers patrolled 
the region to head off any fortunate ones who got thus far on 
the journey homeward. The mountains were simply barren 


wastes, the few cabins had to be shunned, and the only food to 
be obtained was wild game which the rifles of the “ lyers out ” 
brought down. In the uplands the poor fellows were hounded 
by “ rangers,” and in the valleys mounted Confederates dashed 
about on all sides. 

At length the party reached the vicinity of Bull’s Gap, a rail¬ 
way pass through the mountains, and guarded by Union troops 
as an outpost of Knoxville. The chief scout announced that 
the gap was fifteen miles from the foot of the hill whence it was 
first sighted, and that, once reached, the refugees would be safe. 
The news stimulated the men anew, and they started down the 
mountain with their eyes riveted on the gap, for fear, as Drake 
says, it would take wings and flee. Alas! alas! The unexpected 
happens in war if nowhere else. 

The gap didn’t exactly take wings and flee, but the ubiquitous 
General Breckenridge, with an army at his back, fell like a 
thunderbolt upon the Union garrison at the pass, defeated and 
routed the entire force and hurled them backward at mounted 
double-quick pace toward Knoxville; and. presto! the gap was 
closed in the very faces of the vearning-eyed, broken-bodied 
pilgrims. Think of it—at the end of those terrible weeks of 
endurance and suffering, to find a hostile army springing across 
the path at a bound, and its scouts and patrols beating every 
byway and bush in the region for the luckless strays of the fleeing 
enemy! 

A voung woman of the mountains volunteered to scout toward 
the gap and bring news to the refugee camp. She simply learned 
that Breckenridge was sweeping the country of Union troops 
and marching upon Knoxville. 

At the same time it was discovered that a band of Confed¬ 
erate partisans were on the trail of the fugitives, and to escape 
this new danger they found comparative shelter in a ravine. 
Two of the men who had leaped from the car with Drake, Cap¬ 
tains Todd and Grant, ventured out to obtain rations, which 
were sadly needed, as they were all living on dry corn. During 
the night mounted men attacked the bivouac, and the refugees 
scattered, every man for himself. At the end of a week they 
fell in with a cavalry patrol, and were once more, after forty-nine 
days’ wandering, under the protection of the Stars and Stripes. 

ATTEMPTS AT ESCAPE FROM ANDERSON VILLE. 

Escapes from Andersonville, except through the portals of 
death—that is, complete escape to the Union lines—were exceed¬ 
ingly rare. Hundreds, through one device or another, succeeded 
in getting outside of the stockade, but the prison was so strongly 
surrounded with guards and forts and quarters occupied with 
zealous attendants, that it was difficult for a prisoner to elude 
the detective on the outside even when he had succeeded in 
passing the main barrier. Adding to this the existence of the 
deep swamps and vast forests just beyond the camp precincts, in 
which a stranger to the locality would be only too sure to lose 
his way, it will be seen that to enter Andersonville was indeed 
to leave “all hope behind.” The favorite method of attempt¬ 
ing escape was by tunnelling, for the great extent of the camp 
area, some twenty-five acres, and its crowded condition, made the 
work of excavation, without danger of discovery by the guards 
and keepers, comparatively easy. Another favorable circum¬ 
stance was the fact that prisoners were allowed to dig wells to 
supply drinking water, and the grounds were everywhere dotted 
with piles of fresh earth that had been thrown up in consequence. 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


525 


In order to excavate a tunnel, the prisoners contemplating 
escape would commence a lateral shaft a few feet below the 
mouth of one of these wells, located near the stockade; and as the 
work was done at night, the earth thus removed was carried in 
small quantities and deposited on the piles of fresh earth thrown 
out from the newly sunken wells. The tools used were of the 
rudest kind—tin plates, cups, and knives with which to loosen 
the earth, and bare hands to scoop it into the haversacks, or 
bags improvised from clothes and pieces of blanket; and in this 
manner these tunnels were frequently extended, not only beyond 
the stockade, but even beyond the outer line of prison guards. 
Yet, although hundreds passed out—as many as one hundred 
escaped through one tunnel in a single night, late in 1864—they 
were invariably brought back; sometimes through the treachery 
of spies, who mingled with the prisoners, and at other times by 
hunters with their dogs, who were constantly patrolling the 
vicinity of the camp, and, in fact, the entire region, in search of 
deserters from the Confederate army and runaway slaves, as 
well as fugitive prisoners. Not one well-authenticated case of a 
prisoner getting out through a tunnel, and making his way 
North, is to be found on record. 

Another method of escape from the enclosure was by strolling 
beyond the sight of the guards when allowed to go out to the 


forests for wood; some, again, tried hiding in the huge boxes 
used for bringing prisoners into the camp, and many were missed 
from their quarters who had succeeded for the time being in 
misleading their guards, but eventually the fugitives turned up 
elsewhere; while such as enlisted in the Confederate army, this 
being their last hope of escape, soon reappeared, either as will¬ 
ing prisoners or deserters. 

One tunnel, which had been carried under and beyond the 
stockade, was broken into by a severe flood, and the stock¬ 
ade undermined, which opened the celebrated “providential 
spring.” 

In August, 1864, when prisoners were dying from the use of 
unwholesome drinking water, a heavy thunder storm flooded the 
little brook that, running through the enclosure, passed in and 
out under the stockade. The rushing element not only broke in 
the roof of the tunnel, but loosened a quantity of earth which, 
since the construction of the stockade, had dammed up a copious 
stream of clear, fresh water, its original course passing right 
through the prison quarters. Some attributed the reopening to 
the action of lightning, while others looked upon it as a direct 
interposition of Heaven for their relief. But, whatever the cause, 
it supplied the prisoners with an abundance of good water through 
the remainder of their stay, and is still in existence. 



I | 


NATIONAL CEMETERY, RICHMOND. VA. 







5 ?6 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


MORGAN’S ESCAPE. 

The account of the capture and escape of General Morgan as 
here given is condensed from an article by Samuel B. Taylor, 
originally published in the Cincinnati Tribune. 

In the summer of 1863, General Morgan’s command made, 
through Southern Ohio, one of those raids which were the most 
daring and successful in the history of modern and ancient war¬ 
fare. In that instance he did not meet with his usual great suc¬ 
cess, for his raid terminated, in July of that year, with the capture 
of himself and sixty-eight of his officers and men. By order of 
General Burnside, he and a number of his officers were confined 
in the Ohio Penitentiary, at Columbus. 

“ We were each placed in a separate cell, in the first and sec¬ 
ond range or tier of cells on the south side of the east wing of 
the prison. These cells were let into a solid block of masonry, 
one hundred and sixty feet long and twenty-five feet thick. 
They opened into a hall twelve feet wide and one hundred and 
sixty feet in length. Then, as now, the prison buildings and 
their yard were enclosed by a solid stone wall thirty feet high 
and four feet in thickness, and level on top. 

“ We at length became so desperate from confinement that 
we determined to escape, no mattei at what hazard. But how 
was escape to be effected? 

“ From five o’clock P.M. till seven A.M. we were locked in our 
cells, with no means of communication. Through the day we 
were allowed to roam about the large hall on to which our cells 
opened and to converse freely with each other, though there was an 
armed sentry at either end of this hall, through which the regular 
keepers of the prison passed at frequent and regular intervals. 
We discussed every possible and impossible plan of escape, as we 
thought, but could hit upon none that seemed feasible. 

“ We had been some three months in durance vile, when, in 
consequence of an insult that was offered to one of our num¬ 
ber, Capt. Thomas A. Hines, by the deputy warden, a plan was 
evolved by which we did finally succeed in making our escape. 
Captain Hines retired to his cell about eight o’clock A.M., vow¬ 
ing that food should not pass his lips and that sleep should not 
rest upon his eyelids until he had thought out some plan of 
escape that should be practicable. 

“About a quarter to twelve o’clock he came to me and said 
that he had hit upon a plan which he thought would do. At all 
events he was determined to try it. He then informed me that 
he had noticed that the walls of his cell, instead of being damp, 
as they naturally would have been from the fact that they were 
built upon a level with the ground outside, were perfectly dry. 
From this he concluded that there must be an air chamber 
beneath. Now, if such should be the case, Captain Hines’s plan 
was to run a tunnel from it through the foundation into the 
yard, and then to escape over the prison wall. 

“ The cells were built in five tiers. Some of our party occu¬ 
pied the lowest or ground tier, while others, including General 
Morgan himself, occupied the second tier. Of course only those 
in the ground tier could escape by means of Captain Hines’s plan, 
and in order for General Morgan to do so it would be necessary 
to have him exchange cells with some one in the tier below. 
The plan of Captain Hines was communicated to General Mor¬ 
gan and the other officers that afternoon, and after being fully 
discussed, it was decided that not more than seven of those on 
the lower tier could escape, because the greater the number the 
greater would be the danger of discovery. We arranged to have 
the work begin in the cell of Captain Hines, and in order to pre¬ 


vent the usual daily inspection being made of it, he asked permis¬ 
sion to thereafter sweep it himself. The permission was granted, 
and he kept it so scrupulously clean that after a few mornings 
no inspection was made of it. Work was therefore begun in his 
cell on the morning of November 4th. With two small table- 
knives, obtained from sick comrades in the hospital, Captain 
Hines cut through six inches of cement, removed six layers of 
brick, concealing them in his bed tick, and came to an air cham¬ 
ber six feet in height. The work was carried on under his cot. 

“ Having progressed thus far, Captain Hines now mounted 
guard at the door of his cell, while the work was carried on by 
the rest of us. He pretended to be deeply engrossed in study, 
but in reality he was watching every movement of the guards 
and keepers. If one approached, he gave us warning by a sys¬ 
tem of taps on the floor. One tap meant to stop work, two to 
proceed, and three to come out. 

“ We cut a tunnel at right angles from the air chamber through 
the foundation wall of the cell block five feet, through twelve 
feet of grouting to the outer wall of the east wing of the prison, 
then through this wall six feet in thickness, and then four feet up 
near the surface of the yard in an unfrequented place. Our tunnel 
completed, it only remained to make an entrance from the cell 
of each man who was to escape into the air chamber. This could 
only be done by working from the air chamber upward. 

“To do this we must have something to measure with in order 
to locate the spots at which to make these holes. We secured 
a measuring line by involving the warden in a dispute about the 
length of the hall, Captain Hines abstracting it long enough, 
after the hall had been measured, to answer our purpose. The 
chamber being very dark, we obtained matches and candles from 
our sick comrades in the hospital. 

“ It was very essential to our purpose that we should have an 
accurate knowledge of the prison yard and the wall inclosing it, 
but the windows of the hall were too high to afford us a view. 
Fortunately the warden ordered the walls and ceiling of the hall 
to be swept, and a long ladder being brought for that purpose, I 
offered the warden a wager that I could go hand over hand to 
its top, rest for a moment, and then descend in the same way. 
He took me up, and having been famous all my life for feats of 
strength and agility, I readily won the bet. While resting at the 
top of the ladder I made a thorough survey of the yard. There 
was a double gate to the outer wall south of the wing in which 
we then were and almost at right angles from its eastern end. Of 
this double gate, the outer portal was solid as the wall itself, while 
the inner was of wooden uprights four inches apart. By means 
of this latter gate we might ascend to the top of the prison wall. 
For that purpose we made a rope of our bed ticking, and fastened 
it to a grappling iron made out of the poker of the hall stove. 

“All our money had been taken by our captors, but we obtained 
a fresh supply from friends in the South, secreted in the cover of 
an old book sent through the mail. An old convict, who was 
often sent into the city on errands by the warden, procured us a 
newspaper, from which we learned that a train left for Cincin¬ 
nati—whither we were bound—at 1.15 o'clock A.M. At midnight 
the guards made a round of the cells, and we determined to start 
at that hour. I was to descend into the air chamber and notify 
the others by a tap under the floor of each cell. 

“ The evening of November 27th being dark and cloudy, we 
determined to try our luck that night. When we were locked up 
for the night, General Morgan contrived to change places with 
his brother, who occupied one of the lower cells, and who greatly 
resembled him in face and form. Every man arranged the stool, 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


52 7 


with which each cell was supplied, in his bed to look like a sleep¬ 
ing man when the guard should thrust his lantern through the 
cell door a few minutes later. 

“ I had General Morgan’s gold watch, and punctually at mid¬ 
night I broke with my boot-heel the thin layer of cement which 
separated my cell from the air chamber, and passing along the 
latter gave a tap under the floor of each of the others, who soon 
joined me. We crawled through our tunnel, and, breaking the thin 
layer of earth which separated its end from the surface, we were 
soon in the prison yard. Over the wooden gate, which I had seen 
from the ladder, we threw our grappling iron, and by its bed-tick- 
ing rope drew ourselves up till we stood on the wing wall, whence 
we readily passed to the outside wall in full view of freedom. 

“ The top of the latter wall was so broad as to form a walkway 
for the guards, who were stationed there during the day, but 
who at night were placed inside the walls. This walkway was 
supplied with sentry boxes, and in one of these we divested our¬ 
selves of the garments we had soiled in passing through the 
tunnel, each man having provided for this by wearing two suits. 
With one of the knives used in tunnelling, General Morgan then 
cut the rope running along the wall to the warden’s office bell. 
Fastening our grappling iron to the railing running along the 
edge of the wall, we descended to the ground outside, and were 
free once more, though at that very moment the prison guards 
were sitting around a fire not sixty yards away. 

“ We now separated, and in parties of two and three made our 
way to the railroad station, and took the train for Cincinnati. 
During the journey General Morgan sat beside a Federal major 
in full uniform, and was soon on the best of terms with him. 
Our route lay directly past the prison whence we had just come, 
and, as we whizzed by it, the Federal officer said to our leader : 

“ ‘That is where the rebel General Morgan is now imprisoned.’ 

“ ‘ Indeed,’ said General Morgan ; ‘ I hope they will always 
keep him as safely as they have him now.’ 

“At Dayton our train was delayed for over an hour, and this 
made it unsafe for us to go on to Cincinnati, as we had in¬ 
tended, because we should now be unable to reach the city 
until long after seven o’clock in the morning, and by that time 
our escape was certain to be discovered and telegraphed all over 
the country, and we should be watched for in every large city in 
which there was any possibility of our going. We therefore 


alighted from the train as it was passing through Ludlow Ferry, 
a suburb of the city, and we quickly ferried across the Ohio 
River into Kentucky. There we found many kind friends, who 
aided us with hospitality, money, concealment when necessary, 
horses, and arms. The adventures, the dangers, hardships, hair¬ 
breadth escapes from capture, and serious and laughable inci¬ 
dents through which each one of us passed in making our way 
back into the Confederate lines, would fill an immense volume. 
For the purposes of this article, it must suffice to say that ulti¬ 
mately we all succeeded in rejoining our comrades at the front, 
though one or two of our number were recaptured before they 
could do so, but they again succeeded in escaping. 

“ What transpired in Columbus after the discovery of our es¬ 
cape we did not learn until long afterward. Then we found that 
we had created one of the greatest—if not the very greatest— 
sensations of the war. Our escape had been effected in such 
a seemingly impossible manner, and was so absolutely without 
parallel in the history of prison escapes, that the people of the 
North refused to believe that it had been accomplished without 
collusion on the part of some of our keepers. It is no wonder 
that they thought so, for everything in connection with the 
affair happened so fortunately for us that it really seemed as 
if we must have had some assistance from some one within the 
prison. The way in which we obtained the line with which to 
measure for the holes in the cell floors, the way I obtained a 
view of the prison yard, the way in which General Morgan and 
his brother changed cells on the night of our escape, all of which 
I have detailed before, would certainly seem impossibilities with¬ 
out connivance. Then, when it is considered that the digging 
of the tunnel consumed over three weeks, and that the keepers 
were almost constantly passing over where it was going on, it 
seems incredible that they never became aware of it. 

“ Nevertheless, there was never any bribery even attempted. 
It seemed as though fate or Providence or some controlling 
power had decreed that we were to escape, and directed every¬ 
thing to that end. The only bribery was that practised upon 
the old convict I have mentioned, to induce him to bring us 
a newspaper, contrary to the warden’s rules, that we might find 
out about the trains for Cincinnati, and the convict in question 
had not the slightest idea what we wanted it for. I believe 
Warden N. L. Merion was perfectly loyal to the Union.” 



BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 0. E. BABCOCK. 


EDW. 


S- cane y. 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL ANSON G. McCOOK. 
















528 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 



UNION AND CONFEDERATE RAIDS AND 

RAIDERS. 

BY GEORGE L. KILMER. 

BEALL, THE LAKE RAIDER—ANDREWS AND HIS DISGUISED RAIDERS— 

lieutenant Cushing’s boat raids—Kilpatrick's raid by Rich¬ 
mond—Morgan’s Kentucky raid—raiding a city. 

The secret enterprise which placed Lieutenant Davis in a 
dungeon cell and nearly cost him his life had a deeply tragic 
ending for John Y. Beall, the young Vir¬ 
ginian, executed at Fort Columbus, New 
York Harbor, the 24th of February, 1865. 

Beall was the chief promoter and the 
leader of the Lake Erie raid in the fall 
of 1864, but technically the offence for 
which he suffered was that of a spy. 

The judge advocate of the court which 
condemned him spoke of the prisoner 
as one “ whom violent passions had 
shorn of his nature’s elements of manli¬ 
ness, and led him to commit deeds which 
to have even suspected him of at an 
earlier stage in his career would have 
been a calumny and a crime.” 

Beall had been wounded in the Con¬ 
federate service early in the conflict. As 
master in the navy, he had led for a time 
the daring, reckless life of a “ swamp 
angel ” in the lower Potomac, destroying 
the Union commerce in Chesapeake Bay 
and its adjacent waters. 

While thus engaged, he planned a lake 
raid, but failed to get his government to 
sanction the project until 1864, when the 
Northwestern Confederacy movement 
made it necessary for Jacob Thompson 
and his co-conspirators in Canada to 
have a foothold upon Union soil along 
the border. 

One of Thompson’s cherished plans 
was an uprising of the notorious Sons of 
Liberty at Chicago, during the Democratic 
national convention in August, 1864. About this time Beall 
arrived at Sandusky, O., with authority to proceed on his 
raiding enterprise. Thompson had prepared the way for him 
by a careful investigation of the lake defences, through an emis¬ 
sary located at Sandusky—Capt. Charles Id. Cole, formerly of 
Morgan’s raiders. Cole was supplied with means to entertain 
and bribe such Union officials as might be of service to the 
Confederacy; and he finally concluded that the control of the 
lakes could be secured by the capture of the gunboat Michigan , 
the sole defender of the waters, and the liberation of the Con¬ 
federate prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and at Johnson’s 
Island in Sandusky Bay. 

Thompson gave Cole authority to capture the Michigan , and 
appointed Beall to aid him. It was arranged between Cole and'. 


Beall that the former would remain in Sandusky and cooperate 
by bribing some of the men on the Michigan, and by preparing 
the prisoners on Johnson’s Island for an outbreak. The Michi¬ 
gan lay off the island. The date was fixed for the night of 
September 19th, and Beall went to Canada to organize a force, 
hazarding everything, as will be seen, on the success of his con¬ 
federate, who, at the decisive moment, when Beall’s attacking 
party should arrive off Sandusky, was to make rocket signals 
from Johnson’s Island that the expected aid was a certainty. 

Beall secured the services of nineteen Confederate refugees, 
chiefly escaped prisoners of war harbored in Canada, and the 
party disguised in civilian dress took passage on a steamer plying 
between Sandusky and Detroit, carrying in their baggage a sup¬ 
ply of revolvers and hatchets. At the proper time, the captain 
in his office, and the mate at the wheel, were told to vacate their 

stations, revolvers were suddenly bran¬ 
dished right and left to intimidate the 
officers and men, and Beall as spokesman 
declared, “ I take possession of this boat 
in the name of the Confederate States.” 

Under his direction the vessel was put 
about and headed for Middle Boss Island, 
in Ohio waters, where the passengers and 
regular crew were set ashore. 

From the island Beall bore his vessel 
directly for the gunboat Michigan, 
steamed up within cannon range, and 
awaited a rocket signal. When the hour 
passed and no signal came, he decided to 
risk everything, board the gunboat at all 
hazards, and strike for Johnson’s Island. 
In his crisis an unlooked-for event dashed 
his high resolves suddenly to the ground. 
The crew of the Philo Parsons mutinied. 
The absence of the shore signals was 
interpreted by them as a warning that 
the plot had been discovered; and, al¬ 
though Beall argued and pleaded, the 
men insisted that the death penalty 
awaited them if captured, and they 
felt certain that such would be 
the end of it all. Their boat 
was then run to the Canada 
shore, abandoned, and de¬ 
stroyed. 

The scene now changes 
to Union soil. On the night 
of the 15th of December, 
1864, the engineer on an 
eastern-bound express train 
on the Erie railroad, between 
Buffalo and Dunkirk, saw a rail¬ 
road rail across the track, in front 
lieutenant-general of his engine, just in time to re- 
nathan b forrest, c. s. a verse and strike the obstruction 

at reduced speed without severe 
damage. The next night two policemen at the New York 
Central depot, Niagara City, arrested two suspicious men who 
were about to take the cars for Canada. Beall was one of them, 
and, though he made some attempt to deny his identity, he was 
sent to New York City and accused of the lake raid and of the 
attempt at train wrecking. The clerk of the Philo Parsons, and 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
JUDSON KILPATRICK. 
(Afterward Major-General.) 












CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


529 


one of the passengers, and also a confederate in the attempt 
on the train, identified him, and furnished ample evidence for a 
case. 

The train-wrecking enterprise was doubtless a last resort by 
Beall to secure funds for the prosecution of his plans on the 
lake. Five men were engaged in it. The party lay hidden near 
the track when the train struck, and seeing that the damage was 
only trifling they hastened to Buffalo and secreted themselves. 
Subsequently the arrest of Beall took place, purely on suspicion. 

He was arraigned on two charges—violation of the laws of war 
and acting as a spy. His defence was that his acts had been 
justifiable acts of war ; and, if confined to his attempt on the gun¬ 
boat Michigan and the Johnson’s Island prison, the plea might 
have had weight. But every circumstance likely to weigh in 
his favor, his education, his noble bearing, his manly conduct 
toward the captives on the Philo Parsons , was lost sight of in the 
appalling railroad horror that had been planned with such cool 
deliberation, and with no purpose evident other than robbery— 
robbery at the sacrifice of innocent lives. 

A most deplorable tragedy brought about by the spy system, 
or what was analogous to that, and involving the execution of 
six Ohio soldiers,* also the imprisonment of sixteen others, who 
barely escaped the gallows, is the story of the Andrews railroad 
raid, or bridge-burning expedition, in Georgia, in the spring of 
1862. 

During General Buell’s occupancy of Central Tennessee, 
before the armies marched to Shiloh, he had occasionally em¬ 
ployed the ser¬ 
vices of a spy, 
named James J. 
Andrews, w h o 
carried on a con¬ 
traband trade in 
quinine, and in 
the course of his 
travels across the 
border often 
managed to pick 
up information 
valuable to the 
Union generals. 
At his solicita-~ 
tion, Buell per¬ 
mitted a detail 
from three regi¬ 
ments belonging 
to General Sill’s 
brigade, the 
Thirty-third, 
Twenty-first, and 
Second Ohio, to 
set out with him, 
disguised in civil¬ 
ian’s dress. They 
were to burn the railway bridges east and west of Chattanooga, 
and thus isolate that important town, possibly insuring its speedy 
capture. The soldiers were given to understand that they took 
their lives in their hands, but none declined the dangerous 


* George D. Wilson, Marion A. Ross, and Perry G. Shadrack. Second Ohio ; 
Samuel Slavens and Samuel Robinson, Thirty-third Ohio; and John Scott, Twenty- 
first Ohio. 


honor. Guided by Andrews, they started from Shelbyville, 
April 7th, and in five days made their way to Marietta, Ga., los¬ 
ing but two of their number on the road. At Marietta two more 
disappeared, leaving Andrews with eighteen soldiers and a 
civilian volunteer to undertake the hazardous work mapped out 
by the leader, which was to capture an engine with a few cars 
attached, board them, and speed westward, firing the bridges as 
they passed. Securing tickets at Marietta, they entered a west¬ 
bound train as ordinary passengers. At Big Sandy station, 
where the trainmen took breakfast, these pseudo passengers 
left their seats, and two of them, William Knight and Wilson 
Brown, professional engineers, leaped into the cab. The coup¬ 
ling bolt of the third car from the tender was pulled, and the 
remainder of the party scrambled on board as best they could. 
Off sped the stolen train in full view of scores of astonished 
bystanders and railroad men. What made the deed doubly 
risky was the fact that a camp of Confederate soldiers had been 
established at Big Sandy since Andrews’s last visit there, and 
the station was surrounded by armed men. In fact, a sentinel, 
musket in hand, stood within a few yards of the engine, watch¬ 
ing the whole proceeding, but too dazed to act or sound the 
alarm. But this amazement was short-lived. The railroad men 
were prompt to give chase, first with a hand-car, afterward with 
a chance engine picked up on the road. The raiders were 
delayed by eastward trains, it being a single-track line; but with 
singular good fortune ran over half the distance to Chattanooga, 
having stopped to cut telegraph wires and remove rails, in 
order to baffle their pursuers. The attempt to fire bridges 
failed. It was raining, and the would-be incendiaries had pro¬ 
vided no combustibles beyond what the train supplied. In the 
meanwhile their pursuers picked up a car-load of armed men, 
and came up with the runaway train west of Dalton, where the 
fuel of the stolen engine gave out, bringing the raiders to a dead 
stop. Andrews gave the word, “ Save who can,” and all sprang 
for the woods, but were captured within a few days. Taken 
within the enemy’s lines in citizen’s dress, a court-martial pro¬ 
nounced them spies worthy of death. Andrews, with six of the 
soldiers, also the citizen volunteer, were executed at Atlanta. 
The others, including the two Marietta delinquents who had 
been arrested and identified, were thrown into dungeons; but 
preferring death in any form to the fate which seemed to await 
them, they succeeded one day in overpowering their guards, 
and so escaping to the woods. Eight of the party made their 
way North, while the other six were recaptured and held until 
the spring of 1863, when they were exchanged for a like number 
of Confederate soldiers held by the Union authorities, to answer 
for a similar offence. 

Cushing was not picturesque in figure, though marked by strong 
individual peculiarities. His height was five feet ten inches, 
his form slender, his face grave and thoughtful. With steps 
springy and quick, prominent cheek bones, a piercing eye and 
restless habit, he seemed to his associates like some spirited 
Indian in the garb of a paleface. 

In July, 1862, a lieutenant’s straps were given him for acts of 
bravery performed in his routine duties with the blockading 
squadron off North Carolina. Four months later, at the age of 
twenty, he commanded his first expedition, a gunboat raid into 
New River Inlet, waters wholly in the possession of active 
enemies. His vessel, the Ellis, stranded within range of the 
Confederate batteries, but he brought his crew and equipments 
off in schooners captured before the disaster. A few weeks 
later he entered Little River at night with twenty-five men, in 



JAMES J. ANDREWS. 







BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL ELY S. PARKER. 


BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL HORACE CAPRON. 


BR1GADIER-GENERAL W. A. GORMAN. 



MAJOR-GENERAL CHRISTOPHER C. AUGUR. BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS C. DEVIN. 



» 


MAJOR-GENERAL NELSON A. MILES. 


COLONEL HORACE PORTER. 


BRIGADIER-GENERAL GERSHOM MOTT. 


















































CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


531 


a cutter, dispersed the gun¬ 
ners of a shore battery by 
land assault, and got out 
with the loss of one man. 
Cushing sometimes volun¬ 
teered, and at others was 
chosen, for these fugitive 
exploits. 

In the summer of 1863 it 
was known on the blockad¬ 
ing fleet that the Confeder¬ 
ates possessed a couple of 
rams and some torpedo 
boats in Cape Fear River 
around Wilmington ; and 
on the night of June 25 
Cushing set out from his 
ship Monticello in a cutter, 
with two officers and fifteen 
men, and crossed the bar, 
passing some forts and the 
town of Smithville without 
discovery. On the way his boat nearly collided with a blockade 
runner putting to sea, and also with a Confederate guard-boat. 
The night was dark until the cutter was abreast of a fortified 
bluff known as the Brunswick batteries, when the moon suddenly 
emerged from a cloud and disclosed the strange craft to the 
enemy’s sentinels on shore. Shots were fired at the cutter, and 
the garrison was alarmed. Cushing directed his men to pull to 
the opposite shore and proceed up the river. When within seven 
miles of Wilmington the boat was hidden in a marsh, and the 
party lay all next day within sight of passing blockade runners. 

After dark the cutter took to the wave and captured two row¬ 
boats filled with men, who proved to be fishermen from Wilming¬ 
ton. Cushing impressed them for guides and reconnoitred all 
the batteries and forts on the river. He discovered that the ram 
Raleigh was a hopeless wreck, the ram North Carolina useless 
because her draught didn’t admit of passing the bar to attack the 
U nion blockading fleet, and that the Confederate torpedo boats 
had been destroyed during a scare. On the way to sea the cutter 
was headed off by a gunboat and several small boats filled with 
men. It was night and the moon shone, and Cushing managed 
to turn and double on his pursuers until he got a start on them, 
and by vigorous rowing dashed into the breakers at the Carolina 
shoal, where the enemy dare not follow. The cutter was so 
heavy that she outrode the breakers and escaped to the fleet. 
On this raid two days and three nights were spent in the enemy’s 
territory. 

In the month of February, 1864, the Administration at Wash¬ 
ington proposed a cavalry raid to Richmond. One object was to 
circulate, within the Confederate lines, the President’s amnesty 
proclamation, offering full pardon and a restoration of rights to 
any individuals, or to States, that might wish to return to their 
allegiance. Another was the release of the Union prisoners in 
Belle Isle and Libby prisons. The expedition was intrusted to 
Kilpatrick, who was to have a picked force of four thousand 
cavalrymen and a horse battery. 

It was believed in the Union camps that a surprise could be 
effected, and with this end in view, Kilpatrick set out one Sun¬ 
day night, the 28th of February, for the lower fords of the 
Rapidan. Reaching Spottsylvania unmolested, he sent out from 
here a detachment of five hundred men, under Col. Ulric Dahl- 


gren, toward the Virginia Central Railroad, instructing him to 
enter Richmond from the south, while he himself should attack 
from the north. Through the treachery or ignorance of a negro 
guide engaged by Dahlgren, his column failed to find a ford in 
the James River, which was a serious drawback, because he had 
intended to enter Richmond from the rear, the weakest point. 
On March 1st, Dahlgren was eight miles west of Richmond on 
the James, and Kilpatrick at Atlee’s station, eight miles north, 
the distance between them being only about twelve miles. Kil¬ 
patrick, however, was returning from his raid, and the two forces 
were destined to remain apart and receive severe handling from 
enemies now swarming about them. 

Kilpatrick had passed the outer defences of Richmond by one 
o’clock of the 1st, but on approaching the inner line he was met 
by infantry and artillery. Skirmishing continued for several 
hours, the object of the Union leader being to prolong the situ¬ 
ation until he should hear Dahlgren on the opposite side of the 
city. Finally, as he saw Confederate troops moving in large 
bodies, he withdrew to Atlee’s to pass the night. 

The Confederate cavalry command of Gen. Wade Hampton 
was strung along the railroad between Lee’s army and Rich¬ 
mond, and Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, leading a brigade under 
him, had learned of Kilpatrick’s march and telegraphed to Rich¬ 
mond on the 29th that a raid was abroad. He also had notified 
the troops all along the line, and both himself and Hampton 
followed in Kilpatrick’s path, about a day behind him. On the 
night of the 1st Hampton attacked Kilpatrick’s camp at Atlee’s 
and drove him out. The following morning Kilpatrick started 
down the Peninsula toward White House, on the Pamunkey. 

On the day of Kilpatrick’s farthest advance Dahlgren had 
drawn to within five miles of the city and then retired. After 
dark of that day he, too, started to move down the peninsula 
along the Pamunkey. Placing the main body in reserve, Dahl¬ 
gren rode on ahead with the advance guard, and on the next 
night fell into ambush prepared by a number of cavalry officers 
who were at their homes in the vicinity on recruiting service or 
leave of absence. 

A challenge to halt Dahlgren answered by a threat, and the 
commander of the Confederate outpost gave the order instantly 
to fire. At the first volley Dahlgren fell dead. His men were 
surrounded and held until daylight, when the whole party of 
survivors surrendered. 

The chief victim of this raid, Colonel Dahlgren, was the son 
of Admiral John A. Dahlgren, and at his death was twenty-two 
years old. Early in the war he had served as an artillerist with 
Generals Sigel, Fremont, and Pope in northern Virginia. On 
the retreat of Lee from Gettysburg toward the Potomac, Dahl¬ 
gren was at the front under Kilpatrick, leading about one 
hundred men, and in the encounter with Stuart at Hagars- 
town, July 6th, he received a wound in the foot that cost him 
his leg. Having been commissioned colonel in the cavalry ser¬ 
vice, he returned to the front wearing a cork leg, but was obliged 
to depend on crutches. He volunteered for the expedition in 
which he lost his life. 

Morgan the raider had given the North an exhibition of his 
boldness before he entered upon that celebrated ride across 
Ohio in 1863. 0 'n the 13th of July, 1862, President Lincoln 

telegraphed from Washington to the Union commander in the 
far West, “ They are having a stampede in Kentucky. Please 
look to it.” 

The whole trouble was caused by Colonel Morgan, with a 
couple of cavalry regiments, and a clever telegraph operator 












532 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


named Ellsworth. Ellsworth 
tapped the wires between Nash¬ 
ville and Louisville, and sent a 
bogus despatch to the Union 
authorities in the latter city, 
stating that Morgan was oper¬ 
ating around the former, when, 
in reality, he was riding north¬ 
ward toward the heart of Ken¬ 
tucky. Moving along the rail¬ 
road lines, Union operators 
were everywhere surprised at 
their keys and compelled to 
serve the raider’s commands, 
while Ellsworth manipulated 
the wires. In this way the 
Union forces ahead on the line 
of march were ordered out of 
the road, or drawn off by false 
alarms, and Morgan was able 
to get exact knowledge as to 
the location and numbers of the 
Union garrisons. At George¬ 
town, only sixty miles from 
Cincinnati, he halted for two 
days, producing, by means of 
the wires, a terrible scare in 
Lexington, and drawing all the 
Union forces to that region. 

He himself then moved south¬ 
ward to cross into Tennessee, 

Ellsworth managing to counter¬ 
act the Union orders for 
pursuit during the retreat by 
his bogus telegrams. So the 
raiders finished their long ride without once encountering an 
armed foe. 

Forrest marched to Memphis on his memorable raid in 
August, 1864. with a detachment of his choicest cavalry, num¬ 
bering fifteen hundred men. The leader of the advanced guard 
was his brother, Captain W. H. Forrest, and into his hands the 


general gave the difficult task 
of opening the main road to 
the town. Captain Forrest ap¬ 
proached the outer pickets 
about daylight on Sunday 
morning, knocked the challeng¬ 
ing vidette senseless with the 

o 

handle of his sabre, and with 
ten athletic followers disarmed 
the reserves on the nearest 
post. A musket accidentally 
discharged during the viclce 
aroused others near by, and 
the entire main camp of ten 
thousand soldiers stretching 
around the city soon caught 
the alarm. 

Nothing daunted, Forrest 
galloped his men into the heart 
of the stronghold, bent upon 
creating a panic for ulterior 
purposes of his own, and he 
succeeded. Captain Forrest's 
band, followed by another de¬ 
tachment, dashed down the 
main street to the Gavo House, 
riding over an artillery camp on 
the way, and leaped their horses 
up the steps into the office 
and dining-hall. Still another 
body, led by Colonel Jesse 
Forrest, rode to the headquar¬ 
ters of the Union commandant, 
General Hurlbut, who escaped 
capture by the merest accident. 
In a few moments all Memphis was in an uproar; and the 
raiders, moving in five isolated bodies, were overpowered in 
detail and compelled to unite before they could cut their way 
out. But Forrest had effected his purpose, and the glory of the 
exploit compensated him for the haste with which he was obliged 
to abandon the hazardous game. 



MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD S. HANCOCK. 



CONFEDERATE ARTILLERY CAPTURED AT ATLANTA. 





























WOMAN’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CAUSE. 


At the close of the chapter on the Sanitary and Christian 
Commissions we have given some account of the work of a few 
of the women whose service was connected with or similar to 
that of those organizations. It would require many pages to tell 
the entire story of the contribution of the loyal women to the 
cause of the Union—a most noble story, however monotonous 
and repetitious. It is impossible to publish the records of all 
who served thus, any more than to treat of every citizen who 
stepped into the ranks and, as a simple private, gave his life for 
his country. But a specific account of what was done by some 
of them will give the reader a more vivid idea of the great price 
that was paid for the unity of our country and the perpetuation 
of our government than can be conveyed by any general state¬ 
ment. It is the story of women who did not urge their brothers 
and lovers to go to the field without themselves following as 
far and as closely as the law would let them, and sharing in the 
toils, the privations, and sometimes even the peculiar perils, of 
war. Many of them lost their lives, directly or indirectly, in 
consequence of their labors. 

" On fields where Strife held riot, 

And Slaughter fed his hounds, 

Where came no sense of quiet, 

Nor any gentle sounds, 

They made their rounds. 

" They wrought without repining, 

And, weary watches o’er, 

They passed the bounds confining 
Our green, familiar shore 
Forevermore.” 

It is claimed for Mrs. Almira Fales, of Washington, that she 
was the first woman in the United States to perform any work 


for the comfort of the soldiers during the Rebellion. In Decem¬ 
ber, i860, when South Carolina had seceded and she saw that 
war was very probable, if not certain, she began the preparation 
of lint and hospital stores, in anticipation of the hostilities that 
did not break out until the next April. Her husband was 
employed by the Government, and her sons entered the army. 
During the war she-emptied seven thousand boxes of hospital 
stores, and distributed to the sick and wounded soldiers com¬ 
forts and delicacies to the value of one hundred and fifty thou¬ 
sand dollars. She spent several months at sea attending, to the 
wounded on hospital ships, and during the seven days’ battles 
she was under fire on the Peninsula. One of her sons was killed 
in the battle of Chancellorsville. It was said that she was full 
of a quaint humor, and her visits to the hospitals never failed to 
awaken smiles and bring about a general air of cheerfulness. 

Mrs. Harris, wife of John Harris, M.D., of Philadelphia, was 
one of the earliest volunteers in the work, and one who had, 
perhaps, the widest experience in its various branches. She is 
described as a pale and delicate woman, and yet she endured 
very hard service in the cause of her country. At the beginning 
of the war she became corresponding secretary of the Ladies’ 
Aid Society of Philadelphia, but very soon she went to the field 
as its correspondent and one of its active workers. In the spring 
of 1862 she accompanied the Army of the Potomac to the Penin¬ 
sula, and spent several weeks in the hospitals at Fort Monroe. 
After the battle of Fair Oaks she went on board a transport that 
was given to the wounded, and she thus describes what she saw 
there: “ There were eight hundred on board. Passage-ways, 
state-rooms, floors from the dark and foetid hold to the hurricane 
deck, were all more than filled; some on mattresses, some on 
blankets, others on straw; some in the death-struggle, others 
nearing it, some already beyond human sympathy and help; 







534 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


some in their blood as they had been brought from the battle¬ 
field of the Sabbath previous, and all hungry and thirsty, not 
having had anything to eat or drink, except hard crackers, for 
twenty-four hours. When we carried in bread, hands from every 
quarter were outstretched, and the cry, ‘ Give me a piece, oh, 
please ! I have had nothing since Monday.’ Another, ‘ Noth¬ 
ing but hard crackers since the fight,’ etc. When we 
had dealt out nearly all the bread, a surgeon came in 
and cried, ‘ Do please keep some for the poor fellows 
in the hold, they are so badly off for everything.’ 

So with the remnant we threaded our way through 
the suffering crowd, amid such exclamations as, ‘ Oh ! 
please don’t touch my foot! ’ or, ‘ For mercy’s sake, 
don’t touch my arm ! ’ another, ‘ Please don’t move 
the blanket, I am so terribly cut up,’ down to the 
hold, in which were not less than one hundred and 
fifty, nearly all sick, some very sick. It was like 
plunging into a vapor bath, so hot, close, and full of 
moisture, and then in this dismal place we distributed 
our bread, oranges, and pickles, which were seized 
upon with avidity. And here let me say, at least 
twenty of them told us next day that the pickles had 
done them more good than all the medicine they 
had taken.” In the autumn of 1863, just after the 
battle of Chickamauga, she went to the West and 
began work at Nashville among the refugees. After¬ 
ward, at Chattanooga, she labored in the hospitals 
until her strength was overtaxed, and for several 
weeks her life was despaired of. Coming again to 
the East, in the spring of 1864, she was with the 
Army of the Potomac in its bloody campaign through the 
Wilderness, and afterward with the Army of the Shenandoah. 
In the spring of 1865 she visited North Carolina to care for the 
released prisoners of Andersonville and Salisbury. 

Mrs. Eliza C. Porter, of Chicago, after her eldest son had 
enlisted, devoted herself to the work, first taking charge of the 
Sanitary Commission rooms in that city, and in the spring of 
1862 going to the army hospitals. At Cairo, she and other 
women were accustomed to work from four o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing until ten 
at night. 
They went to 
the front at 
Pit t sbu rgh 
Landing, and 
not only la¬ 
bored in the 
hospitals, but 
did much for 
refugees and 
escaped 
slaves, a n d 
established 
schools f o r 
the blacks. 
In a letter 
written from 
a field hospi¬ 
tal near Chat¬ 
tanooga, in 
January, 1864, 

MRS. MARY A BICKERDYKE. she S a ) r S I 


“ The field hospital 
was in a forest, 
about five miles 
from Chattanooga; 
wood was abundant, 
and the camp was 



.f ' 1 * 

per * % 


MISS MARGARET E. BRECKENRIDGE. 



warmed by immense burning 
‘ log heaps,’ which were the only 
fire-places or cooking-stoves of 
the camp or hospitals. Men 
were detailed to fell the trees 
and pile the logs to heat the air, 
which was very wintry. And 
beside them Mrs. Bickerdyke made soup and toast, tea and coffee, 
and broiled mutton without a gridiron, often blistering her fingers 
in the process. A house in due time was demolished to make 
bunks for the worst cases, and the brick from the chimney was 
converted into an oven, when Mrs. Bickerdyke made bread, yeast 
having been found in the Chicago boxes, and flour at a neigh¬ 
boring mill, which had furnished flour to secessionists through 
the war until now. Great multitudes were fed from these rude 
kitchens. Companies of hungry soldiers were refreshed before 
those open fire-places and from those ovens. On one occasion a 
citizen came and told the men to follow him ; he would show 
them a reserve of beef and sheep which had been provided for 
General Bragg’s army, and about thirty head of cattle and 
twenty sheep was the prize. Large potash kettles were found, 
which were used over the huge log fires, and various kitchen 
utensils for cooking were brought into camp from time to time, 
almost every day adding to our conveniences. The most har¬ 
rowing scenes are daily witnessed here. A wife came on yester¬ 
day only to learn that her dear husband had died the morning 
previous. Her lamentations were heart-breaking. ‘ Why could 
he not have lived until I came? Why?’ In the evening came 
a sister, whose aged parents had sent her to search for their only 
son. She also came too late. The brother had gone to the 
soldier’s grave two days previous. One continued wail of sorrow 
goes up from all parts of this stricken land.” 

Mrs. Mary Bickerdyke, mentioned in Mrs. Porter’s letter, was 
a widow in Cleveland, Ohio, at the opening of the war, and im¬ 
mediately gave herself to the work. Leaving her two little boys 
at home, she went to the front and made herself useful in the 
hospitals at Savannah, Chattanooga, and other points. She was 
a woman of great energy and courage, and it is said that, in 
carrying on her work for the sick and wounded soldiers, she used 



















Campfire and battlefield. 


S35 


to violate military rules without the least hesitation, in order to 
obtain what she wanted. On one occasion, when she found that 
an assistant surgeon had been off on a drunken spree and had 
not made out the special diet list for his ward, leaving the men 
without any breakfast, she not only denounced him to his face 
but caused him to be discharged from the service. Going to 
General Sherman to obtain reinstatement, the surgeon was asked : 
“Who caused your discharge?” “ Why,” said he, “ I suppose 
it was Mrs. Bickerdyke.” “If that is the case,” said General 
Sherman, “ I can do nothing for you. She ranks me.” Finding 
great difficulty in obtaining milk, butter, and eggs for her hospi¬ 
tal in Memphis, she resolved to establish a dairy of her own. 
She therefore went to Illinois, and in one of its farming regions 
obtained stock, by begging, until she had two hundred cows and 
one thousand hens, which she took to Memphis, where the com¬ 
manding general gave her an island in the Mississippi, on which 
she established her dairy. Her clothing was riddled with holes 
from sparks at the open fires where she cooked for the field 
hospitals, and some ladies in Chicago sent her a box of clothing 
for herself, which included two elegant nightdresses trimmed with 
ruffles and lace. Using only some of the plainest garments, she 
traded others with secessionist women of the vicinity for delica¬ 
cies for the hospital. The two nightdresses she reserved to sell 
in some place where she thought they would bring a higher 
price; but on the way to Kentucky she found two wounded 
soldiers in a miserable shanty for whom nothing had been done, 
and, after attending to their wounds and finding that they had 
no shirts, she gave them the nightdresses, ruffles, lace, and all. 

Miss Margaret Elizabeth Breckenridge was a native of Phila¬ 
delphia, but was closely related to the well-known Breckenridge 
family of Kentucky. She entered upon hospital service at the 
West in the spring of 1862, and served constantly as long as her 
health and strength permitted. In June, 1864, while she was 
prostrated by illness, the news came that her brother-in-law, 
Col. Peter A. Porter, had been killed in the battle of Cold Har¬ 
bor, and this proved a greater shock than she could bear. She 
had been especially helpful in cheering up the soldiers in the 
hospitals and writing letters for them. One very young soldier 
who lay wounded said to her: “ Where do you come from ? How 
could such a lady as you are come down here to take care of us 
poor, sick, dirty boys ? ” “I consider it an honor to wait on 
you,” she said, “and wash off the mud you waded through for 
me.” Another man said: “ Please write down your name and 
let me look at it, and take it home, to show my wife who wrote 
my letters and combed my hair and fed me. I don’t believe 
you're like other people.” 

Mrs. Stephen Barker, who was a sister of the attorney-general 
of Massachusetts, and whose husband was chaplain of a regi¬ 
ment from that State, gave nearly the whole four years of the 
war to hospital duty, mostly in and around Washington, where 
at one time she had charge of ten hospitals, which she carefully 
inspected herself with perfect regularity. In her report she 
says: “ I remember no scenes in camp more picturesque than 
some of our visits have presented. The great open army wagon 
stands under some shade-tree, with the officer who has volun¬ 
teered to help, or the regular field agent, standing in the midst 
of boxes, bales, and bundles. Wheels, sides, and every project¬ 
ing point arc crowded with eager soldiers, to see what the ‘ Sani¬ 
tary ’ has brought for them. By the side of the great wagon 
stands the light wagon of the lady, with its curtains all rolled 
up, while she arranges before and around her the supplies she is 
to distribute. Another eager crowd surrounds her, patient, 


kind, and respectful as the first, except that a shade more of 
softness in their look and tone attest the ever-living power 
of woman over the rough elements of manhood. In these hours 
of personal communication with the soldier she finds the true 
meaning of her work. This is her golden opportunity, when by 
look and tone and movement she may call up, as if by magic, 
the pure influences of home, which may have been long banished 
by the hard necessities of war. Quietly and rapidly the supplies 
are handed out for companies A, B, C, etc., first from one wagon, 
then the other, and as soon as a regiment is completed the men 
hurry back to their tents to receive their share, and write letters 
on the newly received paper, or apply the long-needed comb or 
mend the gaping seams in their now ‘ historic garments.’ When 
at last the supplies are exhausted, and sunset reminds us that 
we are yet many miles from home, we gather up the remnants, 
bid good-by to the friendly faces, which already seem like old 
acquaintances, promising to come again to visit new regiments 
to-morrow, and hurry home to prepare for the next day’s work. 
Every day, from the first to the twentieth day of June, our little 
band of missionaries has repeated a day’s work such as I have 
now described." 

Miss Amy M. Bradley, a native and resident of Maine, who 
had been for some years a teacher, volunteered as a nurse at the 
very beginning of the war and went out with the Fifth Maine 
regiment, many of the soldiers in which had been her pupils. She 
became noted for the efficiency and good condition of the hos¬ 
pitals over which she presided, and in December, 1862, was sent 
to what the soldiers called Camp Misery, on the opposite side of 
the Potomac from Washington, as a special relief agent of the 
Sanitary Commission. This camp, as its name indicated, was in 
a deplorable condition ; but she immediately instituted reforms 
which rapidly improved it. She not only obtained supplies for 
the invalids and others who were there, but brought about a 
system of transfer by which more than two thousand of them 
were sent where they could be taken care of more comfortably, 
and she was especially efficient in setting right the accounts of 
men who were suffering from informality in their papers. In 
eight months she procured the reinstatement of one hundred 
and fifty soldiers who had been unjustly dropped from the rolls 
as deserters, and secured their arrears of pay for them. 

M iss Arabella Griffith was a native of New Jersey, and at the 
beginning of the war was engaged to Francis C. Barlow, a prom¬ 
ising young lawyer. On April 19, 1861, Mr. Barlow enlisted as 
a private; on the 20th they were married, and on the 21st he 
went with his regiment to Washington. A week later Mrs. Bar- 
low followed him, and still later she joined in the hospital work 
of the Sanitary Commission. The day after the battle of Antie- 
tam she found her husband badly wounded, and when, in the 
spring, he went to the field again, she accompanied him. At 
Gettysburg he was again wounded and was left within the 
enemy’s lines, but she by great effort managed to get him 
within the Union lines, where she took care not only of him, 
but many others of the wounded men in that great battle. In 
the spring of 1864 she was again in the field, hard at work in the 
hospitals that were nearest the front. A friend who knew her 
at this time writes: “We call her ‘The Raider.’ At Fredericks- 
burg she had in some way gained possession of a wretched- 
looking pony and a small cart, with which she was continually 
on the move, driving about town or country in search of such 
provisions or other articles as were needed for the sick and 
wounded. The surgeon in charge had on one occasion assigned 
to us the task of preparing a building, which had been taken for 


536 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


a hospital, for a large number of wounded who were expected 
immediately. It was empty, containing not the slightest furni¬ 
ture, save a large number of bed-sacks, without material to fill 
them. On requisition a quantity of straw was obtained, but 
not nearly enough, and we were standing in a mute despair 
when Mrs. Barlow came in. ‘I’ll find some more straw,’ was 
her cheerful reply, and in another moment she was urging her 
tired beast toward another part of the town where she remem¬ 
bered having seen a bale of straw earlier in the 
day. Half an hour afterward it had been confis¬ 
cated, loaded upon the little wagon, and brought 
to the hospital.” Her health became so impaired 
in the field that, in July, 1864, she died. Her hus¬ 
band, meanwhile, had risen to the rank of brigadier- 
general, and was known as one of the most gallant 
men in the army. Surgeon W. H. Reed, writing 
of her, said: “In the open field she toiled with 
Mr. Marshall and Miss Gilson, under the scorching 
sun, with no shelter from the pouring rains, with 
no thought but for those who were suffering and 
dying all around her. On the battlefield of Peters¬ 
burg, hardly out of range of the enemy and at 
night witnessing the blazing lines of fire from right 
to left, among the wounded, with her sympathies 
and powers both of mind and body strained to the 
last degree, neither conscious 
that she was working beyond 
her strength nor realizing the 
extreme exhaustion of her 
system, she fainted at her 
work, and found, only when it 
was too late, that the raging 
fever was wasting her life away. 

Yet to the last her sparkling 
wit, her brilliant intellect, her 
unfailing good humor, lighted 
up our moments of rest and 
recreation.” 

Mrs. Nellie M. Taylor (May 
Dewey) was a native of Water- 
town, New York, but settled 
with her husband in New 
Orleans. There, on the break¬ 
ing out of the war, she was 
subjected to all kinds of per¬ 
secution because she was a 
Unionist. On one occasion a 
mob assembled around her 
house, where she was watch¬ 
ing at the bedside of her dying husband, and the leader said : 
“ Madam, we give you five minutes to decide whether you are 
for the South or for the North. If at the end of that time you 
declare yourself for the South, your house shall remain ; if for 
the North, it must come down.” “ Sir,” she answered, “ I will 
say to you and your crowd that I am, always have been, and 
ever shall be, for the Union. Tear my house down if you 
choose ! ” The mob seemed to be a little ashamed of them¬ 
selves at this answer, and finally dispersed without destroying 
the house. Seven times before the capture of the city by the 
National forces her home was searched by self-constituted com¬ 
mittees of citizens, who every time found the National flag 
displayed at the head of her bed ; and on one occasion she was 


actually fired at from a window. Mrs. Taylor gave a large part 
of her time during the war to hard work in the hospitals, and 
in addition she spent many of her earnings for the benefit of 
the sick and wounded soldiers. 

In the spring of 1862, Governor Harvey, of Wisconsin, visited 
General Grant’s army with medicines and other supplies for the 
wounded from his State, and just after the battle of Shiloh 
he was accidentally drowned there. His widow, Cordelia P. 

Harvey, devoted herself to the 
work in which he had lost his 
life, and served faithfully in 
the hospitals of that depart¬ 
ment. One of her most valu¬ 
able achievements consisted in 
persuading the government to 
establish general hospitals in 
the Northern States, where 
suffering soldiers might be 
sent and have a better chance 
of recovery than if kept in the 
hospitals further south. 

Mrs. Sarah R. Johnston was 
a native of North Carolina, 
and at the beginning of the 
war was teaching at Salisbury, 
in that State. When the first 
prisoners were brought to the 
town for confinement in the 
stockade there, the secession¬ 
ist women turned out in car¬ 
riages to escort them through 
the town, and greeted them 
with contemptuous epithets 
as they filed past. The sight of this determined Mrs. 
Johnston to devote herself to the work of ameliorating 
their condition. This subjected her to all sorts of 
insults from her townspeople and broke up her school; 
but she persevered, nevertheless, and earned the grati¬ 
tude of many of the unfortunate men who there suf¬ 
fered from the studied cruelty of the Confederate gov¬ 
ernment. She made up her carpets an^l spare blankets 
into moccasins, which she gave to the prisoners as they 
arrived ; and when they stood in front of her house 
waiting their turn to be mustered into the prison, she 
supplied them, as far as she could, with bread and 
water, for in.many instances they had been on the rail¬ 
road forty-eight hours with nothing to eat or drink. 
The prisoners were not permitted to leave their ranks 
to assist her in obtaining the water, all of which had to 
be drawn from a well with an old-fashioned windlass. On one 
occasion a Confederate sergeant in charge told her that if she 
attempted to do anything for the Yankees or come outside her 
gate, he would pin her to the earth with his bayonet. Paying 
no attention to this, she took a basket of bread in one hand and 
a bucket of water in the other, and walked past him on her 
usual errand. The sergeant followed her and touched her upon 
the shoulder with the point of his bayonet, whereupon she turned 
and asked him why he did not pin her to the earth, as he had 
promised to. Some of the Confederate soldiers called out: 
“ Sergeant, you can't make anything out of that woman ; you 
had better leave her alone.” And then he desisted. 

Mrs. Mary Morris Husband, of Philadelphia, was a grand- 



















CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


537 


daughter of Robert Morris of Revolutionary fame. When her 
son, who had enlisted in the Army of the Potomac, was seriously 
ill on the Peninsula, she went there to take care of him, and 
what she saw determined her to give her services to the country 
as a nurse. She was on one of the hospital transports at Harri¬ 
son’s Landing when the Confederates bombarded it, but kept 
right on with her work as if she were not under fire. She was 
at Antietam immediately after the battle, and remained there 
two months in charge of the wounded, sleeping in a tent in all 
kinds of weather and attending the hospital with perfect regu¬ 
larity. She contrived an ensign for her tent by cutting out the 
figure of a bottle in red flannel and sewing it upon a piece of 
calico, this bottle flag indicating the place where medicines were 
to be obtained. 

In the severe winter of 1862-63 she often left her tent several 
times in the night and visited the cots of those 


hospitals. The latter Mrs. Howland, who died in 1864, was the 
author of a short poem, entitled “ In the Hospital,” which has 
become famous. 

“ I lay me clown to sleep, with little thought or care 
Whether my waking find me here—or there ! 

A bowing, burdened head, that only asks to rest, 
Unquestioning, upon a loving breast. 

My good right hand forgets its cunning now; 

To march the weary march I know not how. 

I am not eager, bold, nor strong—all that is past; 

I am ready not to do at last, at last. 

My half-day’s work is done, and this is all my part— 

I give a patient God my patient heart; 

And grasp His banner still, though all the blue be dim : 

These stripes, as well as stars, lead after Him.” 



who were apparently MlbS EMIL 

near death, to make sure that the nurses did 
not neglect them ; and when diphtheria appeared in the hospital 
and many of the nurses left from fear of it, she remained at her 
post just as if there were no such thing as a contagious disease. 
It is said that in several instances where she believed a soldier 
had been unjustly condemned by court-martial, she obtained 
a pardon or commutation of his sentence by laying the case 
directly before President Lincoln. 

Miss Katherine P. Wormeley, known of late as a translator of 
Balzac’s works, is a native of England. Her father, born in 
Virginia, was an officer in the British Navy. Her mother was a 
native of Boston. At the beginning of the war Miss Wormeley 
was living at Newport. R. I., and almost at once she enlisted in 
the work of aid for the soldiers. When the hospital transport 
service was organized, in the summer of 1862, she was one of 
the first volunteers for that branch of the service. Later she 
had charge of a large hospital in Rhode Island, which held two 
thousand five hundred patients. 

Among others who volunteered for the hospital transport ser¬ 
vice were Mrs. Joseph Howland, whose husband was colonel of 
the Sixteenth New York regiment, and her sister, Mrs. Robert 
S. Howland, whose husband was a clergyman working in the 


pardons These two ladies had 

two unmarried sisters, Jane C. and Georgiana 
M. Woolsev. who also were in the service. Miss Georgiana 
Woolsev wrot|some entertaining letters from the seat of war, 
in one of which she tells of some women in Gettysburg who, like 
Jennie Wade, kept at their work of making bread for the soldiers 
while the battle was going on. One of them had refused to leave 
the house or go into the cellar until a third shell passed through 
the room, when, having got the last loaf into the oven, she ran 
down the stairs. “ Why did you not go before ?” she was asked. 
“ Oh, you see,” she answered, “ if I had, the rebels would ’a’ come 
in and daubed the dough all over the place.” These ladies were 
cousins of Miss Sarah C. Woolsev, who is now, under her pen- 
name of Susan Coolidge, well known as a writer for the young. 
She also served for some time in the hospitals. 

Anna Maria Ross, of Philadelphia, was known as a most ener¬ 
getic worker in the hospitals, chiefly in what was called the 
Cooper Shop Hospital of Philadelphia, of which she was princi¬ 
pal until, from overwork and anxiety, she died in December, 
1863. 

Miss Man,’ J. Safford, a native of Vermont, was living in Cairo, 
Ill., when the war began, and at once enlisted in the work 
of aid for the soldiers. Immediately after the battle of Shiloh 












533 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


she went to the front with a large supply of hospital stores, and 
labored there day and night for three weeks, when she came 
North with a transport loaded with wounded men. She is said 
to have been the first woman in the West to engage in this work. 
The hardships that she endured caused a disease of the spine, 
and at the end of a year and a half she broke down, and had to 
be sent to Europe for treatment. 

Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, of Iowa, was appointed sanitary 
agent for that State, and is said to have been the originator of 
the diet kitchens attached to the hospitals. The object of these 
was to have the food for the wounded and sick prepared in a 
skilful manner and administered according to surgeons’ orders, 
and they were a very efficient branch of the hospital service. 

Another Iowa woman who devoted herself to the service was 
Miss Melcenia Elliott. She served in the hospitals in Tennessee, 
and afterward in St. Louis had charge of the Home for Refugees. 
Here she established a school, and instituted many reforms in 
the direction of cleanliness and industry. It is related that in 
Memphis, when she was refused admission to one of the hospi¬ 
tals where a neighbor’s son was ill, she every night scaled a high 
fence in the rear of the building and managed to get into the 
ward where she could attend to the poor boy until he died. 

Miss Clara Davis, of Massachusetts, was one of the earliest 
volunteers, and she was so assiduous in her labors and so cheer¬ 
ful in her manners in the hospital that the soldiers came to look 
upon her with most profound admiration and affection. One of 
them was heard to say, “ There must be wings hidden beneath 
her cloak.” Her labors -were mainly with the Army of the 
Potomac, and she continued them until an attack of typhoid 
fever made further work of the kind impossible. 

Airs. R. H. Spencer, of Oswego, N. Y., whose husband enlisted 
in the One Hundred and Forty-seventh New York regiment, 
followed that organization to the front, and made herself useful 
as a nurse and hospital attendant. On the march toward Gettys¬ 
burg she rode a horse which carried, besides herself, bedding, 
cooking utensils, clothing, and more than three hundred pounds 
of supplies for the sick and wounded. While that great battle 
was in progress, Mrs. Spencer, a part of the time actually under 
fire, established a field hospital in which sixty wounded men were 
treated. One day she discovered a townsman of her own who had 
been shot through the throat, and whose case was pronounced 
hopeless by the surgeon, as he could swallow nothing. Mrs. 
Spencer took him in hand, and asked him if he could do without 
food for a week. The man, who was young and strong, gave 
signs that he could. “ Then,” said she, “ do as I tell you, and you 
shall not die.” She procured a basin of pure cold water, and 
directed him to keep the wound continually wet, which he did, 
until in a few days the inflammation subsided and the edges of 
the wound could be closed up. After which she began to feed 
him carefully with broth, and every day brought further im¬ 
provement until he entirely recovered. When the ammunition 
barge exploded at City Point a piece of shell struck her in the 
side, but inflicted only a heavy bruise. 

Mrs. Harriet Foote Hawley, wife of Gen. Joseph R. Hawley, 
of Connecticut, did much work in the hospitals on the Carolina 
coast, whither she had gone in the first instance to engage in 
teaching the freedmen. At Wilmington, where typhoid fever 
broke out, she remained at her post when many others were 
frightened away. In the last month of the war she was injured 
on the head by the overturning of an ambulance, and this 
rendered her an invalid for a long time. 

Miss Jessie Home, a native of Scotland, entered the service 


as a hospital nurse at Washington and continued there for two 
years, making many friends and doing a vast amount of good, 
until, from overwork, she was struck down by disease. 

Mrs. Sarah P. Edson entered the service during the first year 
of the war, and was assigned to the general hospital at Win¬ 
chester, Va. In the spring of 1862 she was with McClellan’s 
army on the Peninsula, and after the battle of Williamsburg, 
learning that her son was among the wounded, she walked 
twelve miles to find him, apparently dying, where, with other 
wounded men, he was greatly in need of care. She worked 
night and day to alleviate their sufferings, and brought some¬ 
thing like cleanliness and order out of the dreadful condition in 
which she found them. In the ensuing summer she passed 
through a long and severe illness in consequence of her labors. 
On her recovery she formed a plan for the training of nurses, 
and, after her experiment had been tried, an official of the 
medical department declared “ that it was more than a success, 
it was a triumph.” 

Miss Maria M. C. Hall, of Washington, was associated with 
Mrs. Fales in hospital work, and went through the four years 
of it with unfailing energy and enthusiasm. She finally be¬ 
came general superintendent of the Naval Academy Hospital 
at Annapolis. After the war she wrote: “ I mark my hospital 
days as my best ones, and thank God for the way in which He 
led me into the good work, and for the strength which kept me 
through it all. ’ 

Mrs. A. H. Gibbons was a daughter of Isaac T. Hopper, the 
famous Quaker philanthropist, and wife of James Sloane Gib¬ 
bons, who wrote the famous song, “ We are coming, Father 
Abraham, three hundred thousand more.” With her eldest 
daughter (afterward Mrs. Emerson) she went to Washington in 
the autumn of 1861, and entered upon hospital service. One 
day they discovered a small hospital near Falls Church, where 
about forty men were ill of typhoid fever, and one young 
soldier, who seemed to be at the point of death, appealed to 
them, saying: “ Come and take care of me, and I shall get well ; 
if you do not come, I shall die.” Finding that the hospital was 
in a wretched condition, they got leave to take it in charge, and 
presently had it in excellent order, with a large number of the 
patients recovering. These ladies were on duty at Point Look¬ 
out for over a year, and there they were obliged to oppose and 
evade the officers in various ways, in order to assist the escaped 
slaves, whom these officers were only too ready and anxious to 
return to slavery. While they were engaged in this work, their 
home in New York was sacked by the mob in the draft riots. 

Mrs. Jerusha R. Small, of Cascade, Iowa, followed her hus¬ 
band, who enlisted at the beginning of the war, and became a 
nurse in the regimental hospitals. At the battle of Shiloh, the 
tent in which she was caring for a number of wounded men, 
among whom was her husband, was struck by shells from the 
enemy’s guns, and she was obliged to get her patients away as 
fast as she could to an extemporized hospital beyond the range 
of fire. After the most arduous service, extending over several 
weeks with no intermission, she was struck down by disease and 
died. To one who said to her in her last hours, “ You did 
wrong to expose yourself so,” she answered, “No, I feel that I 
have done right. I think I have been the means of saving some 
lives, and that of my dear husband among the rest; and these I 
consider of far more value than mine, for now they can go and 
help our country in its hour of need.” She was buried with 
military honors. 

Another lady who accompanied her husband to the field was 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD. 


539 


the wife of Hermann Canfield, colonel of the Seventy-first Ohio 
regiment, who was killed in the battle of Shiloh. After taking 
his body to their home, she returned to the army and continued 
her hospital service until the close of the war. 

\\ hen the Rev. Shepard \\ ells and his wife were driven from 
East Tennessee because of their loyalty to the government, they 
went to St. Louis, where he engaged in the work of the Christian 
Commission, and she entered the hospital and became superin¬ 
tendent of a special diet kitchen, which did an immense amount 
of work for the cause. 

Mrs. E. C. \\ itherell, of Louisville, Ky., was another of those 
who devoted themselves to the merciful and patriotic work in 
the hospitals at the expense of their lives. She was head nurse 
on a hospital steamer in the Mississippi until she was stricken 
down with fever and died in July, 1862. Still another of those 
was Miss Phebe Allen, a daughter of Iowa, who served in a hos¬ 
pital at St. Louis until she died in the summer of 1864. Mrs. 
Edwin Greble, mother of Lieut. John T. Greble, who was killed 
in the battle of Big Bethel, and of another son who died in the 
army, of fever, devoted herself to hospital service and to prepar- 
ing garments and blankets for the soldiers. 

Mrs. Isabella Fogg, of Maine, was another of those who pushed 
their wav into the service before it was organized, and found 
some difficulty" in so doing. But she got there at last, and took 
part in the hospital transport service in the waters of Chesapeake 
Bay. After the battle of Chancellorsville, she was serving in a 
temporary hospital at United States Ford when it was shelled 
by the Confederates. Her son was in the Army of the Shenan¬ 
doah, and was badly wounded in the battle of Cedar Creek. 
While performing her duties on a Western hospital boat, in 
charge of the diet kitchen, she fell through a hatchway" and 
received injuries that disabled her for life. 

Mrs. E. E. George, of Indiana, when she applied for a place 
in the service, was refused on the ground that she was too old. 
But in spite of her advanced years she insisted upon enlisting 
in the good cause, and in Sherman’s campaign of 1864 she had 

charge of the Fif¬ 
teenth Army Corps 
hospital, and in the 
battles before At¬ 
lanta she was several 
times unde r fire. 
The next spring she 
was on duty at Wil¬ 
mington. X. C., when 
eleven thousand pris¬ 
oners released from 
S a 1 is b u ry were 
brought there in the 
deplorable condition 
that was common to 
those who had been 
in Carolina in Con¬ 
federate stockades. 
Her incessant labors 
in behalf of those un¬ 
fortunate men pros¬ 
trated her, and she 
died. 

Large numbers of 
the troops raised in 
the Eastern and 


Middle States passed 
through Philadelphia 
on their way' to the 
seat of war,and some 
philanthropic ladies 
of that city estab¬ 
lished a refreshment 
saloon where meals 
were furnished free 
to soldiers who were 
either going to the 
front or going home 
on furlough or be¬ 
cause disabled. 

A m ong the most 
assiduous workers 
here was Mary B. 

Wade, widow of a 
sea captain, who, 
despite her seventy- 
years. was almost 
never absent, night 
or dav, through the 
whole four years. 

Another widow who gave herself to the cause was Henrietta 
L. Colt (nee Beckham), a native of Albany County-, X T . Y., whose 
husband was a well-known lawyer. She labored in the Western 
hospitals and on the river hospital steamers, looking especially- 
after the Wisconsin men, as she was for some time a resident of 
Milwaukee. She wrote in one of her letters: “I have visited 
seventy-two hospitals, and would find it difficult to choose the 
most remarkable among the many heroisms I every day- wit¬ 
nessed. I was more impressed by the gentleness and refinement 
that seemed to grow up in the men when suffering from horrible 
wounds than from anything else. It seemed to me that the 
sacredness of the cause for which they offered up their lives gave 
them a heroism almost superhuman.” 

Among the great fairs that were held for the benefit of the 
Sanitary- Commission, that in Brooklyn!, X. Y., was one of the 
most successful. It paid into the treasury of the Commission 
three hundred thousand dollars and furnished supplies valued at 
two hundred thousand more. This was the work of the Brook¬ 
lyn Women's Relief Association, of which Mrs. James S. T. 
Stranahan was president. Her efforts in this work broke down 
her health, and she died in the first y-ear after the war. 

Miss Hattie A. Dada, of New York, was one of the women 
who volunteered as nurses immediately after the first battle of 
Bull Run. From that date she was continually- in service till 
the war closed—her time being about equally- divided between 
the Eastern and Western armies. After General Banks’s retreat 
in the Shenandoah Valley, she and Miss Susan E. Hall, remain¬ 
ing with the wounded, became prisoners to the Confederates 
‘and were held about three months. From that time these two 
ladies were inseparable, their last two years of service being in 
the scantily furnished hospitals at Murfreesboro, Tenn., one of 
the most difficult fields for such work. 

At the beginning of the war, Miss Emily- E. Parsons, daughter 
of Prof. Theophilus Parsons, of Cambridge, Mass., entered a 
hospital in Boston as pupil and assistant to educate herself for 
work among the soldiers. A year and a half later she volun¬ 
teered and was sent to Fort Schuyler, near New York. Early- 
in 1863 she went to St. Louis, where she served in the hospitals 




I 

MRS MARIANNE F. STRANAHAN. 


MISS MARY J SAFFORD 













540 


CAMPFIRE AND BATTLEFIELD . 


and on the hospital steamers. The Benton Hospital, under her 
superintendence, became famous for its efficiency and its large 
percentage of recoveries. 

Next after the men who commanded armies, the name of Gen. 
James B. Ricketts is one of the most familiar in the history of 
the war. When he was gravely wounded at Bull Run and taken 
prisoner, his wife managed to make her way to him, sharing his 
captivity, and by careful nursing saved his life. He was ex¬ 
changed in December, 1S61, and his wife afterward devoted her¬ 
self to the care of the wounded in the Army of the Potomac. 

M rs. Jane R. Munsell, of Maryland, entered upon the service 
when she saw the wounded of the battle of Antietam, and 
devoted both her life and her property to it until she died of 
the incessant labor. 

Besides these women who served in the hospitals, there were 
others who performed quite as important work in organizing the 


means of supply—in holding fairs, in obtaining materials and 
workers and superintending the manufacture of garments and 
other necessary articles, and forwarding them to the right places 
at the right time. One of the foremost of these was Mrs. Mary 
A. Livermore, a native of Boston, who afterward became emi¬ 
nent as a pulpit orator. She organized numerous aid societies 
in the Northwestern States, made tours of the hospitals in the 
Mississippi valley, to find out what was needed and how the 
supplies were being disposed of, and was most active in getting 
up and carrying through to success the great Northwestern 
Sanitary Fair in Chicago. There was hardly a city in the 
North in which one or more similar women did not rise to the 
occasion and do similar work, though on a smaller scale. 

Note. —For many of the facts related in this chapter we are indebted to Dr. 
L. P. Brackett’s excellent volume on “ Woman's Work in the Civil War.” 



INTERIOR OF HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTED BY THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 
















INDEX. 

Besides the usual abbreviations for titles and given names of persons, and for names of States, 

N stands for National or Federal, C for Confederate, port, for portrait, inf. for infantry, cav. for cavalry, art’y for artillery. 


“ A ” tents, 496. 

Abbott, John S. C , quoted. 513. 517. 

-, Joseph C., N b'v’t brig.-gen., port , 440. 

-,-. N capt., 22d Ill.. 117. 

Abb's Valley, W. Va.. captured, 339. 

Abercrombie, John J.. N brig.-gen . Falling 
Waters, in: port., 159. 

Abingdon, Va., 223. 

Acquia, Va., 165 

Acton, Thomas C., New York draft riots, 285. 

-, -, N maj., killed, Lookout Mountain, 

3i3- 

Adams. Charles Francis, U. S. minister to Eng¬ 
land ; letter from Sec'y Sumner, 372-374 : in¬ 
structed by Lincoln. 374. 

-, John. C brig.-gen.. killed, 430. 

-. John Quincy. President of the U. S., 

quoted on slavery, 183. 

--. of Mississippi, C spy. 505. 

-.-, N aid to Force. Atlanta, 389. 

Advance on Petersburg, The, 397-400. 

Aiken’s Landing. Va.. 322. 

Alabama secedes, 9; 14th inf. captured by- 
Sherman, 386. 

-- regimental losses. 6th, 16th. 22d, 58th, 

4ist, 3d, 26th inf., 483, 484. 

-. C cruiser. 371; destroyed by “ Kear- 

sarge." 372 ; ill.. 373 ; Sumner's letter, 374. 

Albemarle. C ram, Plymouth, N. C., 434 ; de¬ 
stroyed oy Cushing, 435. 

Albemarle Sound, N. C., 67, 71. 72. 

Alcott, Louisa M., port.. 324 ; hospital services, 
326. 

Alden, James, N rear-adm.. Mobile Bay, 393. 

Aldie, Va., skirmishes. 250. 267. 

Alexander, Barton S., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 
147- 

-, E. Porter, C brig.-gen., port., 265. 

Alexandria, La., 375. 

-, Va., 25, 49, 52, 165, 353, 402. 

Allatoona Pass, Ga., 385 : ill., 421. 

Alleghany Mountains. 75, 100. 

Allen, Henry W., C maj.-gen., port , 508. 

-, Phebe, Miss, 539.' 

Allen's Farm, Va.. action, 158. 

“ All quiet along the Potomac to-night,” Mrs. 
Ethel Lynn Beers, 126. 

American Hotel, Richmond. Va.. 454. 

Ames. Adelbert. N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 440. 

Anderson, Charles, N col., Lebanon. Tenn., 229. 

-, Rev. Galusha, 41. 

--, George B., C brig.-gen., killed, Antie- 

tam, 180. 

-, George T . C brig.-gen.. Gettysburg, 

2591 Spottsylvania, 358. 

-. John T., C col., residence destroyed by 

Hunter, 319. 

-, Joseph R., C brig.-gen . 319. 

--, J. Patton, C maj.-gen , La Vergne, 

Tenn., 227. 

-. Paulding, C, Munfordville, 115. 

-, Richard H., C lieut.-gen., Antietam, 

180 ; port., 195: Shenandoah, 406. 

--, Robert, N b'v’t maj. gen., ports., 7, it : 

sent to command Charleston Harbor. 10; 
moves from Moultrie to Sumter. 12 ; defends, 
15 ; surrenders and evacuates Sumter, 17. 18; 
takes command in Kentucky-, 41. 

-,-, N pvt., Gettysburg, 260. 

Andersonville, Ga.. prison camps, 321; ill., 315 ; 
323, 390, 524, 525. 

Andre, a modern (S. B. Davis, C lieut.), 470-472. 

Andrew, John A., gov. of Mass., port , 18; 
early equips State militia. 23 : influence. 443. 

Andrews. Christopher C.. N b’v’t maj.-gen., 
Fitzhugh's Woods, Ark.. 437. 

-, James J., N spy, port., 529 ; execution, 

529. 

Annapolis, Md. 24. 


Anthony, Daniel R.. N col., attitude toward 
slavery, 185. 

Antietam. Md., battle, 177-179, 350 ; map of bat¬ 
tle, 179 ; Sanitary- Commission, 325, 406 : losses 
at battle, 477. 

Antietam campaign. The, 175-180. 

Anti slavery standard. 128. 

Apache Canon, N. M . battle. 233,234. 

Appalachicola, Fla.. 10. 

Appomattox C. H . Va..ill., 492 ; Sheridan stops 
Lee's retreat at. 446 : Lee surrenders at. 446 : 
McLean house, where Lee surrendered, ills., 
447. 494- 

Aqueduct Bridge. Potomac River, ill., 473. 

Arago. N ship, 18. 

Archer, James J., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 251, 
2 67. 

Arkadelphia, Ark., engagement, 343. 

Arkansas secedes, 35 : guerilla warfare. 79 ; ist 
cav., Fayetteville. 344 ; ist (C) inf. losses, 484. 

-. C gunboat, destroyed, 270. 

Arkansas Post, Ark., captured by McClernand, 
272, 273. 

Arlington Heights, Va., 25. 

Armistead, Lewis A., C brig.-gen., Malvern 
Hill, 159 ; Antietam, 180; killed, Gettysburg, 
257. 45 1 - 

Armstrong,-, C capt.. killed, Belmont, 122. 

--, Frank C.. C brig.-gen., port., 210 ; Brit¬ 
ton's Lane, Tenn., 227. 

Army organization. North and South, 47-49. 

Arnold. VV. A., N capt , Bristoe Sta., Va.. 334. 

Arthur. Chester A., president of the U. S., Por¬ 
ter relief bill vetoed, 170. 

Asboth. Alexander, N b'v’t maj.-gen., Pea 
Ridge, 80 ; port., 81. 

Ashby, Henry. C col.. Somerset. Ky., 339. 

-. Turner, C brig.-gen.. Bolivar Heights, 

113 ; Winchester, 216; killed, Harrisonburg, 
216. 

Ashby's Gap, Va., 333. 

Aspinwall, William H., 15. 

Astor House, New York, ill., 228. 

Atlanta, Ga.. 307, 353: Sherman’s campaign, 
383-390; " Gate City,” 387 ; occupied by Sher¬ 
man. 390; ills, of battle. 384, 516 : military 
depot. 419 : shops and depot destroyed, 421; 
ill. of works. 424, 426 : ill., 428. 

-, C ironclad, surrendered to DuPont, 289, 

290. 

Atlanta campaign. The, 383-390. 

Atlantic Monthly-, quoted, 395, 425-427. 

Atlee’s Station, Va., Kilpatrick's raid, 531. 

Augur, Christopher C., N maj. gen., defence of 
Washington. 403 : port., 530. 

Augusta, Ga.. 10. 389. 

Averell. William W., N b’v't maj.-gen., 317; 
Kelly's Ford. 332; cavalry raid. Va. and W. 
Va.. 333 ; port.’. 335 : Winchester, Va.. 404; 
Shenandoah. 406, 407; Crockett’s Cove, W. 
Va., 433. 

Avery-, -, N lieut.. Tranter’s Creek, N. C., 

218. 

Averysboro’, N. C., battle, 441. 

Ay-res, Romej-n B., N b'v’t maj.-gen., port.. 443. 

Eabcock, Orville E.. N b'v’t brig.-gen., port., 

527. 

Eacon, A. G., N capt., killed, Sacramento, 115. 

Badean. Adam. N brig.-gen., port., 277. 

Bahama Channel. 63. 

Bahia, Brazil, “ Florida ” captured, 372. 

Bailey, Joseph, N b’v't maj. gen., Grand Ecore. 
La., 381, 382. 

-, Theodorus, N commodore, at N. O., 

port.. 93. 95. 

Bailey’s dam. Red River, ill., 380, 381, 382. 

Baird, Absalom. N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., 307. 

Baker. Edward D., N col., killed, Ball s Bluff, 
109 ; port., no, 451. 


Baker, L. C.. N col., captures Booth, 511 ; ad 
ventures. 511. 

Balaklava, charge, compared with Gettysburg, 
476- 

Bald Hill {Atlantal, battle, 387, 388. 

Baldwin. Philemon P., N col., killed, Chicka- 
mauga, 299. 

-. Judge, quoted, 315. 

Balloons, 162. 

Ball's Bluff, Va., battle, 109, no. 

Baltic, N transport, 15, 17. 

Baltimore. Md.. 6th Mass, regiment attacked in. 
5. 23; Republican convention, 412. 

Baltimore and Ohio R. R., 28, 45, 47, 320, 337, 
406. 

Banks, Nathaniel P.. N maj.-gen.. Peninsular 
campaign. 1545 Pope’s campaign. 163-168; 
Cedar Mountain, 164 : Shenandoah Valley, 
216; Fort Hudson. 276,308.345 : under Grant. 
351.353: Shreveport. 375 : ill.. 377 ; Sabine 
Cross Roads, 377; port., 378; Pleasant Hill, 
378-381. 

Banks’s Ford, Chancellorsville, 243. 

Barboursville, W. Va., 113. 

Barker. Mrs. Stephen. 535. 

Barksdale, William. C brig.-gen., killed, Getty-s- 
burg. 254. 259. 451. 

Barlow-. Arabella G. 'Mrs. Francis C.i, hospital 
services and death, 326, 467, 470. 535. 

-, C. J., quoted, 317. 

-, Francis C., N maj.-gen.. Chancellors¬ 
ville. 245; port., 255; Spottsylvania. 359; 
Bethesda Church, 365; Cold Harbor, 365; 
Gettysburg anecdote. 465-467,479. 

Barnard. John G., N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 159 ; 
quoted, 162. 

Barnes, James, N b’v’t maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 
259- 

-, Joseph K , N b'v't maj.-gen., port, 414. 

Barnett's Ford, Va., 335. 

Barney-, N gunboat, 348. 

Barnum, Henry A., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 
414. 

Barron. Samuel. C flag officer. 68. 

Bartlett, Joseph J., N b’v't maj.-gen , port., 192, 
398. 

-, William C.,N b’v't brig.-gen.,port.. 386. 

Bartlett's Mills, Va., 336. 

Barton, Clara. Fort Wagner, 291; hospital ser¬ 
vices. 326 ; port., 533. 

-. Seth M., C brig.-gen., port., 281. 

-, William B.. N col., 220. 

Bartow-, F. S., C col., at Bull Run, 55, 451. 

Bate. William B., C maj.-gen., port., 313. 

Bates, Edward, N attorney-gen., port., 6. 

-. Samuel P., Hooker's comments on Chan¬ 
cellorsville, 243. 

Batesville. Ark., action, 343. 

Baton Rouge, La.. 10, 270, 274. 

Battery Gregg. Morris Island, 290, 294. 

-Lamar, 219. 

-Reynolds, Fort Wagner, ill., 291. 

-Robinette, Corinth, 207. 

Battle Creek, Ala., 301. 

“ Battle Cry of Freedom, The,” George F. 
Root. 138. 

“ Battle Hymn of the Republic,The,” Mrs. Julia 
Ward Howe, 127. 

Battle of Chattanooga. The, 305-314. 

-of Mobile Bay, The, 391-396. 

Baxter. Henry. N b’v’t maj.-gem, Gettysburg, 
252 : port, 255 : Wilderness, 357. 

Bayard, George D.. N brig -gen . Cedar Moun¬ 
tain. 164 ; Harrisonburg, 216 ; killed, Freder¬ 
icksburg. 196; port., 484. 

Bayou Lafourche. La., 382. 

-Teche, La., operations, 345, 347. 

Beall, John Y., C, Lake Erie raid, 528. 

-, Richard L. T., C brig.-gen., port., 265. 


Bean. William S., N quar -mas.-sergt.. Chicka- 
mauga, 303. 

Beaufort, N. C., 72, 87. 193. 

Beauregard, P. G. T., C lieut.-gen.. port.. 15; 
attacks and captures Sumter, 15-17, 49; in 
command C troops. 52; at Bull Run. 53, 54, 
57; Corinth, 100; Shiloh. 101-108; succeeded 
by Bragg, 200, 206; comment on Secession- 
ville, 219 : comment on the " Black Flag,” 235 j 
siege of Charleston, 289 : cartoon, 461. 

Beaver, James A., N b‘v*t brig.-gen., port., 
368. 

Beaver Dam Creek. Va., battle, 155. 

Bee, Barnard E , C brig, gen., port., 60 : at Bull 
Run > 53. 55- 45'- 
Beech Grove, Ky., 73. 

Beecher. Henry Ward, Rev., at Sumter, 17, 18 ; 
in England, £6 ; port., 186. 

Beekman,-, N capt., Haw-es’s Shop, Va., 

363. 364- 

Beers. Mrs Ethel Lynn,’• All quiet along the 
Potomac to-night,” 126. 

-,-, N maj., Jonesville, Va., 433. 

Beginning of bloodshed. The. 29-36. 

Beiral,-, N capt., Ball's Bluff, no. 

Belle Isle, Va., prison camps, 321, 323, 531. 

Belle Plain, Va.. ill , 352, 362. 

Belleville, O.. action, 297. 

Beilis,-, N lieut., Hawes’s Shop, Va., 364. 

Bellows. Henry- W.. Rev., Sanitary Commission, 
324-327 : port., 326. 

Belmont, Mo., engagement, 122. 

Bendix, John E., N b’v’t brig.-gen., at Big 
Bethel, 45. 

Benedict, Lewis, N col., killed, Pleasant Hill, 
379- 

Benham, Henry W., N b'v’t maj.-gen.. W. Va., 
113, 114 ; Charleston Harbor, 219. 

Benjamin, Judah P.. C atty.-gen.. sec’y of war, 
sec’y of state, port., 26 ; order concerning 
prisoners, 316. 

Bennett. James Gordon, cartoon, 462. 

-,-, police officer, New- York draft riots, 

285. 

Benning, Henry L., C brig.-gen., Wilderness, 

357- 

Benton, William P., N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 

392. 

Bentonville, N. C., battle, 441. 

Berdan, Hiram, N b’v’t maj.-gen., Manassas 
Gap, Va„ 333 ; port., 336. 

Bermuda Hundred. Va., occupied by Butler, 397. 
Berry, Hiram G., N maj.-gen., killed, Chancel¬ 
lorsville, 242, 246 : port., 245. 

-,-, N capt., 318. 

Berryville, Va., 334, 406. 

Bethesda Church, Va., action, 365. 

Bickerdyke, Mary A., Mrs., 534 ; port.. 534. 
Bidw-ell, Daniel D., N brig.-gen., killed, Cedar 
Creek, Va.. 410. 

Bienville, N gunboat, 71. 

Big Bethel, Va., 24 ; battle of, 45 : ill , 46. 

Big Black River, Miss., engagement, 275 ; ill., 
278. 

Big Creek Gap, Tenn . action, 225. 

Big Hill. Ky.. battle, 224. 

Big Mound. Dak., engagement. 348. 

Big sandy. Ga., Andrews's raid, 529. 
dig Sandy River, Ky., 73. 

Billings,-, N paymaster, recaptured. 322. 

Birge. Henry W., N b'v’t maj.-gen., Irish Bend, 
La., 345. 

Birkenhead, Eng., “ Alabama ” built, 371. 
Birney, David B.. N maj gen., Chantilly, 169; 
Fredericksburg, 195 : Gettysburg. 252-265; 
ort.. 255 ; Robertson’s Tavern, Va . 336 ; 
pottsylvania, 362 : advance on Petersburg, 
397 i port., 401. 

-, James G., port.. 187. 

Bissell, Josiah W., N col., Island No. 10, 99. 




































INDEX 


54 2 


Black Chapter, The, 315-323. 

'• Black Flag, The,” Paul Hamilton Hayne, 133. 

Black flag displayed, 316. 

Black Walnut Creek, Mo., 122. 

Blackburn’s Ford (Bull Run), 53, 54 ; ill., 167. 

Blackman, Albert M., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 
44°. 

Blackwood’s Magazine, England, 268. 

Blair, Austin, gov. of Mich., port., 18. 

--, Francis P., Jr., N maj.-gen., 38,41: 

Vicksburg campaign, 272 ; Atlanta campaign, 
387, 513 ; (sketch), 515 ; port., 515. 

-, Montgomery, N Postmaster-gen., port., 

6 ; criticised by Gurowski, 236, 237. 

-,-, Rev., murdered, 315. 

Blake, Henry N., N capt., 171 ; Chancellorsville, 
245; quoted, 353. 

Blakeslee, ——, N lieut., quoted, 434. 

Blenheim, battle of, 104. 

Blenker, Louis, N brig, gen., 49; port., 53 ; at 
Bull Run, 60, 143. 

Blockade of Southern ports, 67. 

Bloodgood, Abraham, 84. 

Bloody Lane, Antietam, 178. 

Blooming Gap, W. Va., battle, 217. 

Blount’s Farm, Ala., engagement, 295. 

Elountsville, Tenn., action, 341. 

Blue’s Gap, W. Va., action, 216. 

Blunt, G. W., 15. 

--, James G., N maj.-gen., Old Fort Wayne, 

Ark., 231, 232 ; Cane Hill, Ark., 232, 233 ; 
Prairie Grove, Ark., 233; Fort Smith, Ark., 
344 - 

Boggs, Charles S., N rear-adm., at N. O., port., 
93 - 

Bohlen, Henry, N brig.-gen., port., 480. 

Bolivar, Mo., 119. 

-, Tenn., 206; skirmish, 227, 437. 

-Heights, Va., 109 ; engagement, m. 

Bolton, Miss., 275. 

Bond, F S., N maj., Chickamauga, 301. 

Bonham, Milledge L., C brig.-gen., 52; at Bull 
Run, 53. 

“ Bonnie Blue Flag, The,” Harry McCarthy, 
136. 4 T 3 * 

l'oomer, George B., N col., Iuka, 204. 

Booneville, Mo., action, 41, 405. 

Boonsborough, Md., 175; battle, 176. 

Booth, John Wilkes, port., 510; reward offered 
for arrest, 510; captured, 511. 

-, Lionel F., N maj., killed, Fort Pillow, 

320 - 

Border States, 36-47. 

Boston Mountains, Ark., 80; engagement, 232. 

Boteter, A. R., residence burned, 319. 

Bottom's Bridge, Va., 433. 

Bottsford,-, N lieut., Clark’s Hollow, W. 

Va., 218. 

Boulger, Robert E., N pvt. 23d Mich, inf., 520. 

Bowers, Theodore S., N col., port., 31. 

Bowling Green. Ky., 75, 76, 209 ; evacuated, 223. 

Bowne,-, N lieut., Hawes’s Shop,Va., 364. 

Boyd, Belle. C spy, port., 506. 

Boynton, H.V. N., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 302. 

Bracht,-, N maj., 18th Ky., Mt. Sterling, 

224. 

Bradford, W. F., N maj., killed, Fort Pillow, 
320. 

Bradley, Amy, hospital services, 326, 535. 

Bradley,-, N maj., Big Mound, Dak., 348. 

Bradyville, Tenn., action, 340. 

Bragg, Braxton, C gen., Corinth, 100 ; port., 104, 
192 ; succeeds Beauregard, 200 ; Perryville, 
201, 203, 206 ; Murfreesboro’, 209-213, 223, 
295; Chickamauga, 297-303; Chattanooga, 
305-311 ; superseded by Johnston, 311, 342, 
330; anecdote, 458; retreat through Tenn., 
anecdote, 503. 

Branch, L. O’Brien, C brig.-gen., at Newbern, 
72 ; killed, Antietam, 180. 

Brandy Station, Va., battle, 249. 

Brannan, John M , N b'v’t maj.-gen., 219, 220 ; 
Chickamauga, 302. 

Breckenridge,-, C maj., Kelly’s Ford, Va., 

332 - 

-, Margaret E., Mrs., port., 534, 535. 

Breckinridge, John C., C maj.-gen., 43 ; Presi¬ 
dential candidate, 117 ; Murfreesboro’, 210; 
port., 213 ; Baton Rouge, 270,403 ; Newmarket, 
Va., 433; sec’y of war, 453; Bull’s Gap, 
Tenn., 524. 

-, Rev. Robert J., 41. 

Breese, S. L., N naval comr., port., 370. 

Breshwood,-, N capt., 10. 

Bridgeport, Ala., 301, 305. 

Bright, John, 66. 

Bristoe Station, Va., destroyed by Jackson, 166 ; 
engagement, 333, 334. 

Bristol, Tenn., action, 341. 

Britton’s Lane, Tenn., action, 227. 

Brockway, -, N lieut., Gettysburg, 255. 

Brooke, John R.. N b’v’t brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 
259; Cold Harbor, 367. 


Brooklyn, N cruiser, New Orleans, 90-93 ; Mo¬ 
bile Bay, 391-393. 

Brooks, E. P., N lieut., recaptured, 322. 

-,-, N lieut., Hawes’s Shop, Va., 364. 

Brough, John, gov. of Ohio, port., 18, 287. 

Brown, B. Gratz, 41. 

—, Egbert B.. N brig.-gen..Springfield. Mo., 
344 - 

-.John, invasion of Va., 7, 448; ill., “Last 

moments,” 21 ; port., 182. 

-, Joseph E., gov. of Ga., port., 420; at 

odds with Davis, 420, 425. 

-, Theodore F., N b'v’t maj., Bristoe Sta., 

Va -> 334 - 

-, -, N lieut., Kelly’s Ford, Va., 332. 

-, Wilson, Andrews’s raid, 529. 

Browne, Junius Henri, N correspondent, ad¬ 
ventures, 520-523. 

-, William M., C col., port., 450. 

Brownell, Francis E., N, 25. 

-, Henry Howard, “ Bay Fight,” 395, 396. 

-, Mrs. Kady, N pvt., 5th R. I. inf., 470. 

Brownlow, Rev. William G., 44 ; imprisoned, 
3 i 6 - 

Brown's Ferry (Chattanooga), 305. 

Bruinsburg, Miss., 274, 276, 279. 

Brunswick Batteries, 531. 

Brush Knob, Tenn., 313. 

Buchanan, Franklin, C adm. in command of 
” Merrimac,” 83, 85 ; port., 87; Mobile Bay, 
39 L 392 . 

-, James, President of the U. S., 9, 14, 19, 

36 ; attitude toward slavery, 183. 

-, T. McKean, N comr., killed, Bayou 

Teche, 345. 

Buchanan, Va., devastated by Hunter, 319. 

Buckingham, C. P., N brig.-gen., port., 414. 

-, William A., gov. of Conn., port., 18 ; in¬ 
fluence, 448. 

Buckner, Simon B., C lieut.-gen., Fort Donel- 
son, 76, 79 ; port., 80, 508. 

Buell, Don Carlos, N maj.-gen.. 100; Shiloh, 
101-104 ; port., 104 ; Munfordville, 115 ; Perry¬ 
ville, 201 : superseded by Rosecrans, 203, 209; 
Bowling Green, 223, 307. 

-, J. T., N col., Independence, Mo., 231. 

Buffalo Mountain, W. Va., engagement, 114. 

Buffington’s Ford, O., battle, 297. 

Buford, John, N maj -gen., Pope’s campaign, 
163, 164; Cedar Mountain, 164; Brandy Sta., 
Va., 249; port., 250; Gettysburg, 251-268; 
Manassas Gap, Va., 333; Rappahannock Sta., 
335 - 

--, Napoleon B., N maj.-gen., Corinth. 206; 

Union City, Tenn., 226. 

Bull Pasture Mountain, battle, 216. 

Bull Run, Va., 1st battle, ill., 50, 51-61 ; effects 
of battle, 62 ; 2d battle, 168-171 ;Tils., 170, 171 : 
Sanitary Commission, 325 ; reminiscences of 
battle, 472-474 ; anecdotes, 464-465. 

-(stream), 52, 53, 54, 55, 60, 61; ill., 167. 

Bull’s Bay, S. C., 69. 

Bull's Gap, Tenn., 524. 

Bummers, Sherman's, 423 ; ill., 430. 

Bunker Hill, Mass., 190. 

-, W. Va., engagement, 111. 

Burials, military, 497. 

“ Burke, Deaf,” C spy, anecdote, 505. 

Burnett’s Ford, Va., 165. 

Burns, John, Gettysburg, 259; ill. of residence, 
267. 

Burnside, Ambrose E., N maj.-gen., 49 j ports., 
53, 72; at Bull Run, 55, 57; N. C. expedition, 
72 ; ills., 74, 75, 163 ; Antietam campaign, 176- 
179: port, with staff. 191 ; succeeds Mc¬ 
Clellan, 193 ; Fredericksburg campaign, 193- 
107; on the N. C. coast, 218; superseded by 
Hooker, 241, 308: Knoxville, 311, 342; in 
command Dept, of the Ohio, 341 ; East Tenn., 
342, 348, 351 ; Annapolis, 354 ; Wilderness, 355, 
356 ; Spottsylvania, 358-361 ; North Anna, 
362, 363 ; advance on Petersburg, 398, 399. 

Burnside’s campaign, 191-200. 

-mine, Petersburg, 469. 

Burnsville, Miss., 204, 205. 

Bussey, Cyrus, N b’v't maj.-gen.. Canton, 
Miss., 342, 343. 

Butler, Benjamin F., N maj.-gen., in command 
8th Mass, regiment. 24. 28 : ports., 43. 66 ; ser¬ 
vice in Md., 43 ; at Big Bethel, 45 : in command 
Fortress Monroe, 45, 49 ; expedition to Hat- 
teras, 68 ; at N. O , 90, 95 ; “ woman order,” 
o6, 97 ; refusal to return slaves. 185 ; outlawed 
Dy Pres. Davis, 235 ; commands Army of the 
James, 351, 365 ; under Grant, 353, 368 : ad¬ 
vance on Petersburg, 397; Bottom's Bridge, 
Va., 433 ; cartoon, 456 ; anecdote, 457. 

Butler, Mo., battle, 231. 

Butterfield, Daniel. N maj.-gen., port., 259 ; Get¬ 
tysburg, 259, 263. 

-,-, N capt., Romney, 113. 

“ Butternuts ” (Confederate soldiers), 105. 

Byrnes,-, N col., killed, Cold Harbor, 367. 


Cabell, William L., C brig.-gen., Devil’s Back¬ 
bone, Ark., 344. 


Cadwalader, George, N maj.-gen., at Harper’s 
Ferry, 47. 

Cairo, Ill., 73, 76, 99, 122, 223. 

-, Tenn., 227. 

Caldwell, Charles H. B., N lieut., 10 ; at N. O., 
92. 

— , John C., N b'v’t maj.-gen., Bristoe Sta¬ 
tion, 334. 

Calhoun, John C., 41. 

Calhoun, Ky., 115. 

-, N gunboat. Bayou Teche, La., 345. 

California, Sanitary Commission, 325. 

-regiment, 71st Pa. inf., 109. 

“ Call All ” (author unknown), 132. 

Cameron, Simon, N sec'y of war, 48, 143; 
authorizes Sanitary Commission, 324. 

-,-, N col., killed. 479. 

Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., prison camp, ill., 
322, 528. 

-Lyon, Mo., 117. 

-Wildcat, Ky., engagement, 73, 114. 

Camp life, 495 - 5 ° 5 - 

- pitching and striking, 498. 

-, sports in, 501-502. 

-sutlers, 501. 

-, winter in, 496-498 ; ills , 501. 

Campaign of Shiloh, 99-109. 

Campbell. John A., C peace com'r, 441. 
Campbell's Battery, losses, 483. 

Campbell’s Station, Tenn., battle, 342. 

Camps, arrangement of, 496. 

Canada, hostile to the United States, 65 . 

Canby, Edward R. S., N maj.-gen., ft. Craig, 
N. M., 233 ; port., 527. 

Candy, Charles, N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 389. 
Cane Hill, Ark., battle, 232. 

Canfield, Mrs. Hermann, 539. 

Canton, Miss., engagement, 342, 343. 

Cape Girardeau, Mo., 73, 118; action, 230. 

-Hatteras, N. C., 67, 87, 469. 

Capron, Horace, N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 530. 
Capture of New Orleans, 88-98; ill., 95. 

Carlin, William P., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Fred- 
ericktown, Mo., 118 ; Perryville, 201. 

Carlisle, Pa., occupied by Lee, 250, 251, 252. 

- Barracks, Pa., 27, 28. 

Carmody, John, N sergt., 15. 

Carnifex Ferry, W. Va., engagement, 113. 
Carondelet, N gunboat, Island No. 10, 99. 
Carpenter, Daniel, New York draft riots, 285, 
286. 

Carr, Eugene A., N b'v’t maj.-gen., Pea Ridge, 
80 ; Milliken's Bend, La., 240. 

—, Joseph B., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Robertson’s 
Tavern, Va., 336. 

Carroll, Edward, N It.-col., port., 484. 

--, Samuel S., N b’v’t maj.-gen.. Blooming 

Gap, 217; Gettysburg, 254, 255 ; Wilderness, 
357 ; Spottsylvania, 362 ; port., 367. 

Carson, Christopher, N b’v’t brig-gen., port., 
342. 

Carter, James E., N col., Big Creek Gap, Tenn., 
225 ; Blountsville, Tenn., 341. 

-, L., Rev., murdered, 315. 

-,-, N capt., Point Pleasant, W. Va., 

337 - 

-,-, N capt., killed, Winchester, 407. 

Carthage, Mo., action at, 41. 

Casement, John S., N col., 429. 

Casey, Silas, N maj -gen., port., 152; Peninsular 
campaign, 144-156. 

Cass, Lewis, U. S. sec’y of state, 9, 36. 

Cassville, Ga., occupied by Johnston, 385. 

Castle Pinckney, S. C., 9, 12, 35. 

Catlett’s Station, Va., 165, 166. 

Catlin, Isaac S., N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., 368. 
Causes of the War, 5, 7 ; ill., 181. 

Cavander, Rev. M., murdered. 315. 

Caves as dwellings, Vicksburg, 280-282. 

Cayuga, N gunboat, at N. O., 93, 95. 

Cedar Creek, Va., battle, 410, 411. 

Cedar Mountain, Va., battle, 164, 354. 

Cemetery Ridge, Gettysburg, 252, 256 ; ill., 266, 
368. 

Centreville, Va., 53, 54, 60, 61; evacuated, 143, 
154, 169. 

Chain Bridge, D. C., ill., 349. 

Chalmers, James R., C brig.-gen., Colliersville, 
Tenn., 306 ; Fort Pillow, 320. 

Chalmette batteries, N. O., 95. 

Chamberlain, Joshua L., N b'v’t maj. gen., 
Gettysburg, 254. 

Chambersburg, Pa., occupied by Lee, 250, 251 ; 

burned by Early, 317, 319, 320, 404, 405. 
Champion’s Hill, Miss., battle, 275. 
Chancellorsville, 241-247. 

-, Va., occupied by Hooker, 241 ; battle, 

241-247, 353; Map. 243; ills., 244, 246, 358, 
470; losses, 477; capture of flag at, ill., 481. 

Chapman, Sam., Rev., C cav., Warrenton Junc¬ 
tion, 331. 


Characteristics, comparative, Northern and 
Southern soldiers, 502-505. 

Charles City Cross Roads, Va., battle (ill., 157), 
158. 

Charleston, Mo., engagement, 117 ; engage¬ 
ment, 230. 

-. S. C., State flag raised, 9 ; arsenal seized 

by rebels, 10 ; bombarded by Gillmore, N, 18 ; 
N operations against, 219; siege, 288-294; 
ill., 288,307, 385 ; bombarded, 435 ; evacuated, 
440 ; in ruins, ill , 523. 

- Harbor, 5, 10, 12, 18, 35, 71. 

-, W. Va., 113. 

Charleston and Memphis R. R., 312. 

Charlestown, Va., actions, 334. 

-, W. Va., 319. 

Charlotte, N. C., 43, 307, 441. 

Charlottesville, Va., 409. 

Chartres, Due de, ports., 142, 147. 

Chase, Salmon P., N sec’y of the treasury, 
port., 6, 49 ; management of finances, 415 417 j 
cartoon, 463. 

Chatfield, John L., N col., killed, Fort Wagner, 
290. 

Chattanooga, Tenn., engagement, 226; cam- 
paign, 295-304 ; ill., 304 ; battle, 305-314, 350, 
383, 420, 425. 

Chattanooga campaign, The, and battle of 
Chickamauga, 295-304. 

Cheat Mountain, W. Va., skirmish. 114. 

Cheat River Valley, W. Va., 45. 

Cheatham, Benjamin F., C maj.-gen., port., 427. 

Cheraw, S. C., 440. 

•Cherbourg, France, 371 ; battle between “ Kear- 
sarge” and ” Alabama,” 372. 

Cherokee Indians, 80, 81 ; Shirley’s Ford, Mo., 
231 ; Cane Hill, 232 ; Tennessee, 317. 

Chesapeake Canal, 406, 409. 

Chester, Pa., 190. 

Chestnut, James, Jr., C brig.-gen., 17 ; port., 
45 o- 

Chewalla, Tenn., 207. 

Chicago, Ill., Camp Douglas, ill., 322 ; Demo¬ 
cratic convention, 413, 528. 

Chickahominy, Va., battle, 155, 156. 

Chickamauga, Ga., 100; battle, 298-303 ; ills., 300, 
308, 405 ; losses, 477. 

Chickasaw, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 391, 392. 

-Indians, 81. 

Chipman, Norton P., N b'v’t brig.-gen., port., 
409. 

Chivington, John M., N maj., Apache Canon, 
233* 234. 

Choctaw Indians, 81. 

Christian Commission, 326, 354, 448. 

Churchill, T. J., C maj. gen., surrendered to 
McClernand, Arkansas Post, 273. 

Cincinnati, O., approached by Morgan, 297. 

-, N gunboat, sunk, Vicksburg, 281. 

“ Circus,” “ Thomas’s,' 1 383. 

City Hall, New Orleans, La., ill., 96. 

City Point, Va., fortified by Butler. 397; ills , 
397, 489, 400. 

Clark. Charles, C brig.-gen., killed, Baton 
Rouge, 270. 

-, John S., N b'v't brig.-gen. on Banks’s 

staff, 166. 

-, William T., N brig.-gen., port., 345. 

-,-, N lieut., 5th Kan. cav., Pine Bluff, 

Ark., 344. 

Clarksburg, Tenn., 229. 

Clark’s Hollow, W. Va., engagement, 218. 

Clay, Cassius M., N maj.-gen., port., 527. 

-, Henry, 41. 

Clayton, Powell, N brig.-gen., port., 341 ; Pine 
Bluff, Ark., 344. 

-,-, N col., Pine Bluff, Tenn., 437. 

Cleburne, Patrick R., C maj.-gen., port., 303; 
Atlanta, 389 ; killed, 429. 

Cleveland, Grover, President of the U. S., 
Porter relief bill signed, 170. 

Cleveland, O., Fremont convention, 412. 

Cleves,-, N capt., killed. Fort Wagner, 290. 

Clifton, Ga., 390. 

Clingman, Thomas L., C brig.-gen., port., 508. 

Clopper, John Y.. N maj., Memphis, Mo., 231. 

Cloud, -, N col., Devil’s Backbone, Ark., 

344 - 

Cloyd’s Mountain, Va., battle, 433. 

Cluseret, Gustave P , N col., Harrisonburg, 
216. 

Cobb, Howell, U. S. sec’y of the treasury, 9; 
C maj.-gen., port., 177. 

-. Thomas R R., C brig, gen., killed, 

Fredericksburg, 196. 

Coburn, John, N b’v’t brig.-gen., 295 ; Thomp¬ 
son's Sta., Tenn., 340. 

Cochran,-, N lieut., Fort Wagner, 292. 

Cochrane, John. N brig.-gen., nominated for 
vice-president, 412. 

Cocke, Philip St. G., C brig.-gen., at Bull Run, 

53 ’ 55 - 

Cockrell, Francis M., C brig.-gen., port., 392. 

Cockspur Island, 185, 220. 




















































INDEX. 


;43 


Coggswell, Leander W., N col., Spottsylvania, 

361. 

-, William, N b’v't brig.-gen., port., 423. 

Cold Harbor, Va., battle, 155, 156; battle, 365- 
368, 387. 

Cole, Charles H., C capt., Lake Erie raid, 528. 

-, Henry A., N maj., 433. 

Colliersville, Tenn., action, 301. 

Collins, Napoleon, N naval corar., port., 370. 

Coloiado. N frigate, at N. O., 90, 91. 

Colored Orphan Asylum, New York, draft riot, 
286 

Colored soldiers, employment of, 235-240. 

-- troops, Butler, Me., 231 ; in Confedcr 

ate service, 235; in National service, 237; in 
Revolutionary War, 237-240; losses among, 
483. 

Colquitt, Alfred H., C brig.-gen , port., 445. 

Colquitt’s salient. Ft Steadman, 487. 

Colston, R. E., C brig.-gen., port.. 399. 

Colt, Henrietta L., Mrs , port., 537. 540. 

Columbia, Ky., captured by Morgan. 297. 

-, S. C.. prisons, 321 ; Sherman occupies, 

440 ; burned, 440. 

-, Tenn., 226. 

Cclumbus, Ky., 75, 99, 122,223,271. 

Colville, William, Jr., N col. 1st Minn, inf., 
charge at Gettysburg, 476. 

ColyCr, Vincent, Christian Commission, 326. 

Commerce, Miss., 348. 

Commercial, Cincinnati, O., 211. 

Concord, N. H., riot, 317. 

Confederate Cruisers, The, 371-375. 

-prisoners, guarding, ill., 522. 

- States of America, founded, 5: seat of 

government established at Montgomery, Ala- 
removed to Richmond, Va., 9, 49 : ill. of flag, 
9; recognized as belligerents by France and 
England, 63 ; conscription act, 200. 

Congress, members of, captured at Bull Run. 
473 - 

-, N cruiser, destroyed by “ Merrimac,”84. 

Connecticut Infantry. 7th, Tybee Island, 220; 
8th, Suffolk, 329; 10th, Fort Wagner, 291; 
13th. Irish Bend, 345 ; 16th. Antietam, 180, 
Suffolk. 329 ; 25th, Irish Bend, 347 ; 2d heavy 
art’y losses, 478. 

Connor. Selden, N brig.-gen .A rticle, 495-505. 

Conrad’s Ferry, Potomac River, 109. 

Contraband of war, ill., 184, 185. 

Cooking in camp, 496. 

Cotton, C war steamer, Bayou Teche, La.. 345. 

Cony, Samuel, gov. of Me., port., 18. 

Cooke, Jay, financial agent, 416. 

-, Philip St. George, N b’v’t maj.-gen- 

port., 368. 

Cooper. James H., N capt., 158. 

-, Samuel, C adj -gen., 49 ; port., 318. 

Copperheads, 36. 

Corcoran, Michael, N brig.-gen., port., 336. 

Corinth. Miss., 100; evacuation, 108; battle, 
206-209 ; ill., 209, 308. 

Corse, John M., N b’v’t maj -gen.. Colliersville, 
Tenn., 306 ; Chattanooga. 314 ; defends Alla- 
toona, 420 ; port., 422. 

Corwin, N gunboat, 154, 234. 

Cotton gin, Eli Whitney’s, 5. 

Couch, Darius N., N maj.-gen., Fredericksburg, 
198 ; port., 242. 

Courier, Charleston, quoted, 435. 

-, Louisville, Ky., 63, 182. 

Cowan. Dr., C, Munfordville, 115. 

Cox, Henry, Rev., 63. 

-, Jacob D., N maj.-gen . Great Kanawha, 

113 ; port., 114 : Franklin, Tenn., 429. 

-, Samuel S.. M.C., opposed to negro sol¬ 
diers, 236. 

-,-, N, Hawes’s Shop. Va., 364. 

Crabb, -. N col., Springfield, Mo., 344. 

Craig. James, N brig -gen., port . 345. 

-,-, N lieut., Hawes’s Shop, Va., 364. 

Crampton’s Gap, Md., 176, 179. 

Craven, Tunis A. M., N naval capt., killed. 
Mobile Bay, 391, 393 : port., 393, 451. 

Crawford, Dr. S. Wiley, N b’v’t maj.-gen- 
port.. 11 ; at Sumter. 11, 15 ; Antietam, 180. 

-—, Samuel J., N b'v’t brig, gen., port- 347 : 

Spottsylvania, 362. 

Creigh, David S- 317, 318. 

“Crescent City’’ (New Orleans), 88. 

Crew, -, N capt- killed at Butler, Mo., 231. 

Crippen, Benjamin. N sergt., Gettysburg, ill- 
258. 

Crittenden. George B.. C maj.-gen., at Mill 
Springs, Ky., 73 ; port- ic8. 

-. Thomas L- N maj.-gen- port- 108; 

Murfreesboro’, 227 ; Chickamauga, 298. 

-,-, M.C., 190. 

Croatan Sound, N. C- 71, 72. 

Crocker. Marcellus M- N brig.-gen., Corinth, 
207 ; Vicksburg campaign, 274, 275. 

Crockett's Cove, W. Va., fight, 433. 

Cromwell, -, N maj., killed. Gettysburg, 266. 


Crook, George, N maj.-gen., Antietam, 179, 317; 
defeated by Early, 404, 405 ; Shenandoah, 409, 
410; Cloyd’s Mountain, 433; port., 435. 

Cross, Edward E- N col- killed, Gettysburg, 
2 54 , 477 i port., 484. 

Cross Keys, Va., action, 216. 

-Lanes, engagement, 113. 

Crow’s Nest observatory, Petersburg, ill., 469. 
Cruft, Charles. N b'v’t maj. gen- Murfreesboro, 
212; Richmond, Ky., 225. 

Crump s Landing, 100, 101, 107, 108. 

Cub Run, Va„ 61. 

Cullum, George W., N brig, gen , port., 101. 
Culpeper, Va., 163 ; ill., 164, 193, 249, 250, 353. 

-C. H., Va., 164, 166. 

-Mine Ford, Va., 335, 355. 

Cumberland, Md., 320. 

—, Army of the, commanded by Rosecrans, 
209; Map of operations, 297 ; commanded by 
Thomas, 305, 383, 390. 

—, N sloop, 29, 83; destroyed by “Merri- 
mac,” 84. 

- Ford, Tenn., 225. 

- Gap, Tenn., 114, 227 ; surrendered, 341. 
Cummings Point, Morris Island, 12, 15, 290, 292. 
Curtin, Andrew G- gov. of Pa., port., 18. 
Curtis, N. Martin, N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 439. 

--, Samuel R , N maj.-gen., in Mo., 79 ; Pea 

Ridge, 80; port , 81. 

Cushing, Alonzo H., N lieut- killed, Gettys¬ 
burg, 259; ill- 263. 

-, William B- N comr. “Barney,” 348; 

destroys ram “ Albemarle,” 435 ; adventures, 
529. S 3 1 1 Port- 531. 

Cushing’s Battery, losses, 483. 

Cushman, Pauline, N spy, port., 506. 

Custer. George A., N b'v’t maj.-gen.. port., 79 ; 
cavalry superiority, 250; Gettysburg, 268 : 
Robertson's Tavern, 335 ; port- 356 ; Hawes's 
Shop, 363, 364, 405: Shenandoah Valley, 406, 
410; Trevilian Station and Louisa C. H., Va.. 
433 ; Waynesboro, 442 ; Sailor’s Creek, 446, 
451 - 

Cutler, Lysander, N b’v't maj.-gen., port- 398. 
Cynthiana, Ky., action, 223. 

Dabney,-, C, 164, 165. 

Dada, Hattie A , Miss, port- 533, 540. 

Dahlgren, John A., N rear-adm,. port-289, 436 ; 
siege of Charleston, 290, 294 ; Florida, 436, 531. 

-, Ulric, N col., killed, Richmond raid, 531. 

Daily News. London, Eng., 65. 

Dallas, Ga., 385. 

Dalton, Ga- 311 ; occupied by Johnston, 353, 
383, 390, 529. 

Dana, Charles A- N asst, sec’y of war, port- 
65. 

-, Napoleon J. T- N maj.-gen., Antietam, 

l8o. 

Dandridge, Tenn., fight. 436. 

Daniel. Junius, C brig.-gen., killed. Spottsyl¬ 
vania, 362, 451. 

Dauphin Island (Mobile Bay), 391. 

Davies, Henry E , Jr., N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., 
443 - 

-, Thomas A., N bVt maj.-gen., 49; Cor¬ 
inth, 206, 207. 

-, W. T., N correspondent, adventures, 

520-523. 

Davis. Benjamin F., N col., killed. Brandy Sta., 
Va., 249. 

-, Charles Henry, N rear-adm., port., 270; 

Vicksburg, 270. 

-, Clara, Miss, 538. 

-. Jefferson, calls for troops, 22 ; port.. 26 ; 

early military advantages, 48 ; at Bull Run, 
60, 209 ; outlaws Butler and proclaims against 
negro soldiers, 235 ; letter from Lee after Get¬ 
tysburg. 268; ” Neckties,” 375; distrust of 
Johnston, 383 ; message to Lincoln, 412 ; at 
odds with Gov. Brown, 420. 425 ; evacuates 
Richmond, 445 : flight and capture, 448 ; port , 
449 ; refuses to treat for peace, 487. 

-. Jefferson C.. N b’v’t maj. gen., port., n ; 

at Sumter, ir, 15 ; ports.. 30. 513 ; Pea Ridge, 
80 ; Chickamauga. 401 : Atlanta. 390 : (sketch), 
513 : shoots Gen. William Nelson, 513 ; ass’t 
com’r for freedmen, 514; in Modoc War, 514, 

-, John. N sailor, 72. 

—. Joseph R., C brig.-gen., port., 450. 

-, S. B., C lieut. and spy, 470-472. 

-, -, N col., Fair Oaks, 148, 150, 176. 

Dawes, Rufus R., N b’v't brig.-gen., Gettys¬ 
burg, 260. 

Dawson,-. C lieut.-col., Ripley, Tenn., 340. 

Day. Nicholas W., N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 
409 - 

Day-Book, Norfolk, Va., 217. 

Day's Gap, Ala., action, >95. 

Dearing, James, C brig, gen., mentioned. 451. 

Debutts,-, C cav., Warrenton Junction, 331. 

Decatur, Ala., Sherman escapes capture, 375. 
-. Ga., 389. 

De Courcey, John F.. N col., Tazewell, Tenn., 
227. 


Deep Bottom, Va., 398. 399. 

Deep Creek, Va., fight, 446. 

De Fontaine, F. G., C correspondent, 134 ; Arti¬ 
cle, 505-508, 

De Lacey, William, N b’v't brig.-gen., port., 

362. 

Delaware, 1st (N» inf. losses, 481. 

- Indians, ill., 214. 

Dent, Frederick T.. N b'v't brig.-gen., port., 
414. 

Democratic members of Congress, opposed to 
negro soldiers, 236. 

-party, in political alliance with the 

South, 9 : sustains the Union, 36 ; favors slav¬ 
ery, 183 ; antagonizes Lincoln, 249 ; opposed to 
the war, 283, 2P4, 315 ; convention, 413. 

-press, denounces emancipation. 185. 189 ; 

opposes negro soldiers, 236; opposed to the 
war, 283, 284 ) denounces draft in New York. 
Denmark, Tenn., 227. 

Dennis, Elias S., N b’v't maj.-gen., Britton's 
Lane, Tenn., 227. 

Dennison, William, gov. of Ohio, influence, 
448. 

De Russy, Gustavus A., N b'v’t brig -gen., port , 
196. 

Deshler, James, C brig.-gen., killed, Chicka¬ 
mauga, 299. 

Dispatch, Richmond, Va., 348. 

Detonville, Va., fight, 446. 

Devens, Charles, N b'v’t maj.-gen.. Bali's Bluff, 
109; port., no; Cold Harbor, Va., 365. 

Devil’s Backbone, Ark., action, 344. 

-Den, Gettysburg, ill., 257. 

Devin, Thomas C., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 356; 
port., 530. 

Dew, Thomas R., 33. 

Dewey, Daniel P., N lieut.. killed, Irish Bend, 
347 - 

Diana, C gunboat, Irish Bend, La.. 345, 347. 

-, N gunboat, Bayou Teche, La., 345. 

Dickinson, Daniel S., proposed for vice-presi¬ 
dent, 412. 

Dinwiddie C. H., 441, 443; Sheridan reconnoi- 
tering at, ill., 444. 

Dispatch, Richmond, Va., 454. 

Disraeli, Benjamin, quoted, 269. 

District of Columbia, enrollment for defence of 
Washington, 20. 

Divers, Bridget, N pvt. 1st Mich, cav., 470. 

Dix, Dorothea L., hospital services, 326. 

-, John A., N maj -gen., U. S Sec’y of the 

Treasury, his ** shoot him on the spot ” order, 
10 ; port., 14 ; fac-simile of order, 14, 48. 

Dixie, Albert Pike, 131; port., 131, 413. 

Dodd, David O., C boy spy, 470. 

Dog Walk. Ky., action, 225. 

Doles, George, C brig.-gen., killed, Cold Har¬ 
bor, 368, 451. * 

Donaldsonville, La., destroyed by Farragut, 
2 7 I » 345 - 

Doubleday, Abner. N maj.-gen., port, 11 ; at 
Sumter, it, 15 ; Fredericksburg, 195; Gettys¬ 
burg, 251-259 ; port., 254, 

Dougherty,-, N col., 22d Ill., 117. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 36. 

-,-, Rev., murdered, 315. 

Dover, Tenn., action, 295. 

Dow, Neal. N brig.-gen., port., 276. 

Draft Riots, The. 283-287. 

Drake, J. Madison, N capt., 523 ; Article , 523. 
Dranesville, Va., 109 ; engagement, 113. 

Drayton, Percival, N capt., port., 393. 

Drayton, Thomas F., C brig.-gen., at Port 
Royal, 71 ; port., 72. 

Dred Scott decision, 7, 186. 

Drury’s Bluff, Va., action, 397, 398. 

Dry Valley road, Chickamauga, 301. 

Duffle, Alfred N., N brig.-gen., port., 257. 

Dug Spring, Mo., action at, 41. 

Dumont, Ebenezer, N brig, gen., at Philippi, 
45 - 

Duncan, Johnson K., C brig.-gen., at N O., 90. 
Dunham, C. L., N col., Parker's Cross Roads, 
Tenn., 229. 

Dunker Church, Antietam, 177, 178. 

Dunning,-, N col.. Blue's Gap, 216. 

Dunn’s Bayou, La., action. 382. 

Dunton, Jacob, Christian Commission, 326. 
DuPont. Samuel F., N rear adm.. 69 : port., 71 ; 
siege of Charleston. 289, 290, 348. 

Durkee,-, N col , Fair Oaks, 150. 

Duryea, Abram, N b’v’t maj.-gen., 24 ; port., 35 ; 
at Big Bethel, 45. 

Duryea’s Zouaves, 5th N. Y., 24 ; at Big Bethel, 
45 : losses. 479. 

Dustin, Daniel. N b’v’t brig.-gen , port., 423. 
Dutch Gap. Va., 397. 

Dutton’s Hill, Ky., action, 339. 

Duval, Isaac H., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Winchester, 
Va., 407. 

Dwight, William, N brig.-gen., ill., 343. 

Dye,-, N, killed, Hawes’s Shop, Va., 365. 


Eads, James B., 392. 

Earle, C. W., N lieut., Chickamauga, 303. 
Early, Jubal A., C lieut.-gen., port., 60, 49; Bull 
Run, 53, 59 ; burning of Chambersburg, 319, 
320; Robertson's Tavern, Va., 336; Spottsyl¬ 
vania, 359 j Bethesda Church, 365 ; Cold Har¬ 
bor, 365 ; threatens Washington, 402-404; 
Shenandoah Valley, 402, 405-411 ; Waynes¬ 
boro’, 442. 

Eaton, Amos B., N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., 414. 
Edenton, N. C., 72. 

Edmonds, Emma. Miss, N spy and nurse, ad¬ 
ventures, 511, 512. 

Edson, Sarah P., Miss, 538. 

Edward's Ferry, Va., 109 ; engagement, 111,250, 
268. 

Edwards Station, Miss., 275. 

Effects of battle of Bull Run, 62-66. 

Egan. Thomas W., N b’v’t brig.-gen., Gettys¬ 
burg, 265. 

Eggleston,-, N corp., Gettysburg, 260. 

“ Egypt” (Southwest Georgia), 485. 

Elizabeth City, N. C., 72. 

Ellet, Charles Rivers, N col., port., 274. 

Elliott, Melcenia, Miss, 538. 

-, Stephen, Jr., C brig.-gen., port., 445. 

Ellis, A. Van Horn, N b’v’t brig, gen., port., 
261 ; killed, Gettysburg, 266. 

-, Daniel, N guide, 521. 

-, John W., gov. N. C., 43. 

Ellis, N tugboat, stranded, 529. 

Ellsworth Avengers, 44th N. Y. inf., losses, 479. 
Ellsworth, Elmer E., N col., port., 25, 484; 
killed, 25, 451. 

-,-, Morgan's raid, 532. 

Ely’s Ford, Va., 335, 355. 

Elzey, Arnold, C maj.-gen., port., 508. 
Emancipation, 181-191. 

-Proclamation, 187, 189, 412, 413. 

Emmet, -, N lieut., Meagher's staff, Fred¬ 

ericksburg, 199. 

Emmitsburg Road, Gettysburg, 263. 

Emory, W r illiam H., N maj.-gen., Sabine Cross 
Roads, 378 ; Pleasant Hill, 378 ; port., 382. 
Employment of colored soldiers, 235-240. 
England recognizes Confederates as belliger¬ 
ents, 63; sympathy with the South, 65. 269; 
sympathy with the Union, 189 ; violation of 
neutrality laws, 372-375. 

Enquirer, Richmond, Va., 454. 

Erben, Henry, N lieut.-comr., port., 370. 
Ericsson, John, N capt., port., 84. 

Ericsson, N ironclad (“ Monitor”), 85. 

Essex, U. S. vessel, 76, 90. 

-, N gunboat, Ft. Henry, 76, 393. 

Estrella, N gunboat. Bayou Teche, La., 345. 
Etheridge, Annie, N dau. cf regt., 470. 

Evans, J. J., N capt., Mt. Sterling, 223. 

-, Nathan G., C brig.-gen., at Bull Run, 

53* 55 ; Secessionville, 219 ; port., 281, 461. 

-,-, N aid to Force, Atlanta, 389. 

Evening Post, New York, 128. 

Everett, Edward, speech at Gettysburg, 269. 
Ewell, Richard S., C lieut.-gen., 49: at Bull 
Run, 53; Peninsular campaign, 154; Grove- 
ton, 167; 2d Bull Run, 173 ; Cross Keys, 216 ; 
Culpeper, 249 ; Shenandoah Valley, 250: 
Gettysburg, 251-256; port., 265; Wilderness, 
354 ; Spottsvlvania, 362. 368 ; captured. Sail 
or's Creek, Va., 446; foresees the end, 448, 45^. 
Ewing, Charles T., N brig.-gen., port., 435. 

-, Hugh, N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 307. 

-, Thomas, 519. 

-, Thomas, Jr.. N b’v’t maj.-gen, 515. 

Examiner, Richmond, Va., 33 ; quoted, 431. 
Excelsior Brigade, Gettysburg, 265 ; Manassas 
Gap, Va., 333. 

Fagan, James F., C maj. gen., por ., 341. 

Fair Gardens, Tenn., fight, 436. 

Fair Oaks, Va , battle, 146; ill., 154, 390, 470. 

Fairchild,-, N col , Atlanta, 389. 

Fairfax, Donald M , N rear-adm., port., 290. 
Fairfax C. H., Va., 169; raided by Mosby, 
33 r - 

Fairmont, W. Va., engagement. 337. 

Fales, Almira, Mrs., 533, 538. 

Falling Waters, Va., engagement, in. 

Falmouth, Va., 193. 

Farley, Porter, N adjt., Gettysburg, 260. 
Farmville, Va., fight, 446. 

Farnam, Noah L., N col., 24. 

Farnsworth, Elon J., N brig.-gen., killed, Get¬ 
tysburg, 259 ; port., 261, 268. 

Farnum,-, N col., Manassas Gap, 333. 

Farragut, David G., rear adm., 33: at N. O., 
90-97 ; port., 93,22i ; Vicksburg, 270-273 ; Port 
Hudson, 276, 350, 375 ; port., 391 ; Mobile Bay, 
391 - 395 , 45 »- 

Farron, C.. N naval eng.. Mobile Bay, 393. 
Faunce, John, N naval capt., port., 370. 

Faya!, Azores, “ Alabama,” 371. 










































544 


INDEX 


Fayetteville, Ark., engagement, 344. 

-, N. C., 43,440-441 ; arsenal destroyed, 517. 

-, W. Va., engagement, 218, 33Q. 

Fenton, William M., N col., Secessionville, 219 ; 

Wilmington Island, 221, 223. 

Femandina, Fla., 69. 

Ferrero, Edward, N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., 339 ; 

Knoxville, 342. 

Final Battles, The, 439-447. 

Finegan, Joseph, C brig.-gen., wounded, Cold 
Harbor, 368 ; Olustee, Fla , 436. 

Finley. Clement A., N b'v’t brig.-gen .attitude 
toward Sanitary Commission, 324. 

First U. S. Flag raised in Richmond after the 
War, The, 453-454- 
First Union Victories, 66-82. 

Fisher, Joseph W., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 429. 
Fisher’s Hill, Va., 406; battle, 409. 

Fishing Creek, Ky., battle, 73. 

Fisk, Clinton B., N b’v't maj.-gen., 41. 
Fitzgerald, Louis, N lieut.-col., 24. 

-,-, arrested, 316. 

Fitz Hugh, Norman R., C maj., captured, 164. 
Fitzhugh’s Woods, Ark., fight, 437. 

Five Forks, Va., battle, 443 ; Sheridan recon- 
noitering at, ill , 444. 

Fleetwood, Va., battle, 249. 

Fletcher, Thomas C., gov. of Md., port., 18. 
Flint, W. H , N capt., killed, 331. 

Florence, S. C., prison camps, 321, 415. 

Florida secedes, 9. 

-, C cruiser, captured, Bahia, Brazil, 372. 

Floyd. John B , U. S. sec’y of war, 9, 10, 20,48; 
C brig.-gen., Fort Donelson. 77, 79; port., 80 ; 
W. Va., 11.3, 114 ; explains flight from Donel¬ 
son, anecdote, 503. 

Flusser, Charles W , N comr., killed, 435. 

Flynn, —N capt., Libby Prison, 348, 349. 
Fogg, Mrs. Isabella, 539. 

Folly Island, Charleston Harbor, 290. 

Foote, Andrew H., N rear adm., Ft. Henry, 76; 

Island No. io, 99 ; port., xoo. 

Foraging, 499, 504. 

Foraker, Joseph B., N capt., port., 429. 

Force, Manning F., N b'v’t maj.-gen., Vicks¬ 
burg campaign, 277; quoted. 316; Bald Hill, 
Atlanta, 389 ; port., 390. 

Ford's Theatre, Washington, D. C., President 
Lincoln assassinated, 449. 

Foreign relations, 65, 66, 371- 

Forest City, Minn., attacked by Indians, 234. 

-Queen, N vessel, destroyed, 348. 

-Rose, N gun-boat, Waterproof, La . 437. 

Forman, James B., N col., killed, Stone River, 

481. 

Forrest, Jesse, C col., raid, 532. 

-, Nathan B., C lieut.-gen., Fort Donel¬ 
son, 79; Sacramento, 215; Lexington, 225; 
Murfreesboro’, 226 : La Vergne, 227 ; Trenton, 
Tenn.,229 ; Parker’s Cross Roads, Tenn., 229 ; 
destroys railroads, 271 ; Dover, 295; Fort 
Pillow, 320; Fort Donelson. 340; defeats 
Smith. 375 ; port., 528 ; raid, 532. 

-, W. H., C capt., raid, 532. 

Forsyth, George A., N b'v’t brig.-gen., port., 
409 - 

Fort Barrancas, Fla., 35. 

-Bartow, N. C., 72. 

-Beauregard, S. C., 71, 292. 

-Butler, La., 382. 

-Clark, N. C., ill., 68, 69. 

-Columbus, N. Y., Beall executed, 528. 

-Craig, N. M., battle, 233. 

- Darling, Va., 454. 

-De Russy, La., captured, 375. 

-Donelson, Tenn, 75, 76; attack on, 77 ; 

surrender of, 79; ill., 82, 295 ; attacked by 
Wheeler and Forrest, 340. 

-Fisher, bomb-proof, ill., 439 ; captured, 

441. 

-Gaines Ala., 391. 

-Gregg, Petersburg, Va., 445 ; defence of, 

ill., 446. 

-Halleck, Idaho, engagement, 348. 

-Hamilton, New York Harbor, 17. 

-Hatteras, N. C.. 68 ; ill., 69. 

-Henry, Tenn., 75 ; surrender of, 76, 77. 

-Hindman, Ark., captured by McCler- 

nand, 272, 273. 

-Jackson, La., 35, 90, 93; ill.. 94, 95, 221. 

-Johnson, Charleston Harbor, 11. 

-King, Tenn., 312. 

-Lincoln, colored inf , ill , 239. 

-McAllister, Ga., 348; captured, 423, 514. 

-McRae, Fla., 35. 

-Monroe. Va., commanded by Butler, 4-, 

49 ; ill., 66, 68, 74. 143, 162, 163. 185. 349. 368, 
397 : peace conference, 441; President Davis 
a prisoner, 448. 

-Morgan, Ala., 35, 391-393- 

-Moultrie, S. C., cut. 7: abandoned by 

Anderson, seized by rebels, 10, 12, 15, 35, 229, 
289, 292, 


Fort Negley, Tenn., 312. 

--Pickens, Fla.. 10; ill., 475; landing re¬ 
inforcements at, ill., 500. 

-Pillow, Tenn., 226, 307 ; captured, 320. 

-Pulaskt, Ga., 25, 185, 220; bombarded, 

221 ; ill , 222, 289. 

-Ridgley, Minn., besieged by Indians, 

234. 

■ -— St. Philip, La., 35, 90, 93 ; ill., 94, 95, 221. 

-Smith, Ark., occupied by Blunt, 344. 

-Steadman, attack on, 485, 487; positions 

at, diagram, 487; obstructions, 488; taken, 489. 

- Stevens, D. C„ action, 403, 404. 

-Sumter, S. C., ills., 4, 7 ; occupied by 

Anderson, 11 ; preparations for defence, 12; 
bombarded. 15 ; surrendered and evacuated. 
17 ; destroyed by Gillmore, 18, 289-294 ; recap¬ 
ture celebrated. 18, 35. 

-Wagner, S. C., 24 : colored troops, 237, 

239 ; assaulted, 290-294; Sanitary Commission, 
325. 

-Walker, S. C., ill., 70, 71. 

-Warren, Mass., 63. 

■ -Whitworth, Petersburg. Va., 445. 

-Wood. Tenn., 312, 313. 

Forty Thieves, 3x6. 

Foster, Abby Kelly, :8. 

-, Emery, N maj., Warrensburg, Mo., 230. 

--, John G.. N maj.-gen., ports., xx, 73 ; at 

Sumter, n ; N. C. expedition, 72 ; advance 
on Petersburg, 398; port., 401 ; in command 
of Savannah, 439. 

-, Robert, S., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port, with 

staff, 334. 

-, Stephen Collins, “ Old folks at home," 

134; port., 134. 

-,-, N maj., Lone Jack, Mo., 231. 

Fox, Gustavus V., N capt., port.. 11, 15. 

Fox’s, Col. William F., “ Three Hundred Fight¬ 
ing Regiments,” quoted, 479. 

- “ Regimental Losses in the American 

Civil War,” credited, 485. 

France, war with Austria, 23 : recognizes Con¬ 
federates as belligerents, 63; unfriendly to 
the United States, 66. 

Franco-German war, losses in, 476. 

Franklin, William B.. N maj.-gen., port., 49; at 
Bull Run, 55, 57; Peninsular campaign, 141- 
158; port., 150 : 2d Bull Run, 169; Antietam 
campaign, 176-179 ; Burnside's campaign, 193, 
195; Sabine Cross Roads, 377; Pleasant Hill, 
379 - 

Franklin, La., engagement, 345. 

--, Tenn., engagement, 295, 340, 341 ; battle, 

Map , 426, 427, 429, 430, 510. 

Frazier’s Farm, Va., 159. 

Frederick, Md., 175, 250, 268. 

Fredericksburg, Va., 144, 150; ill., 193; battle, 
195-200; taken by Sedgwick, 241, 242, 243, 362, 
3 ® 3 . 477 - 

Fredericktown, Mo., engagement, 118. 

Free Soil party, 9. 

Fremantle. Arthur James, British army, Gettys¬ 
burg incident, 268. 

Fremont, John C.. N maj.-gen . candidate for 
presidency, 9 ; commands m Missouri, 79,118 ; 
Peninsular campaign, 154. 163 ; attempts at 
emancipation, 182. 185 ; Shenandoah Valley, 
216. 217 : port., 218 ; nominated for president. 
412 ; withdraws, 413 ; arraigns administration, 
415. 

Fremont’s Body Guard, Springfield, Mo., 118- 
121. 

French, William H., N maj gen., Fredericks¬ 
burg. 195-198. 250 : Rappahannock Sta., 334, 
335 ; Robertson's Tavern, 336 ; port., 339. 

Frontier, Army of, 23:. 

Fry, Jacob, N col., Trenton, Tenn., 229. 

-, James B., N b’v't maj.-gen.. port., 530. 

-, Speed S., N brig.-gen., 73 ; port., 77. 

-,-, C maj., Vicksburg, 282. 

-,-, murdered, 316. 

Fugitive Slave Law, 185. 

Fuller. Charles D., N (female) pvt. 46th Pa. 
inf., 470. 

--, John W., N b’v’t maj.-gen., division 

rallying at Atlanta, ill., 516. 

Gadsden, Ala., 295. 

Gaines’s Mill, Va , Battle, 155, 156. 

Gainesville, Va., 53, 54. 

Gallatin, Tenn., action, 227. 

Galveston, Texas, captured by Magruder, 348; 
“ Hatteras ” sunk, 372. 

Gamble. Hamilton R., N gov. of Mo., 41. 

Gantt, E. W., C maj -gen., port., 146. 

Gardner, John L., N b’v’t brig, gen., 10. 

-,-, N capt., Edward’s Ferry, in. 

-, ——, N lieut., Butler, Mo., 231. 

Garfield, James A . N maj-gen., in Ky., 73; 
port., 79; Pound Gap, 223; Chickamauga, 
299, 301. 

Garland. Samuel, Jr., C brig.-gen., killed at 
South Mountain, 176. 

Garnett, Richard B , C brig.-gen., killed, 
Gettysburg, 259, 451. 


Garnett, Robert S., C brig.-gen., 49; killed in 
W. Va.. 45- 

Garrett,-, C col., Plymouth, N. C., 218, 219. 

Garrison, William Lloyd, 18 ; port., 190. 

Gary, M. W., C maj.-gen., 462; port., 508. 

Gazette, Cincinnati, O., 201 ; correspondent 
taken prisoner, 520. 

Geary, John W., N b'v’t maj.-gen.. Bolivar 
Heights, in ; port., 306 ; Chattanooga, 308, 
313 ; occupies Savannah, 423. 

Geible,-, N sergt., killed, Gettysburg, 255. 

General Lyon, N transport, burned, 469. 

General officers killed, 484, 485. 

Geneva, Switzerland, court of arbitration, 375. 

George, Mrs. E. E., 540. 

Georgetown, D. C., 403. 

-, Ky., Morgan’s raid, 532. 

Georgia secedes, 9 ; 50th inf., Antietam. 180; 
13th inf., Wilmington Island, 223; hopes of 
her secession from the Confederacy, 420: mi¬ 
litia recalled by Gov. Brown, 420 ; spirit of 
tolerance in, 423 ; legislative peace resolutions, 

43 1 - 

- regimental losses, 10th, 18th, 5th, 37th, 

9th, 15th, 21st, 17th, 44th inf., 484. 

-, C cruiser, 372. 

Georgia Central R. R., destroyed. 422. 

Gerdes, F. H., lieut. U. S. Coast Survey, 91. 

Germania Ford, Va., 335, 336, 355, 357- 

Germans in Mo. loyal to the Union, 117. 

Germantown, Tenn., 306. 

-, Va., 169. 

Getty, George W., N b’v't maj.-gen., Suffolk, 
Va., 331; Wilderness, 457; Cedar Creek, 411. 

Gettysburg, 249-269. 

-——, Pa., approached by Lee, 25c ; battle, 251- 
269 ; Map , 251; ills., 260, 264, 266, 351 ; com¬ 
pared with Waterloo. 259; cemetery dedi¬ 
cated, 269; Sanitary Commission, 327, 361, 
368, 387 ; incident of battle. 465 ; Lee’s retreat, 
ill.. 467; charge of xst Minn. inf. compared 
with Balaklava, 476 ; losses at battle, 259, 
477 - 

Gibbon, John, N maj.-gen , South Mountain, 
176; port, 180; Fredericksburg, 195; port., 
255 ; Gettysburg. 259 ; advance on Petersburg, 
400. 

Gibbons, Mrs. A. H., 538. 

-. James Sloane, “We are coming, Father 

Abraham,” 128. 

Gibbs, Alfred, N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 406. 

Gibraltar, “Sumter” abandoned. 372. 

Gibson, Horatio G., N b'v’t brig.-gen., port., 
347 - 

-, Randall Lee, C brig.-gen., port., 508. 

-,-, C aide, 154. 

Gilbert, Charles C., N brig.-gen., Perryville, 

201. 

Gilchrist, -, C, 32. 

Gill, George W., b'v’t brig.-gen., port., 167. 

Gillis, -, N capt., 15. 

Gillmore, Quincy A., N maj.-gen., destroys 
Sumter, 18 ; Ft. Pulaski, 220, 221 ; port., 289; 
siege of Charleston, 290-294 ; Somerset, Ky., 
339 . 34 °- 

Gilmer, Jeremy F., C maj.-gen., port., 314. 

Gilmore, James R., “ Edmund Kirke,’’ peace 
mission, 412. 

-. Patrick S., “ When Johnny comes march¬ 
ing home,” 136. 

Gilson, Helen L., hospital services and death, 
327 - 

Gist, S. R., C brig.-gen., killed, 430. 

Gladden, Adley H., C brig.-gen., killed at 
Shiloh, xoi. 

Gladstone, William E., favors the Confederacy, 
269. 

Glazier, Willard, N capt., siege of Charleston, 
294. 

Glendale, Va., 159. 

Godwin, A. C., C brig.-gen., killed, Winchester, 
407. 

Goff, Nathan, Jr., N b’v't brig.-gen., port., 440. 

Goldsboro', N. C., 441. 

Goldsborough, Louis M., N rear-adm., N. C. 
expedition, 72 ; port., 73. 

Gooding, Michael, N col., Perryville, 201. 

--, Oliver P., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Bayou 

Teche, La., 347, 348. 

Goodyear, W., N sergt., Millen, Ga., prison, 415. 

Goose Creek, Va.. ill., 410. 

Gordon, George H., N b’v’t maj.-gen., ports., 
167, 389. 

-, John B., C lieut.-gen., 403 ; Cedar Creek, 

Va.. 411; ports., 445,487 ; Gettysburg anecdote. 
465-467 ; A rticle, 485-494 : Petersburg. 485; ad¬ 
vises Lee to surrender, 486, 493 ; attacks Ft. 
Steadman and Hare's Hill. 48/ ; captures the 
fort, 489; abandons it, 491; gives up Union 
spies to Sheridan. 493 ; refuses to surrender to 
Sheridan, 493; prevents rifleman from shoot¬ 
ing Sheridan, 493. 

--, Mrs. John B., Petersburg, 488. 

Gordonsville, Va., 163, 164, 193, 433. 

Gorman, Willis A., N brig.-gen., port., 530. 

Gosport Navy Yard, destruction of ships, 28,29 ; 
cut, 36. 


Goss, William, N pvt., Powell s River bridge 
Tenn., 437. 

Govan, Daniel C., C brig.-gen., captured, At¬ 
lanta, 390. 

Governor’s Island, New York Harbor, 14. 

“ Grafted into the Army,” Henry C. Work, 137. 
Graham, Charles K., N b'v't maj.-gen., Gettys 
burg, 265 ; port., 530. 

Granberry, H. B , C brig.-gen., killed, 430. 
Grand Ecore, La., 379, 381. 

-Gulf, Miss., action, 274. 

Granger, Gordon, N maj.-gen., attack on Van 
Dorn, 295 ; Chickamauga, 299-302 ; port., 301 ; 
Knoxville, 311 ; Franklin, Tenn., 341 ; Mobile, 
39 i- 

-, Moses M., N col., Cedar Creek, Va., 411. 

Grant, Alfred, N capt., 523. 

-—-—, Ulysses S., N gen., ports., 31, 107, 490; 
Cairo, 73; Ft. Henry, 75; Ft. Donelson, 76- 

S ; Pittsburg Landing, 100; Shiloh, 101-108; 

elmont, 122 ; review of Porter case, 170; 
comment on battle of Iuka, 204 ; Jackson, 206; 
comment on battle of Corinth, 207 ; Vicksburg 
campaign, 270-279, 295 j in command mili¬ 
tary division of the Mississippi, 305; Chat¬ 
tanooga, 305-309 ; Christian Commission. 326, 
342, 350; appointed lieut.-gen., 351 ; Wilder¬ 
ness, 354-357 ; p«rt., 356; Spottsylvania, 358- 
362 ; North Anna, 362 ; Cold Harbor. 365, 368, 
369 ; escapes capture, 375 ; plans for Sher¬ 
man's Atlanta campaign, 383, 387 - plans cap¬ 
ture of Mobile, 391 ; advance on Petersburg, 
397-400; defence of Washington, 402-404; 
sends Sheridan to the Shenandoah, 405, 406 ; 
despatch to Sheridan after Winchester, 409 ; 
final campaign against Lee, 442-446, 451; “ pie 
order,” 459 ; col. of 21st Ill. inf., 483, 491. 
Grapevine bridge, 147 ; ill., 160. 

Gravelly Run, Va., 443. 

Graves, E. E., N col., 105 ; Richmond. 454. 
Great Kanawha Valley campaign, 113. 

Greble, John T., N lieut., killed at Big Bethel, 
45 - 

-Mrs. Edwin, 539. 

Greeley, Horace, port., 186; correspondence 
with President Lincoln, 186 ; peace confer¬ 
ence, 412 ; gives bail for Davis, 448 ; cartoon, 
462. 

Green, Thomas, C brig.-gen., killed, Pleasant 
Hill, 379. 

-, -, N ord.-sergt., Plymouth, N. C., 

218, 219. 

Green River, 115. 

Greene, Samuel D., N comr . 85; port . 87. 

-, W. N., N capt., at Chancellorsville, ill., 

481. 

Greencastle, Pa., 176. 

Gregg, David McM., N b'v’t maj.-gen . Brandy 
Sta., Va., 249; Gettysburg, 267; Robertson’s 
Tavern, Va., 335; Hawes’s Shop, 363; port , 
435 - 

-, John Irvin, N b'v't maj.-gen., Middle- 

burg, Va., 267 ; Gettysburg, 268 ; port., 356. 

-, Maxcy, C brig.-gen., Antietam, 180; 

killed, Fredericksburg, 196. 

Gresham, Walter Q., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 
386. 

Grierson, Benjamin H., N maj.-gen., cavalry 
raid, 274. 

Griffin, Charles, N maj.-gen., port., 57; at Bull 
Run, 55, 57, 59. 

-, Simon G., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 401. 

Grose, William, N b’v’t maj.-gen., Murfrees¬ 
boro’, 212 ; Chattanooga. 308. 

Grover, Cuvier. N b’v't maj.-gen., 2d Bull Run, 
172, X73 ; Irish Bend, La., 345 ; port., 378. 
Groveton, Va., battle, 167-168. 

Guenther, Francis L., N lieut., Murfreesboro 1 , 
210, 212. 

Guerilla warfare, 79, 215, 223, 227 231, 316, 331, 
345 - 

Guinea Station, Va., 362. 

Gulf, Dept, of the, N, 185. 

Gurowski, Adam, Polish count, criticisms, 236, 
237- 

Guyandotte, W. Va., 113. 

Hagerstown, Md., 176, 177. 

Haines, Alanson A., N chap., Spottsylvania, 
361. 

-, Thomas, N capt., Harrisonburg, 216. 

Haines’s Bluff, Miss., 271, 272, 273, 275. 

“ Hairpins,’’ " Sherman’s,” 375. 

Hall. A. S., N col., Milton, Tenn., 295; States¬ 
ville and Vaught's Hill, Tenn., 340, 341. 

-, Charles S., “ John Brown’s Body,” 136. 

-, Maria M. C., Miss, 538. 

-, Norman J., N col., at Sumter, n. 

--, R. H., capt. U. S. art'y, Ft. Craig, N. 

M., 233. 

-, Susan E., Miss. 540. 

-,-, N surg., Spottsylvania, 361. 

Halleck, Henry W., N maj.-gen., commands in 
Mo.. 73, 75; port., 79; supersedes Fremont, 
79 ; Corinth. 108 ; gen.-in-chief, 163, 169, 175, 
197 ; plans for East Tenn., 203, 250, 270, 271 ; 
despatch to Rosecrans, 305 ; letter to Grant, 
307, 308, 362, 368 ; despatch to Grant, 405. 


















































































INDEX 


545 


Halltown, Va., hi ; occupied by Sheridan, 

406. 

Hamburg, S. C., 322. 

Hamilton, Andrew J., N brig.-gen., port., 315; 
quoted, 315. 

-, Charles S., N maj.-gen., Iuka, 203, 204 ; 

Corinth, 206, 207. 

-, Schuyler, N maj.-gen., Island No. 10,99 ; 

port., 101. 

---, William, N naval lieut., Mobile Bay, 392. 

Hamlin, Hannibal, Vice.-Pres, of theU. S., 316, 
412. 

Hammersley, L. C., quoted, 517. 

Hammond, William A., N brig.-gen., port., 414. 

Hampton, Frank, C lieut.-col., killed, Brandy 
Sta., Va., 249. 

-, Wade, C lieut.-gen., Gettysburg, 259 ; 

opposes Sherman in S. C., 440 ; port., 445,462, 
53 i- 

Hampton Roads, /a., 29, 68, 69, 72; “Monitor” 
and “ Merrimac, 83-87, 91 ; “Florida” sunk, 
37 2 - 

Hancock, Winfield S., N maj.-gen., Peninsular 
campaign, 143; port., 173; Fredericksburg, 
195-199; Gettysburg, 252-265; port., 255 ; 
Wilderness, 354-356; Spottsylvama, 358-361 ; 
North Anna, 362, 363 ; Cold Harbor, 365 ; ad¬ 
vance on Petersburg, 397-400, 451 ; Gettys¬ 
burg, 476 ; Winchester, 486 ; port., 532. 

-,-, N spy, anecdote, 509. 

Hankinson’s Ferry, Miss., engagement, 274. 

Hanover, Pa., engagement, 268. 

-Junction, Va., 144, 362, 363. 

-Old Church, Va., engagement, 151. 

Hanson, Roger W., C brig.-gen., killed, Mur¬ 
freesboro’, 211. 

Hardee, William J., C lieut.-gen., Corinth, 100 ; 
Shiloh, 103; port., 105; Pine Mountain, 386; 
evacuates Savannah, 423 ; evacuates Charles¬ 
ton, 440 ; Averysboro’, 441. 

“ Hardee’s Tactics,” 23, 456. 

Harding, Abner C., N brig.-gen., Dover, 295; 
Ft. Donelson, 340. 

Hare's Hill, battle (Ft. Steadman), 485, 487. 

Harker, Charles G., N brig.-gen., killed, Kene- 
saw Mountain, 387. 

Harland, Edward, N brig.-gen., Suffolk, Va., 
33 *- 

Harney, William S., N b’v’t maj.-gen., 28 ; port., 
29, 39, 49. 

Harper, Kenton, C maj.-gen., Va. militia, 28. 

Harper’s Ferry, Va., U. S arsenal seized by 
John Brown, 7 ; ill., 13 ; destroyed by N gar¬ 
rison, 27 ; ill., 36; operations about, 47 ; de¬ 
stroyed and deserted by C. 47, III ; Map of 
vicinity, 141 ; ill., 174 ; Antietam campaign, 
175-180, 192, 250, 403, 406; anecdote, 462. 

Harriet Lane, N gun-beat, Ft. Sumter, 15 ; Gal¬ 
veston, 348. 

Harris, “ Coon.” N spy, executed, 506. 

•-, Elisha, Sanitary Commission, 324, 325. 

-, Isham G., gov. Tenn., 44, 227. 

-, Matthias, N chap., 12, 18. 

-, Mrs. John, 533. 

Harrisburg, Pa., approached by Lee, 250. 

Harrison, Benjamin, N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 
423. 

-, M. La Rue, N b’v’t brig.-gen., Fayette¬ 
ville, Ark., 344. 

Harrisonburg, Va., action, 216; occupied by 
Sheridan, 409. 

Harrison's Island. Potomac River, 109. 

-Landing, Va., 160, 163. 

Harrodsburg, Ky., 201. 

Harrold, Daniel C., reward offered for arrest, 
5 i°- 

“ Harry Birch,” N merchantman, ill., 76. 

Harsen, Dr., Sanitary Commission, 324. 

Hart, Orson H., N brig.-gen., port., 150. 

-, Peter, 17, 18. 

Hartford, N cruiser. New Orleans, 90-93 ; Mo¬ 
bile Bay, 391-395 i ill., 394- 

Hartranft, John F., N b'v’t maj.-gen., Antie- 
tam, 179. 

Hartsuff, George L., N maj -gen., port., 297. 

Hartsville, Mo., engagement, 344, 345 - 

-, Tenn., captured by Morgan, 229. 

Harvey, Cordelia P , Mrs., port., 534 ; 536. 

Hatch. Edward, N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., 337 ; 
Wyatt’s, Miss., 343. 

--, John P., N b’v't maj.-gen., 163. 

Hatteras, Cape, “ General Lyon ” burned near, 
469. 

-, N steamer, sunk by “Alabama,” 372. 

-Inlet, N. C., 67, 72. 

Haupt, Hermann, N brig, gen , port., 167. 

Havana, Cuba, 63. 

Hawes's Shop, Va., action. 363. 364. 

Hawkins, Morton L., N lieut., Winchester, V?., 

407. 

-, Rush C., N b’v’t brig.-gen., N. C. expe¬ 
dition, 72. 

Hawkin’s Zouaves, 72, 218. 

Hawley, Harriet F., Mrs., 538. 

Haxall’s Landing, Va., 159, 368. 


Hayes, Rutherford B., N b’v’t maj.-gen., South 
Mountain, 176 ; Clark’s Hollow, 2:8 ; port., 
219; Winchester, 407; Cedar Creek, 411, 
481. 

Hayne, Paul Hamilton, “The Black Flag,” 
133 - 

Hays, Alexander, N b’v’t maj.-gen., Bristoe 
Sta., Va., 334 ; Robertson’s Tavern, Va., 336 ; 
killed, Wilderness, 357 ; port., 361. 

-, Harry T., C brig.-gen., Antietam, 180; 

port., 363. 

-, William, N brig.-gen., port., 401. 

Hazel Grove, Chancellorsville, 242. 

-Run, Fredericksburg, 199. 

Hazen, William B„ N maj.-gen., ports., 30, 514 ; 
Murfreesboro’, 212 ; Fort McAllister, Ga., 
4 2 3i 513. 5'4 i (sketch), 514. 

Hazlett, Charles E., N lieut., killed, Gettys¬ 
burg, 254, 260, 261. 

Heath, Herman H., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 
401. 

Heg, Hans C., N col., killed, Chickamauga, 299. 

Heintzelman, Samuel P., N maj.-gen.. port., 49 ; 
Bull Run, 54, 55 ; Peninsular campaign, 143; 
Pope’s campaign, 168 ; port., 262. 

Helena. Ark., engagement, 344. 

Helm, Benjamin H., C brig.-gen., killed, 
Chickamauga, 299. 

Helper, Hinton R , “ Impending crisis,” 182. 

Henry, Guy V., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 436. 

Henry house, Bull Run, 57 ; ills., 58, 60, 165. 

Hensie,-, murdered, 316. 

Herbert,-, C brig.-gen., Iuka, 206. 

Herron, Francis J., N maj.-gen., Prairie Grove, 
Ark., 233. 

Heth, Henry, C maj.-gen., port., 399 ; defence 
of Petersburg. 400. 

Hickman, Ky., 226. 

Hicks. Thomas H.,gov. Md., 43. 

Higginson, Thomas W., N col., writes on negro 
soldiers, 239. 

Hill, Ambrose P., C lieut.-gen., Peninsular 
campaign, 154-162 ; port., 158; Antietam 
campaign, 176-179; Chancellorsville, 242; 
Culpeper, 249 ; Shenandoah Valley, 250; Bris¬ 
toe Sta., Va., 334; Wilderness. 354; defence 
of Petersburg, 398, 400; killed, 445, 451, 491, 
49 2 - 

—-, Daniel H., C lieut.-gen., Peninsular 

campaign, 154-159 ; port., 158; Antietam 
campaign, 176. 

-, Joshua, 425. 

--, Sylvester G., N b’v’t brig.-gen., killed, 

430. 

Hillier, case of, 315. 

Hilton Head, S. C., 69 ; ill., 70, 71, 185, 219. 

Hindman, Thomas C., C maj.-gen., Shiloh, 101 ; 
Prairie Grove, 233. 

Hines, Thomas A., C capt., imprisoned, 526. 

Hinks. Edward W., N b’v’t maj.-gen.. 25 ; after 
Ball’s Bluff, no, port., 114; advance on 
Petersburg, 397. 

Hitching, J. H., N brig.-gen., killed, Cedar 
Creek, Va., 410. 

Hodgensville, Ky , action, 115. 

Hedge’s Mills, N. C., 218. 

Hoff, H. K., N rear-adm., port., 370. 

Hogg,-, N lieut.-col., killed, Bolivar, Tenn., 

227. 

Hoke, Robert F., C maj.-gen., Plymouth, N.C., 
3 r 7 > 433 - 434 - 

Holden, William W., peace candidate, N. C., 
420. 

Hollins, George N., C commodore, 99. 

Holly Springs, Miss., captured by Van Dorn, 
271. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, comment on Brownell, 
395 ; at Antietam, 478. 

--, Theophilus H., C lieut.-gen., at Bull Run, 

53 ; Helena, Ark., 344 . 

-,-, N capt.. mangled by hounds, 322. 

Holt, Joseph, N sec’y of war, 14, 20, 48. 

Home, Jessie, Miss, 538. 

Homestead bill, vetoed by Buchanan, 183. 

Hood, John B., C gen . Antietam, 177 ; Gettys¬ 
burg, 252, 254 ; Chickamauga, 303 ; port., 383 ; 
Atlanta campaign, 385-390; supersedes John¬ 
ston, 387 ; protests to Sherman, 419; pursued 
by Sherman, 420 ; Nashville, 427 ; Franklin, 
Tenn., 427-430; Nashville, 430; compared 
with Logan, 517. 

Hooker, Joseph. N maj.-gen., Peninsular cam¬ 
paign, 143 ; port., 150 ; Groveton, :68 ; 2d Bull 
Run, 169 ; Antietam campaign, 176-180 ; Burn¬ 
side's campaign, 193-196 : port,, 241: super¬ 
sedes Burnside, 241 ; Chancellorsville. 241- 
243: Culpeper, 249 ; relieved of command, 
250, 263 ; in Tenn., 305 ; Lookout Mountain, 
308, 309, 313, 331, 332, 358: Resaca. Ga., 385 ; 
near Marietta, 386; Peach Tree Creek, 387 ; 
retired, 390 ; cartoon, 459. 

Horseshoe Ridge, Chickamauga, 299. 

Hospital corps, ambulance drill, ill., 497. 

Hough, Daniel. N artilleryman, 17. 

Hovey, Alvin P., N b'v't maj.-gen., Champion’s 
Hill, Miss., 275. 

Howard, Henry W. B., Articles , 455-459, 5 ° 7 _ 
5 12 - 


Howard, Oliver O., N maj.-gen., ports., 30,57, 
513 ; 49; at Bull Run, 55, 57 ; Chancellorsville, 
241-245; Gettysburg, 251, 252 ; Chattanooga, 
314; Atlanta, 390; commands Army of the 
Tenn., 390; in march to the sea, 422-430 ; 
Article , 513-519. 

Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, “Battle Hymn of the 
Republic,” 127. 

Howland, Mrs. Joseph, 537. 

-, Mrs. Robert S., 537. 

Hubbard,-, N maj., Roan's Tanyard, Mo., 

230. 

Hudson, Mo., 122. 

Huey, Pennock, N b’v’t brig.-gen., Chancellors¬ 
ville, 242. 

Huger, Benjamin, C maj. gen., 49; Fair Oaks, 
147, 150 ; port., 155. 

Hughes. John, archbishop, Roman Catholic 
Church, 36. 

--,-, C guerilla, killed at Independence, 

Mo., 231. 

Humes, Thomas W., Rev., quoted, 316. 

Humonsville, Mo., engagement, 230. 

Humorous Incidents of the War, 455-459. 

Humphreys, Andrew A., N maj.-gen., Gettys¬ 
burg, 252-263, 445. 

Hunt, Henry J., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Fredericks¬ 
burg, 195 ; Gettysburg, 257, 263, 265; port., 
262. 

-, Lewis C., N brig.-gen., port., 159. 

Hunter, Andrew, port., 183 ; arrested and resi¬ 
dence burned, 319. 

-, David, N maj.-gen., port., 49; at Bull 

Run, 54, 55, 163 ; attempts at emancipation, 
182, 185; Ft. Pulaski, 221; depredations in 
Shenandoah Valley, 317-319, 368, 402; suc¬ 
ceeded by Sheridan. 405, 406^ 

-, D. C., C col., Charleston, Mo., 117. 

-, R. M. T., C peace com’r, 441. 

Huntersville, Va., raided, 114. 

Hunton, Eppa, C brig.-gen., port., 508. 

Huntsville, Ala., peace meeting, 431. 

-, Mo., 230. 

Hurlbut, Stephen A., N maj.-gen., Shiloh, 100 ; 
port., 105; Corinth, 207-209; Vicksburg cam¬ 
paign, 273, 308 ; Memphis, 340 ; Meridian, 375, 
532 - 

Husband, Mary M , Mrs., port., 536 ; 537. 

Hutchinson family, singers, 182. 

Hutchinson, Minn., attacked by Indians, 234. 


Illinois Infantry , nth, Lexington, 225 ; 17th, 
Frederickstown, 118 ; 19th, Chattanooga, 314 ; 
20th, Vicksburg. 277, Atlanta, 389; 22d, 
Charleston, 117 ; 23d, Lexington, 118: 30th, 
Vicksburg, 279. Atlanta, 389 ; 31st, Atlanta, 
389; 49th. Pleasant Hill, 379; 56th, “Gen'l 
Lyons” disaster, 469: 58th, Pleasant Hill, 
379 5 73d, 412 : 74th, Murfreesboro*, 211 ; 83d, 
Dover, 295 ; 88th, 96th, 115th, Chickamauga, 
299. 

- Cavalry . 2d, Bolivar, 227; 7th, Charles¬ 
ton, 230 ; 9th, Rocky Crossing, 342 ; 20th, 
Ripley, 340. 

-regimental losses, nth and 89th inf., 481 ; 

21st, 31st, 36th, 40th, 55th, 93d inf., 483. 

Illinois Central R. R., 140, 193. 

Imboden, John D., C brig, gen., 27 ; Gettys¬ 
burg, 259 : accusation against Hunter, 317- 
319; Charlestown, Va., 334: Newmarket, 
Va., 433 ; port., 434. 

“ Impending Crisis,” Helper’s, 182. 

Incidents, Thrilling, 464-472. 

Independence, Mo., engagement, 230: surren¬ 
dered, 231. 

Indian Territory, Dept, of, 81. 

Indiana Infantry , 3d, Shirley’s Ford, 231 ; 6th, 
Hodgensville, 115, Chickamauga, 299 ; 7th, 
Bolivar, 437; 16th, Richmond, 224; 20th, 

Manassas Gap, 333 ; 32d, Munfordville, 115 : 
33d, Camp Wildcat. 114 ; 48th, Iuka, 204 ; 51st, 
348 ; 55th, Richmond, 224 ; 68th. Chickamauga, 
299; 69th and 71st, Richmond, 224; 89th, 
Pleasant Hill, 379. 

--9th cav., in “ Sultana ” disaster, 469 ; 19th 

inf. loss at Bull Run, 477. 

-regimental losses, 14th inf., 481; 19th inf., 

481 ; 27th inf., 481. 

Indianola, N gunboat, Vicksburg, 277. 

Indians, in Confederate service, 80, 231; up¬ 
rising in Northwest, 234,348 : Tennessee, 317. 

Individual Heroism and Thrilling Incidents, 
464-472. 

Infantry, U. S., 8th (colored), Olustee, Fla., 436. 

Ingalls, Rufus, N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 398. 

-,-, N quar.-gen., 156. 

Ingersoll, Robert G., N col., Corinth, 207; 
Lexington, Ky., 225. 

Ingraham, Duncan N., C commodore, siege of 
Charleston, 289. 

Innes, W. P., N col., Murfreesboro, 211. 

Iowa Infantry , 5th, Iuka, 204 : 7th, Belmont, 
122 : 10th and 16th, Iuka, 204 ; 23d. Milliken’s 
Bend, 240; 39th, Parker’s Cross Roads, 229. 

-1st cavalry, Jackson, 230. 

- regimental losses, 5th, 7th, 9th, 22d, 483. 

Ireland,- Ncol , Lookout Mountain, 313. 

Irish Bend, La., battle, 345, 347 ; ills., 346, 376. 


“Irish Brigade’’(23d Ill. inf.), Lexington, 118; 
(63d, 69th, and 88th N.Y. inf.),Fredericksburg, 
197-199. 

“ Iron Brigade,” Gettysburg, 251. 

Ironside, English vessel, 87. 

Irving, Washington, quoted, 459. 

Irwinsville, Ga., President Davis captured, 448. 

Island No. 10, ill., 98, 99, 226, 307. 

Iuka, Miss., battle, 203-206. 

Iverson, Alfred, C brig.-gen., 33 ; Gettysburg, 
2 5 2 - 

Ives, Joseph C., C col., port., 450. 

Jacinto, Miss., 204, 205. 

Jackson, Conrad F., N brig.-gen., killed, Fred¬ 
ericksburg, 196. 

-, Claiborne F., gov. of Mo., 37 ; efforts to 

make the State secede, 38 ; proclaims inva¬ 
sion of State by U. S. troops, 39. 

-, James S., N brig.-gen., killed, Perry- 

ville, 201. 

-, Thomas J., “ Stonewall,” C lieut.-gen., 

Harper’s Ferry, 28, 47, 49 ; Bull Run, 53, 55, 
in ; prayer in camp, ill.. 130; Peninsular 
campaign, 143-162, 163 ; Cedar Mountain, 164 ; 
Sulphur Springs, 166 ; Groveton, 167, 168 ; 2d 
Bull Run, 168, 169 ; Manassas Junction, 171 ; 
Antietam campaign, 175-177 ; Shenandoah 
Valley, 193, 216; Fredericksburg, 195; Chan¬ 
cellorsville, 241-246 ; killed, Chancellorsville, 
242 ; port., 245 ; advocates the black flag, 316, 
451; anecdote, 463. 

Jackson, Miss., 270, 274; captured, 275; evacu¬ 
ated, 342, 375. 

-, Mo., action, 230. 

-, Tenn., 206, 207, 271. 

Jackson's Ford, Chancellorsville, 243. 

Jacob’s Ford, Va., 335, 336. 

Jacques, James F., N col., peace mission, 412. 

James, Army of the, commanded by Butler, 351, 
365; Grant’s left wing, 351; advance on 
Petersburg, 397. 

James Island, Charleston Harbor, 292, 293. 

-River, ill., 468. 

--— River Canal, locks destroyed, 442. 

Jamestown, Va., 144. 

Janeway, ——, N maj., Hawes’s Shop, Va., 364. 

Jardine, Edward, N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 285. 

Jefferson, Va., 166. 

Jefferson City, Mo., 39, 118. 

Jenkins, Albert G., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 
259 ; killed, 433. 

-, Micah, C brig.-gen., killed, Wilderness, 

356- 

-, Thornton A., N rear-adm., port., 393. 

Jetersville, Va., fight, 446. 

“ John Brown’s Body,” Charles S. Hall, 136. 

John Cabin Bridge, near Washington, ill., 404. 

John Ross house, near Ringgold, Ga., ill., 460. 

Johns, Thomas D., N b’v’t brig.-gen., Romney, 
lz 3 - 

Johnson, Andrew, mil. gov. Tenn., 44, 226; 
port., 227 ; nominated for vice-president, 412 ; 
reviews armies in Washington, 450. 

--, Bradley T., C brig.-gen., burning of 

Chambersburg, 319, 403 ; Penn, raid, 404; 
port., 411, 531. 

-, Bushrod R., C maj.-gen., port., 80. 

--, Reverdy, 43. 

-, Richard W., N b’v’t maj.-gen., captured 

at Gallatin, Tenn., 227. 

-, William P., C col., port., 450. 

-,-, N capt., 105. 

-, -, N capt., comdg. gunboat Forest 

Rose, Waterproof, La., 437. 

Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, prison, 528. 

Johnston. Albert Sidney, C gen., Corinth, 100; 
killed at Shiloh, 101 ; port., 104, 451. 

-, Edward, C maj.-gen., captured, Spott- 

sylvania, 359, 362. 

-, James D., C comr., Mobile Bay, 392. 

-, Joseph E„ C gen.. Harper's Ferry, 28, 

47, 49 ; port., 55 ; Bull Run, 54, 57, 59, 62 ; Pen¬ 
insular campaign, 140-146,151; Jackson, Miss., 
275. 276, 342 ; 295 ; supersedes Bragg, 311 ; 
Dalton, Ga., 353; port , 383; Atlanta cam¬ 
paign, 383-390; Dalton, 383 ; Resaca, 385 ; 
Kenesaw Mountain, 387: superseded by 
Hood, 387 ; blamed by Davis, 420; rein¬ 
stated, 439; opposes Sherman in the Caro- 
linas, 439-441 ; surrender to Sherman at Dur¬ 
ham Sta., N. C., 446; foresees the end, 448 ; 
cartoon, 463. 

-, Robert D., C brig.-gen., wounded. 

Spottsylvania, 362. 

-, Sarah R., Mrs. 536. 

Joinville, Prince de, port., 142. 

Jones, Catesby, C com., 85. 

-, David R., C maj.-gen.. at Bull Run, 53, 

> 75 - 

-, Edward F., N b’v’t brig.-gen., 23. 

-, John B.. quoted, 413. 

-, John M., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 259 ; 

port., 361. 

-, Roger, N lieut., 27. 

-, Samuel, C maj.-gen.. Rocky Gap, Va., 

333 ; port., 335 ; Fairmont, W.Va., 337 ; Jones- 
ville, Va., 433. 


































































546 


INDEX 


Jones, W. H., io. 

Jones Island, Ga., 220. 

Jonesboro’, Ga., 390, 422. 

Jonesborough, Miss., 209. 

Jonesville, Va., fight, 433. 

Jordan,-, N col., captured, 295. 

Journal, Chicago, Ill., 311. 

-, Louisville, Ky., 209. 

-, Wilmington, quoted, 431. 

Journal of Commerce, New York, 33. 

Kanawha, State of (.West Virginia), 45. 

Kane, George P., 24. 

Kansas Infantry , 1st, losses, 483 ; 2d, Cane Hill, 
y2 ; 6th. Independence, 230 ; 7th, 185; nth. 
Cane Hill, 232 ; 1st colored reg., Butler, 231. 

-5th cavalry, Pine Bluff, 344. 

Kautz, August V., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 443. 

Kearney, Philip, N maj.-gen., Peninsular cam¬ 
paign, 143-158; Pope’s campaign, 166-168; 
port., 168; killed, Chantilly, Va., 169, 451, 
47°. 

Kearsage, N cruiser, ill., 371; destroys “Ala¬ 
bama,” 372 ; ill., 373. 

Keenan, Peter, N maj., Chancellorsville, 242 ; 
port., 245. 

Keifer, J. Warren, N b’v’t maj.-gen., Wilder¬ 
ness, 357. 

Kelley, Benjamin F., N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 
39 ; at Philippi, 45 ; Romney, 1x3, 216. 

Kellogg, Robert H., N sergt.-maj., Anderson- 
ville prison, 321 ; Florence, S. C., 415. 

-,-, N capt., recaptured, 322. 

Kelly, James, N corp., killed, Gettysburg, 260. 

-, Patrick, N col., Fredericksburg, 199. 

Kelly’s Ferry, Tenn., anecdote, 468. 

-Ford, Va., 165, 166 ; action, 332 ; action, 

334 , 335 - 

Kelton, John C., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 176. 

Kemper, James L., C maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 
259- 

Kendrick, Rev. J. Ryland, quoted, 423. 

Kenesaw Mountain, Ga., ill., 366; occupied by 
Johnston, 385. 386 ; battle, 387. 

Kennedy, John A., draft riots in New York, 285. 

Kentucky, refuses to secede, 35 ; struggle for, 
41 ; infantry , 4th, 73 ; 5th. losses, 481; 8th, 
Lookout Mountain, 314 ; 15th, Perryville, 201, 
losses, 481 ; 18th, Mt. Sterling, 224, Rich¬ 
mond, 225 ; 34th, Powell’s River bridge, 437 ; 
cavalry, 7th, Big Hill, 224 ; 8th, Rural Hills, 
229. 

Keokuk, N ironclad, siege of Charleston, 289. 

Kerns, Mark, N capt., 158. 

Kernstown, Va., action, 216. 

Kettle Run, Va., action, 331. 

Key West, Fla., 91. 

Keyes, Erasmus D., N maj.-gen., 49; at Bull 
Run, 55,57 ; Peninsular campaign, 143; port.. 
150. 

Kilmer, George L., Articles , 520-532. 

Kilpatrick, Judson, N maj.-gen.. cavalry supe¬ 
riority, 250; Gettysburg, 259; Aldie, Va., 
267, 268 ; Rappahannock Sta.. 335 ; Atlanta, 
390, 405 ; in march to the sea, 422 ; Averys- 
boro\ 441, 5x3 ; port., 528, 531. 

Kimball, Nathan, N b'v’t maj.-gen., Kerns¬ 
town, 216; port., 422. 

King, Edward A., N col., killed, Chickamauga, 
299. 

-, E. M., N lieut., port., 274. 

-, Rufus, N brig.-gen., Groveton, 167. 

Kingston, Ga., 385. 

-, Tenn., 308. 

Kinsman, N gunboat, Bayou Teche, La., 345. 

Kinston, N. C., 461. 

Kirk, Edward N., N brig.-gen., killed, Mur¬ 
freesboro’, 2X1. 

Kirkland, William W., C brig.-gen., wounded, 
Cold Harbor, 368. 

Kittridge, Walter, “ Tenting on the old camp¬ 
ground,” 139. 

Kline,-. N drum sergt., Spottsylvania, 361. 

Knight. William, Andrews’s raid, 529. 

Knowles,-, N quar.-mas.. Mobile Bay, 391. 

Knoxville, Tenn., 73, 308, 3x1; siege, 342. 

Kreutzer, William, N col., Fair Oaks, 147 ; Cold 
Harbor, 365. 

Lafayette, Ga., 297, 298. 

La Grange, Tenn., 274. 

Lake Borgne, La., 91. 

-Providence, La., 273 ; ill., 274. 

Lamont,-, C cav., Tom’s Brook, Va., 410. 

Lamphere,-, N lieut., Richmond, Ky.,224. 

Lampson. R. H . N lieut.-comr., “ Mount Wash¬ 
ington,” 348. 

Lancaster, Mo., 122. 

-. S. C., 440. 

Lander, Frederick W., N brig.-gen., Blooming 
Gap, 217, 218. 

Landrum, J. J., N lieut.-col., Cyanthiana, 223. 

Lane, James H., C brig.-gen., wounded, Cold 
Harbor, 368. 


Lanman, Jacob G„ N b’v’t maj.-gen., Jackson, 
Miss., 342. 

Last Confederate Council of War, 492. 

Last Days of the Confederacy, 485-494. 

Latane, William, C capt., 151. 

La Vergne, Tenn., 211; engagement, 227. 

Law, E. Mclver, C maj.-gen., wounded, Cold 
Harbor, 368. 

Lawler, Michael K., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Big 
Black River, Miss., 275. 

Lawrence, Kan., plundered by Quantrell, 345. 

-Mills, Mo., 344. 

Lawrenceburg, Ky., action, 225. 

Lawson,-, N surg.-gen., death, 324. 

Lawton, Alexander R., C brig.-gen., Antietam, 
180; port., 508. 

Leap for Liberty, A, 523-524. 

Lebanon, Ky., captured by Morgan, 297. 

-, Tenn., engagement, 229. 

Le Clerc,-., N capt., port., 142. 

Ledbetter,-., C col., 316. 

Ledlie, James H., N brig.-gen., advance on 
Petersburg, 399. 

Lee, Albert L., N brig.-gen., port., 382. 

-, Edmund I., residence destroyed by Hun¬ 
ter, 319. 

--, Fitzhugh, C maj.-gen., 164; port., 265; 

Trevilian Sta., Va., 433, 493. 

-, G. W. C., C maj. gen., port., 165, 445, 

45 °. 

-, Robert E., C lieut.-gen., ports., 17, 165, 

183, 487; commands Va. troops, 28; resigns 
from U. S. service, 35; commands in W.Va., 
24, 49, 114; Peninsular campaign, 143-162; 
operations against Pope, 163-171; Antietam 
campaign, 175-180; Winchester. 191 ; Fred¬ 
ericksburg, 193-197, 217 ; Chancellorsville, 241- 
246; Gettysburg, 249-269; letter to Pres. 
Davis after Gettysburg, 268 ; retreat through 
Shenandoah Valley, 333 ; Rappahannock Sta., 
334. 335 ; Robertson's Tavern, 336, 342, 350, 
351; Orange C. H., Va., 353; Wilder¬ 
ness, 354-357 : Spottsylvania, 358-362 ; Cold 
Harbor, 365, 368, 369; defence of Petersburg, 
397-400. 406; plans to escape Grant, 442 ; with¬ 
draws in retreat from Richmond and Peters¬ 
burg, 445; surrenders to Grant at Appomattox 
C. H., 446 ; farewell address to his army', 446 ; 
surrender to Grant, ill., 447 ; begs for rations 
in Richmond and Petersburg, 485 ; discourage¬ 
ment in March, 1865, 486 ; orders Gordon into 
Petersburg, 487 ; last council of war, 493 ; at 
Appomattox, ill., 494. 

-, Wm. H. F., C maj.-gen., port., 399. 

-,-, C col., 17. 

Leesburg, Va., 109 ; battle anecdote, 463. 

Le Favour, Heber, N b’v't brig.-gen., Chicka¬ 
mauga, 303. * 

Lefferts, Marshall, N col.. 7th N. Y. regiment, 
24, 25 ; port., 33. 

Le Gendre, Charles W., N b’v't brig.-gen., port., 
276. 

Leggett, Mortimer D., N maj.-gen.. Bald Hill, 
Atlanta, 387, 388 ; port., 414. 

Leggett’s Hill (Atlanta), battle, 387. 

Leighton,-, N capt., adventures as a spy, 509. 

LeRoy, William E., N comr., Mobile Bay, 392. 

Letcher, John, gov. of Va., 9, 32, 33 ; Dort., 165 ; 
quoted, 316 ; residence burned by Hunter, 318, 
3 ‘ 9 - 

Lewis, J. E., N capt., 523. 

Lewisburg, W. Va., 113, 317, 318. 

Lexington, Mo., 109 ; battle, 118 ; ill., 116. 

-, Tenn., captured by Forrest, 225, 229. 

-, Va., devastated by Hunter, 318, 319. 

--, N gunboat, Shiloh. 101 ; Fort Donelson, 

340 ; Grand Ecore, La., 381. 

Libby Prison, ills., 320, 520 ; 321, 323 ; 348, 349 ; 
454 ; tunnel and escape, 521, 531. 

Liberty Gap, Tenn., action, 297. 

Liberty party, 259. 

Lick Creek, Shiloh, 100. 

Licking River, 115. 

Lincoln, Abraham, ports., frontispiece, 6; 
elected President of the U. S., 9 ; first call for 
troops, 18, 35 ; reviews 7th N. Y. reg., 25 ; 
inaugural address, 29 ; proclaimed rebellion, 
35; early military embarrassments. 48; calls 
for more troops, 49 ; Peninsular campaign, 
143 ; port., 147 : hatred of slavery, 182 ; cor¬ 
respondence with Horace Greeley, 186 ; eman¬ 
cipation proclamation. 187, 189; visits Mc¬ 
Clellan ; criticised by Gurowski. 236, 237 ; let¬ 
ter to Hooker, 241; address at Gettysburg, 
269; letter to Grant at Vicksburg, 277; atti¬ 
tude toward Sanitary Commission, 324; ap¬ 
points Grant lieut.-gen., 351 ; instructions to 
Minister Adams, 374 ; port., 402 ; exposed to 
fire. Fort Stevens, 404 ; letter to Grant about 
Shenandoah, 405 ; despatch to Sheridan after 
Winchester, 409 ; renominated for president, 
412; re-elected, 415; receives peace commis¬ 
sion at Ft. Monroe, 441; assassinated. 449 ; 
2d inaugural address quoted, 450; cartoons, 
455-463 i anecdotes. 457 ; visits camp. 503. 

Little, Henry, C brig.-gen., killed, Iuka, 204, 
206. 

Little Rock, Ark., 35, 470. 

Little Round Top, Gettysburg, 252 ; ill., 253, 
260, 261. 

Livermore, Mary A., Mrs., port., 536, 540. 


Logan, John A., N maj.-gen., ports., 30, 517; 
Champion's Hill, Miss., 275 ; Vicksburg, 279, 
307, 316 ; Atlanta, 389, 390, 483, 5x3; (sketch), 
5 ‘ 7 * 

Logan's Cross Roads, Ky., 73. 

London Morning Advertiser, London, Eng., 
quoted, 269. 

Lone Jack, Mo., engagement, 231. 

Long Bridge, D. C., ill., 22, 62. 

-, Va., 368. 

Longfellow, Henry W., from “ Building of the 
Ship,” 35; port., 190; quoted on slavery, 184. 

Longstreet, James, C lieut.-gen., 49; at Bull 
Run, 53 ; port., 55 ; Fair Oaks, 150; Peninsu¬ 
lar campaign, 154-162; Thoroughfare Gap, 
166,167 ; Groveton, 168 ; Antietam campaign, 
175-180 ; Culpeper, 193 ; Fredericksburg, 195, 
197 ; Culpeper, 249, 250 ; Gettysburg, 252-268 ; 
port., 265; Chickamauga, 298-302, 308; in 
Va., 311 ; Suffolk, Va., 329; Knoxville, 342, 
351 : Wilderness, 354-357; wounded, ill.. 358; 
Spottsylvania, 358,368 ; foresees the end, 448 ; 
Ft. Steadman, 488, 491; covers Lee’s retreat, 
492 - 

Lookout Mountain, Tenn., 263, 303-314; ills., 
304, 309, 310; battle 308-313. 

Loomis, Cyrus O., N b’v't brig.-gen., Perryville, 
201 ; Murfreesboro’, 210, 212 ; Lookout Moun¬ 
tain, 314. 

Loomis's Battery, ill., 205. 

“Lorena” (author unknown), 133. 

Loring, William W., C maj.-gen., Fayetteville, 
W. Va., 218. 

Losses, at Gettysburg and Waterloo, 259, 476 ; 
in Franco-German War, 476 ; highest percent¬ 
age of, in National and Confederate regiments, 
476; comparative, at Gettysburg, Spottsyl¬ 
vania, Wilderness, Chickamauga, and Chan¬ 
cellorsville, Antietam, 477 ; of separate regi¬ 
ments, 477-485. 

Lost Mountain, Ga., occupied by Johnston, 385 ; 
abandoned, 386. 

Loudoun Heights, Va., rrx. 

Louisa C. H., Va., fight. 433. 

Louisiana secedes, 9 : 18th inf., Shiloh, 101 ; 3d 
inf., Iuka, 206 ; “Tigers,” Gettysburg, 254. 

Louis Napoleon, unfriendly to the United States, 
66, 375 - 

Louisville, Ga., 422. 

--, Ky., 209, 307, 383. 

Love,-, N capt., 84. 

Lovell, Mansfield, C maj.-gen., at N.O., port.,96. 

Lowe, John W., N col., 113 ; killed at Gauley 
River, 114 ; port., 483. 

--, T. S. C., balloonist, port., 154, 162. 

-, —-—, C col., killed, Fredericktown, Mo., 

118. 

Lowell, Charles R., Jr., N brig.-gen., killed, 
Cedar Creek, Va., 410. 

-, James Russell, quoted on slavery, 183. 

“ Loyal Mountaineers,” quoted, 316. 

Lubbock, Francis R., C col., port., 450. 

Luray Valley, Va., 409. 

Lynch. William F., N b’v’t brig.-gen., Pleasant 
Hill, 379. 

-,-, C, killed, Belmont, 122. 

Lynchburg, Va., 319. 

Lyon, H. B., C brig.-gen., port., 434. 

-, Nathaniel. N brig.-gen..port . 38;captures 

disloyal camp, Mo., 38; defeats McCulloch, 
Dug Spring, Mo., 41 ; is by him defeated at 
Wilson’s Creek. Mo., and killed. 41 ; property 
bequeathed to U. S. government, 41, 451. 

Lyons,-, Judge. Richmond, 454. 

Lytle, William H.. N brig.-gen., Perryville, 201 ; 
killed, Chickamauga, 299, 301. 


McAllister, Robert, N b'v’t maj.-gen., Wilder¬ 
ness, 357. 

McArthur, John, N b'v’t maj.-gen., Corinth, 
206, 207. * 

McCall, George A., N brig.-gen., Ball's Bluff, 
109; Peninsular campaign, 154-158. 

McCarthy, Harry, “The Bonnie Blue Flag,” 
136. 

McCauley, Charles S., N commodore, 28. 

McCausland, John, C brig.-gen., burning of 
Chambersburg, 319, 320, 404. 

McClellan. George B., N maj.-gen., ports., 15, 
140; Philippi and Rich Mountain, 45 ; in com¬ 
mand Army of the Potomac, 45, 109 : W. Va., 
113 ; general-in-chief, 140 ; Peninsular cam¬ 
paign, 140-162; port., 147; “Little Mac.” 
“Young Napoleon,” 160; Harrison's Land¬ 
ing, 163; Antietam campaign, 175-180; atti¬ 
tude toward slavery, 182, 183; inaction after 
Antietam. 191, 192 : succeeded by Burnside, 
criticised by Gurowski, 236, 237, 365, 368, 369; 
nominated for President, 413; defeated, 415 ; 
cartoon, 456 ; anecdote, 456. 

-, Mrs. George B., port., 140. 

-, H. B., C major, 164. 

McClelland, U. S. revenue cutter, 10. 

McClernand, John A.. N maj.-gen., 49; Fort 
Donelson, 77; Shiloh, too. ioi ; port., ic8; 
Columbus, Ky., 223 ; Vicksburg campaign, 
270-276. 

McCook, Alexander McD., N maj.-gen.. port., 
205 ; Murfreesboro’, 210; Chickamauga, 298- 
301. 


McCook, Anson G., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 

527- 

-, Daniel, N pvt., killed, Buffington’s 

Ford, 297. 

--, Daniel, N brig.-gen., Chickamauga, 302 ; 

killed, Kenesaw Mountain, 387. 

-, D. N., N col., Dandridge, Tenn., 436. 

-, Edward M., N b'v't maj.-gen., Perry¬ 
ville, 201; port., 389; Newnan, Ga., 390. 

McCulloch, Ben, C brig.-gen.. Dug Spring and 
Wilson’s Creek, 41 ; port., 45 ; Killed at Pea 
Ridge, 80, 81. 

McCullough,-, C col., Bolivar, Tenn., 227. 

McDonald,-, N color-sergt., Fort Wagner, 

292. 

McDowell, Irwin, N maj.-gen., 24, 49 : port., 51 ; 
at Bull Run, 53, 54, 57, 59, 60, 61, 63 ; Penin¬ 
sular campaign. 141-160 ; Pope's campaign, 
167-169; cartoon, 461. 

McDowell, Va., engagement, 216. 

McGowan, Samuel, C brig.-gen., wounded, 
Spottsylvania. 362. 

Mclntire,-, N, Somerset, Ky., 340. 

McIntosh. James, C brig.-gen , killed at Pea 
Ridge, 80. 

-, John B., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Shenandoah 

Valley, 406. 

McKean, Thomas J., N b'v’t maj.-gen., Cor¬ 
inth, 206, 207. 

McKinstry, Justus, N brig.-gen., port.. 230. 

McLaughlin, N. B., N b'v't brig.-gen., captured 
at Ft. Steadman, 489. 

McLaws, Lafayette, C maj.-gen., Antietam 
campaign, 175-177 ; port., 177. 

McLean, Nathan C., N brig.-gen., port., 422. 

McLean House, Appomattox, where Lee sur¬ 
rendered, ills., 447. 494. 

McMahon, Martin T., N b’v't maj. gen., port., 
367- 

McMichael,-, N maj., Chickamauga, 301. 

McMillen, W. L., N brig.-gen., port., 437. 

McMinnville, Tenn., 305. 

McNeil, John, N b’v’t maj.-gen.. Cape Girar¬ 
deau, Mo., 230. 

McPherson, James B., N maj.-gen., 107, 108; 
Corinth, 207; port., 210: Vicksburg cam¬ 
paign, 273, 275 ; Meridian, Miss., 375 ; Atlanta 
campaign, 383-390; Resaca, 383, 385 ; killed, 
390; ill., 388, 451 ; scene of death of, ill., 482 ; 
compared with Logan, 517. 

-, William, 41. 

McRae, Alex., capt., U. S. cav., killed, Ft. 
Craig, N. M., 233. 

Mackey, T. J., C capt.. Article, 465. 

Macon, Ga., 390, 422. 

Madison, Ga., 425-427. 

Madison University. Hamilton, N. Y., company 
recruited from. 479. 

Magenta, Italy, 23, 169. 

Magoffin, Beriah, gov. of Ky., 41. 

Magruder, John B., C maj.-gen., port., 45; at 
Big Bethel. 45, 49; Peninsular campaign. 143- 
162 ; captures Galveston, 348. 

Mahone, William, C maj.-gen., port., 445. 

Maine Infantry. 3d and 4th. Manassas Gap, 333 ; 
5th and 6th, Rappahannock Sta., 335 ; 12th, 
Richmond, 445 ; 20th, Gettysburg, 254 ; Rap¬ 
pahannock Sta., 335. 

-1st art’y. losses, 477 ; 5th bat’y, Winches¬ 
ter, 407, losses, 483. 

Majthenyi,-, N adj., 121. 

Mallory, Stephen R., C sec'y of the navy, 
port., 26. 

-, W. B., C capt., 185. 

Malsbury,-, N, Hawes’s Shop, Va., 364. 

Malvern Hill, Va., battle, 159; ill., 156. 

Manassas, C ram, at N. O., 93 ; ill., 94. 

Manassas Gap, Va., battle, 333, 472. 

Manassas Gap Railroad, 168. 

Manassas Junction, Va., 45, 52, 53, 54, 60, 140 ; 
evacuated, 143, 166, 167, 171. 

Manhattan, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 391. 

Mansfield, Joseph K. F.. N maj.-gen., port., 49, 
52, 53 ; Antietam, 177-180 ; killed, Antietam, 
180, 451. 

Manson, Mahlon D., N brig.-gen., Richmond, 
Ky., 224, 225. 

March to the Sea, The, 419-430. 

“ Marching through Georgia,” Henry C. Work, 
129. 

Marietta. Ga., Atlanta campaign, 385, 529. 

Marion County, Tenn., secessionists assessed 
by Negley, 226. 

Marmaduke, John S., C maj.-gen.. Cape Girar¬ 
deau, Mo.. 230 ; port., 231: Cane Hill. Ark., 
232, 233 ; Prairie Grove, Ark.. 233 ; Pine Bluff, 
Ark., 344 ; Springfield, Mo., 344. 

Marsh, Jason, N col., Murfreesboro, 211. 

Marshall, Humphrey, C brig, gen., Big Sandy 
River, 73, 223 ; port., 225. 

--, William R., N b'v’t brig.-gen., Big 

Mound, Dak., 348. 

-,-, N corp., Bolivar Heights, nx. 

Marston, Gilman, N brig.-gen.. Cold Harbor, 
367 - 

Martin, Frank, N (female) pvt., 8th and 25th 
Mich, inf., 470. 









































INDEX. 


54 7 


Martin, Thomas S., N lieut.-col., port., 485. 
Martindale, William F., N capt., Shepherds- 
town, W. Va., 319. 

Martinsburg, W. Va., engagement, m, 175, 176, 
406, 407. 

Marye’s Hill, Va., ill., 194 ; battle, 193, 197. 
Maryland, struggle for, 43 ; invaded by Lee, 
175 ; 2d inf., Antietam, 179 ; slavery abolished, 
415; 6th )N) inf., losses, 481 ; 1st (C) inf., 
losses, 484. 

Maryland Heights, Md., 403. 

Mason, Charles, N spy, executed, 507. 

-, James M., 63 ; port , 65. 

-, of Virginia, C spy, 505. 

Massachusetts Infantry regts., 6th, attacked in 
Baltimore, 5, 23; ill., 32 ; 8th, 24, 25511th, 
Pope’s campaign. 171 ; Chancellorsville. 245 ; 
13th, Bolivar Heights, tn ; 15th, Ball's Bluff, 
no ; 19th, no ; Fredericksburg, 195, 478 ; 20th, 
Fredericksburg, 195; sundry battles, 477-478 ; 
38th, Bayou Teche, 348 ; 54th, Fort Wagner, 
239, 290. 

- Cavalry , 4th, Richmond, 454. 

-. regimental losses, infantry, 12th, Antie¬ 
tam and Manassas, 477 ; 15th, 477. 

Massanutten Mountain, Va., C signal station, 
411. 

Matchett, Charles G.. N capt., Franklin, Tenn., 
34 i- 

Matthias, Charles L., N col., Iuka, 204. 

Maxey, Samuel B., C brig, gen., port., 318- 

May, -, C col., mayor of Richmond, 454. 

-, -•, N lieut.-col., Rural Hills, Tenn., 

229. 

Mayfield, Ky., 223. 

Mayne, Frank, N (female) sergt., 126th Pa. inf., 
470. 

Maysville, Mo., battle, 232. 

Meade, George G., N maj.-gen., 2d Bull Run, 
169 ; Fredericksburg, 195 ; supersedes Hooker, 
250; Gettysburg. 251-269 ; port., 252 ; portrait 
group, 268 : pursues Lee, 333 ; Rappahannock 
Sta., 334 ; Robertson's Tavern, Va., 335. 336 ; 
Mine Run, Va., 337: Wilderness. 354, 358; 
Cold Harbor, 365, 368 ; advance on Petersburg, 
397 - 

-Richard K.. N 2d lieut., port., n ; at 

Sumter, 12 ; joins C, 11. 

--, -—, N col., killed. Cold Harbor, 367. 

Meagher, Thomas F., N brig.-gen., Antietam, 
180 ; port., 196 ; Fredericksburg, 197, 502. 
Measure of Valor, The, 476-485. 

Mechanicsville, Va., Peninsular campaign, 144- 
155 - 

Mecklenburg, N. C., 190. 

Meigs, Montgomery C., N brig.-gen., port., 23, 
49. 

Memminger, C. G., N sec’y of the treasury, 
port., 26. 

Memphis, Mo., engagement, 230, 231. 

-, Tenn., 206, 270, 271, 273, 306, 340 ; Smith's 

raid, 375. 

Memphis and Charleston Railroad, 100. 

Mendon, Mass., 190. 

Meredith. Solomon, N b’v't maj.-gen., Gettys¬ 
burg, 251. 

-,-, Judge, Richmond. 454. 

Meridian, Miss., captured by Sherman, 375. 
Merion, N. L., warden Ohio penitentiary, 527. 
Meriwether, -, C lieut.-col., killed, Sacra¬ 

mento, 115. 

Merrill, Lewis, N b’v’t brig.-gen., Hartsville, 
Mo., 344, 345- 

Merrimac, N frigate. 28, 29 ; as C ironclad, ill.. 
83 ; destroys “ Cumberland ” and “ Congress,” 
84; battle with “ Monitor,” ill., 85, 86, 87 ; de¬ 
stroyed, 217. 

Merritt, Wesley, N maj.-gen., 268; Robertson’s 
Tavern, 335 ; port., 356, 405 ; Shenandoah Val¬ 
ley, 406-410. 

Metacomet, N gunboat. Mobile Bay, 392. 
Metcalfe, Leonidas, N col., Big Hill, 224. 
Mexico, French forces in, 66, 382. 

Miami, N gunboat, Plymouth, N. C., 434. 
Michigan Infantry , 1st, loss at Bull Run, 477 : 2d 
and 5th, 470 ; 7th, nth, 478; 8th, Secessionville, 
219, Wilmington Island, 221, 470: 9th Mur¬ 
freesboro, 226; 12th, 105 ; 22d, Chickamauga, 
303; 25th. 470 ; losses—1st, 4th and 24th, 483; 9th 
engineers, Murfreesboro, 211; tst cav., 470; 
4th cav., Murfreesboro, 211. 

-, N gunboat, Lake Erie raid, 528, 529. 

Middle Boss Island, Lake Erie, 528, 
Middleburg, Va., action, 250, 267. 

Miles, DixonS., N b’v’t brig.-gen., 49; Harper’s 
Ferry, 175, J76. 

-, Nelson A., N maj.-gen., advance on 

Petersburg, 400, 479 ; port., 530. 

-, W. Porcher, C capt., 17. 

Milford, Mo., 122. 

Military railroad, ill., 486. 

Mill Springs, Ky., battle, 73, 76 ; ill., 78. 
Milledgeville, Ga., 422. 

Millen, Ga., prison camps, 321, 415, 423. 

Miller, John F., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Liberty 
Gap, 297. 

-, M. M., N capt., Milliken’s Bend, 240. 


Milliken’s Bend, La., battle, 240, 271, 277. 
Milroy, Robert H., N maj.-gen., Buffalo Moun¬ 
tain, 114 • McDowell, 216; port., 217; Win¬ 
chester, Va., 250. 

Milton, Tenn., battle, 295, 340. 

Mine Run, Va., action, 336, 337, 353. 

Minnesota, 3d inf., Fitzhugh's Woods, Ark., 
437 ; 1st inf., charge at Gettysburg compared 
with Balaklava, 476. 

-, N cruiser, 68, 85. 

Minor Engagenents of the first year, 109-122. 
Minor Events of the second year, 215-234. 

-of the third year, 329-349. 

-of the fourth year, 431-437. 

Mint, New Orleans, La., 95, 97. 

Minty, Robert H. G., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Mur¬ 
freesboro, 211. 

Missionary Ridge, Tenn.. 263 ; ill.,296, 303-312 ; 
battle, 309, 311, 405. 

Mississippi secedes, 9 ; 6th inf., Shiloh, 101 ; 6th 
inf., Gettysburg, 260. 

--, regimental losses, 16th, 18th, 29th, 6th. 

8th inf., 484. 

-, N cruiser at N. O., 90, 91, 93; ill., 94. 

-, military division of the, commanded by 

Grant, 305. 

Mississippian, Jackson, Miss., quoted, 316. 
Missouri, struggle for, 35, 38 ; guerilla warfare, 
79; minor engagements, 117-122. 

— - Infantry, 6th Vicksburg, 272; nth, Iuka, 

204; 13th and 14th, Lexington, 118; 25th, 
105 ; 26th, Iuka, 204. 

- Cavalry , 1st, Sugar Creek. 231; 7th,War- 

rensburg, 230 ; 18th, Rocky Crossing. 342. 

-, regimental losses, (N) 11th inf., 483 ; 12th 

inf., 483; 13th inf., 483. 

— -compromise, 7. 

-, Dept, of (Nl, 73. 

Mitchel, Ormsby M., N maj.-gen., Bowling 
Green, 76. 

Mitchell. Robert B., N brig.-gen., Perryville, 
203 ; port , 205 ; Chickamauga, 290. 

Mitchell's Ford (Bull Run), 53. 

Mizner, John K., N b’v't brig.-gen., Iuka, 203. 
Moale, Edward, 11. 

Mobile, Ala., 307, 353, 375, 391-395. 

Mobile Bay, defences, 391; battle, 391-396 ; ill., 
396 . 

Mobile and Ohio R.R., 100, 375. 

Moccasin Point, Tenn., 312, 314. 

Mohain,--, Capt., port., 142. 

Molineaux, Edward L., N b’v’t maj.-gen., 24. 
Monitor, N ironclad, invented by Ericsson, 84 ; 
battle with ** Merrimac,” ill., 85, 86 ; foun¬ 
dered, ill., 88. 

“Monitor ” and “ Merrimac,” 83-87. 

Monocacy, Md., battle, 402, 403. 

Monongahela River, 113. 

Montauk, N monitor, destroys the “ Nashville,” 
348 . 

Montgomery, Ala., seat of C government, 9, 32, 
33. 526-532. 

Monticello, N cruiser, 531. 

Monticello, Ga., 427. 

Moore, Absalom B., N col., Hartsville, Tenn., 

229. 

-———, Thomas O., gov. of La., port., 96. 

-,-, N capt., Ripley, Tenn., 340. 

Moorefield, W. Va., action, 337. 

Moorehead City, N. C., 72. 

Morell, George W., N maj.-gen., port., 180. 
Morgan, Edwin D., gov. of N. Y., port., 18 ; in¬ 
fluence, 448. 

-, George W., N brig.-gen., Vicksburg 

campaign, 272. 

-, John H., C brig.-gen., Murfreesboro’, 

209, port., 211; Cynthiana, Ky„ 223 ; Harts- 
ville, Tenn., 229 ; Milton, Tenn.. 295 ; raid into 
Ohio, 297 ; port., 297 ; Vaught’s Hill. Tenn., 
340 ; Snow Hill, Tenn., 341; Crockett’s Cove, 
W. Va., 433, 526-532. 

-, Mrs. John H., port., 211. 

-, John T., C brig.-gen., port., 427 and 474 ; 

Article, 472-474. 

-,-, N maj.; Pleasant Hill, La., 379. 

Morgan's Escape, 526, 527. 

Morris, George U., N lieut., port., 84. 

-, William H., N brig.-gen., port., 357. 

--,-, col., killed, Cold Harbor, 367. 

Morris Island, Charleston harbor, 5, 12,14, 15, 
288-294. 

Morton, Oliver P., gov. of Ind., port., 18; in¬ 
fluence, 448. 

Morton’s Ford, Va., 335. 

Mosby, John S., C col., 164 ; operations in Va., 
331; quoted, 331, 332 ; port., 332. 

Moss, Lemuel, Christian commission, 326. 

Mott, Gershom, N maj.-gen., Spottsylvania, 
359 i pert., 530. 

-, Samuel R., N b’v't. brig.-gen., Chancel¬ 
lorsville, 246. 

Moultrieville, S. C., 11. 

Mount Roan, Va.. 335. 

Mount Sterling, Ky., 223, 224. 


Mount Vernon, action, Ala , 10, 35. 

Mount Washington, N gunboat, 348. 

Mountjoy,-, N cav., Warrenton Junction, 

33 i- 

Mouton. Alfred, C brig.-gen., killed, Sabine 
Cross Roads, 377. 

Mower, Joseph A., N maj.-gen., ports., 30, 514 ; 
Iuka, 204 ; Pleasant Hill, 379, 483. 

Mullany, J. R. M., N naval com., Mobile Bay, 
393 - 

Mulligan. James A., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 
1x7 ; Lexington, Mo., 118. 

Munfordville, Ky., battle, 115 ; ill., 112, 200. 

Munsell, Mrs. Jane R., 540. 

Munson, Gilbert D., N col.. Bald Hill, Atlanta, 
3 8 9 - 

Murfreesboro’, Tenn., battle, 209-213 ; ill., 202 ; 
Map, 211; captured by Pillow, 226, 227, 295, 
298, 340, 405. 

Murphy. R. C.. N col., Holly Springs, 271. 

Murray,-, N maj., 3d Ky. Cavalry, 115. 

“ My Maryland,” James Ryder Randall, 131, 
413. 

Naglee, Henry M., N brig.-gen., ports., 159, 552. 

Nag’s Head, N. C., 72. 

Nashville, Tenn., 79, 209. 226. 307, 308, 340, 383 j 
battle, Map, 426. 

-, C cruiser, ill., 76 ; destroyed, Fort Mc¬ 
Allister, Ga., 348. 

Nashville and Chattanooga R.R., 209. 

Nassau, West Indies, 288. 

Natchitochez, La., 379. 

National finances (The), 415-417. 

Naval Academy, U. S., 25, 47. 

Navy, the condition at the opening of the war, 

66 . 

“ Neckties, Jeff Davis’s,” 375. 

Negley, James S.. N maj.-gen.. Falling Waters, 
in ; port., 226; Sweeden’s Cove, 226; Nash¬ 
ville, 227. 

Nelson, William, N maj.-gen., Shiloh, 101. 103, 
513; Richmond. Ky., 225; port., 226; killed 
by Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, 513. 

Nelson’s Farm, Va., 159. 

Neosho, N gunboat, Grand Ecore, La., 381. 

Newark, O., arrest of (C) Lieut. S. B. Davis, 
471. 

New Berne, N. C., 67, 72, 193. 

New Carthage, La., 274. 

Newcomer,-, N private, spy, 510. 

New Era, N gunboat, Fort Pillow, 320. 

New Hampshire Infantry —5th. losses in battle, 
477 ; Antietam, 178, 179 ; 6th. Antietam, 178, 
179 ; 7th, Olustee, 436; 9th, Spottsylvania, 
361 ; 10th, Cold Harbor, 367 ; 13th, Fredericks¬ 
burg, 199. 

New Hope Church, Ga., battle, 385 ; ill., 466. 

New Hope Church, Va., 335. 

New Ironsides, N frigate, Fort Wagner, 292, 
2 93 * 

New Jersey, 15th infantry, Spottsylvania, 361 ; 
1st cavalry. Harrisonburg, 216 ; Hawes’s shop, 
363, 364; 2d cavalry, 348; infantry losses-8th, 
12th, 15th, 480. 

New Lisbon, O., Morgan’s surrender, 297. 

New Madrid, Mo., 99. 

New Market, Va., 159, 433. 

New Mexico, invaded, 233, 234. 

Newnan, Ga., 390. 

New Orleans, La., 10, 35, 83 ; important to Con¬ 
federacy. 88; ill., 89; defences, 90 ; determina¬ 
tion of U. S. to capture, 91 ; captured, 96, 270, 
3 ° 7 » 35 °. 375 . 39 L 395 - 

Newport News, Va., 45. 

Newton, John, N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 192. 

Newtown, near Kernstown, Va., 216. 

New Ulm, Minn., Indian massacre, 234. 

New York Infantry regts., 1st, 2d, 3d, Big 
Bethel. 25 ; 4th, Kelly's Ford, 332 ; 5th (Dur- 
yea’s) Zouaves, Big Bethel, 45 ; 6th, 25 ; 7th, 
Big Bethel, 45 ; 8th, 9th, 25 ; nth, draft riots, 
287 ; 22d, ill., 176; 40th, Gettysburg, 254, 260; 
42d, Ball's Bluff, 109; 43d, 479; 44th, ill. of 
camp, 48; port, group officers, 287; 45th, Tybee 
Island, 220 : 48th, 220 ; 51st, Antietam, 179 ; 
57th. ambulance corps, ill., 475; 63d. 69th, 
Fredericksburg, 198, 199 ; 71st, = 5 ; 81st, 85th, 
Fair Oaks, 147; 89th, Suffolk. 329. 478 ; 92d, 
Fair Oaks, 147; 95th, 479; 98th, Fair Oaks, 
147,150; Cold Harbor, 365, 367 ; 112th, Suffolk, 
329 ; 118th, Cold Harbor, 367 ; 121st, Rappa¬ 
hannock Sta., 335 ; 124th, Gettysburg, 254, 260; 
125th, Rappahannock Sta., 335; 140th, Gettys¬ 
burg, 254, 260; Cavalry, 1st, Shepherdstown, 
319; 5th, Warrenton June., Va., 331; 8th, 
Brandy Sta., 249 ; Artillery, 14th, battle flags, 
ill., 472; Petersburg Crater, 479; regimental 
losses, inf., 5th (Duryea’s Zouaves), Bull Run, 
477 , 479 : 4°th, 42d, 44th (Ellsworth Avengers), 
48th, 49th, 51st, 52d, 59th, 61st, 63d, 69th, 70th, 
76th, 79th, 81st, 82d,83d, 84th, 86th, 88th, 93d, 
97th, 100th, 479; 101st, 477; 109th, inth, 
112th, 120th, 121st, 124th, 126th, 137th, 140th, 
147th, 149th, 164th, 170th. 480; regimental 
losses, heavy arty., 7th. 8th, 9th, 14th, 478; 
furnished one sixth of all troops. 479- 

New York, N. Y., departure 7th reg., 24; ill., 
33 ; mass meeting in Union Square. 236 ; draft 
riots, 285-287 ; Sanitary commission, 324. 


Niagara Falls, N. Y., peace conference, 412. 

Nichols, Edward T., N naval com’r, port., 370. 

--, Geo. Ward, N maj., quoted, 422. 

Nicholls, Francis T.. C brig.-gen., port., 260. 

Nields, Henry C., N actg. ensign, Mobile Bay, 
392 , 393 - 

Nims, Ormond F., N capt., Sabine Cross Roads, 
377 - 

Nolen,-, N capt.. Charleston, Mo., 230. 

Norfolk, Va., 28, 83, 87; surrenders to Wool, 
217. 

Norfolk and Petersburg R.R., 398. 

North Anna, Va., 362, 363. 

North Atlantic squadron, 234. 

North Carolina secedes, 35, 43 ; 1st inf., Tran¬ 
ter's Creek, 218 ; proposes to secede from Con¬ 
federacy, 316 ; peace movement in, 420 ; regi¬ 
mental losses, 26th, nth, 4th inf., 483 ; 27th, 
2d inf., 484. 

North Carolina, C ram, 531. 

Northrop, Lucius B., C com.-gen., brutality, 320, 
321. 

Nugent, Robert, N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 196; 
Fredericksburg, 198, 199. 

Nullification Act of S. C., 7. 

O'Brien, Fitz James, N capt., 24 ; fatally 
wounded. Blooming Gap, 217. 

-, Henry J., N col., killed, NewYorkdraft 

riots, 287. 

Oglesby, Richard J., N maj.-gen., port., 276. 

Ohio Infantry, 3d, Perryville. 201 ; anecdote, 
468; 4th and 5th, Blue’s Gap, 216 ; 6th, Kelly’s 
Ford, 332 ; 7th, Cross Lanes, 113 ; 8th, Bloom¬ 
ing Gap, 217; 9th, Logan's Cross Reads, 73; 
10th, Perryville, 201: Murfreesboro'. 211: 14th 
and 17th, Camp Wildcat, 114 : 20th, Vicksburg, 
277, 279; 23d, Clark’s Hollow, 218; South 
Mountain, 176 ; 25th, Huntersville, 114 ; 34th, 
Fayetteville, 218 : Winchester, 407; 40th. 
Lookout Mountain, 313 ; 62d and 67th, Fort 
Wagner, 291, 292 ; 78th. Atlanta, 389: 82d, 
McDowell, 216 : 9id, Shiloh, 107 , 93d, Leb¬ 
anon, 229; 96th, Chickamauga, 303; io2d. 
Sultana disaster, 469 ; 107th, Gettysburg, 255; 
108th, Hartsville, 229 ; 115th, Sultana disaster, 
469 ; i22d, Cedar Creek, 411. 

-, 5th cavalry, Rocky Crossing, 342. 

-, losses, 7th inf., 481 ; 23d inf., 481; 25th, 

inf., 481: Sands’s batt’y, 483. 

Ohio, Army of the, commanded by Schofield, 
3 8 3 - 

“ Old Folks at Home,” Stephen Collins Foster, 
port., 134. 

Old Fort Wayne, Ark., battle, 232. 

Olden, Charles S., gov. of N. J., port., 18. 

Oliver, John M.,N b’v't maj.-gen., Corinth,206. 

Olrastead, Charles H., N col., Fort Pulaski, 220, 
221. 

Olmsted, Frederick Law, sanitary commission, 
325. 

Olustee, Fla., colored troops, 237 ; battle, 436. 

O’Meara,-, N col., killed, Chattanooga, 314. 

k 'On to Richmond,” 52, 140. 

Oneida, N gunboat. New Orleans, 90, 93 ; ill., 
94 ; Mobile Bay, 393. 

Opdyke, Emerson, N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., 302. 

Opequan, Va., 406; battle, 407, 409. 

Orange and Alexandria R.R., 166, 250, 334. 

Orange Court House, Va., Lee's headquarters, 

353 - 

Orchard Knob, Tenn., ill., 296, 312, 313. 

Ord, Edward O. C., N maj.-gen., Dranesville, 
113; Iuka, 203-205; port., 207; Corinth, 207; 
Vicksburg, 276 ; Southside R. R., Va., 443, 445. 

O'Bierne, James R., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 
552 . 

O Rorke, Patrick H., N lieut., Ft. Pulaski, 
221 j killed, Gettysburg, 254, 261; port., 261. 

Osage Island, Mo., battle, 231. 

Ossipee, N gunboat, Mobile Bay, 392. 

Osterhaus, Peter J., N maj.-gen., port., 423, 483. 

Ould, Robert, C col., 322. 

Overend, W. H., artist, 394. 

Overland campaign, The, 350-369. 

Owasco, N steamer, Galveston, 348. 

Owen, Joshua T., N brig.-gen., port., 357. 

-, Robert Dale, 189. 

Owl Creek, Shiloh, 100, 103. 

Oxford. Va., 362. 

Ozark, Mo., 344. 

Pactolus, N. C.. 218. 

Paducah, Ky., 76, 320. 

Paine, Halbert E., N b’v't maj.-gen., attitude 
toward slavery, 185. 

Paine’s Cross Roads, Va., fight, 446. 

Paintsville, Ky., 73. 

Palmer. Innis N., N b'v’t maj.-gen., Fair Oaks, 
150; port., 159. 

-, James S., N commodore, Mobile Bay, 

392 - 

-, John M., N maj.-gen., Murfreesboro', 

212 ; port., 226; La Vergne, Tenn., 227, 229, 
5 I 4* 

Palmerston, Lord, favors the Confederacy, 269. 







































548 


INDEX 


Palmetto flag, cut 9, raised at Charleston, 9. 

Pamlico Sound, N. C., 67. 

Paris, France, treaty, 374. 

-, Va., 267. 

Paris, Comte de, ports., 142, 147. 

Parke, John G., N maj.. North Carolina expe¬ 
dition, 72 ; port., 73 ; advance on Petersburg, 
399 ; near Petersburg, 443, 445. 

Parker, Ely S., N b’v't brig, gen., port., 530. 

-, Foxhall A., N comr., Mobile Bay, 392. 

-, Reuben, N pvt., 1st Vt. inf., adventure 

of, 502. 

Parker’s Cross Roads, Tenn., battle, 229, 230. 

-Store, Va., 335. 

Parrott, E. A., N col., Dog Walk, 225. 

Parsons, Charles C., N lieut., Perryville, 201; 
Murfreesboro’, 212. 

-, Emily E., Miss, port., 537, 539. 

Pass a l’Outre, Miss. River, La., 91. 

Patrick, Marsena R., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 
180. 

Patriotism, Oration on, 464. 

Patterson, Joseph, Christian commission, 326. 

-, Robert, N maj.-gen., at Harper's Ferry, 

47 ; at Bull Run, 54 ; port., 57; Bunker Hill, 
hi. 

Patton, W. T., C col., 113. 

Paul, Gabriel R., N maj.-gen., port., 257 ; Get¬ 
tysburg, 259. 

Paulding, Hiram, N rear-admiral, 29 ; port.,370. 

Pawnee, N cruiser, 13, 29. 

Paxton, E. F., C brig.-gen., killed, Chancellors- 
ville, 242. 

Pea Ridge, Ark., battle of, 80 ; ill., 81, 231. 

Peabody, Everett, N col., 103. 

Peace, 448-454. 

-convention, 182. 

-negotiations, 441. 

Peach Tree Creek, Ga., battle, 387. 

Peck, John J., N maj.-gen., Suffolk, Va., 329. 

Pegram, John C., C maj -gen., in W. Va., 45, 
49 ; port., 204 ; Somerset, Ky., 339 ; Wilder¬ 
ness, 357. 

-, R. G., C capt. art. at Petersburg mine, 

47a 

Pelham, John, C artillery, killed, Kelly’s Ford, 
Va., 333. 

Pelouze, Louis H., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 

406. 

Pemberton, John C., C lieut.-gen., supersedes 
Van Dorn, 209, 271 ; Vicksburg, 274-280; 
port., 275. 

Pender, William D., C maj.-gen., killed, Get¬ 
tysburg, 259. 

Pendleton, George H.,nominated for vice-presi¬ 
dent, 413. 

-, William C., C brig.-gen., 493. 

Peninsula Campaign (The), 140-162. 

Pennsylvania Infantry , 3d and 16th, Kelly’s 
Ford, 332 • 27th. 24; 28th, Bolivar Heights, 
hi ; 34th, Kelly’s Ford, 332; 46th, 470; 49th, 
Rappahannock Sta., 335 ; 51st, Antietam, 178, 
179; 51st, losses, 479; 63d, Manassas Gap, 
333 ; 71st, Ball’s Bluff. 109 ; 81st, Antietam, 
178,179 ; 85th, 322 ; 104th, Fair Oaks, 146-150 ; 
119th, Rappahannock Sta., 333; 126th, 470; 
141st, losses, 470 ; Cavalry, 1st, Hawes’s Shop, 
363 ; 7th, Murfreesboro’, 211 ; 8th, Chancel- 
lorsville, 242; 15th, Murfreesboro’, 211; losses, 
nth inf., 480 ; 28th inf., 480; 49th inf., 480; 
72d inf., 480; 83d inf., 480; 93d inf., 480; 
119th inf., 480 ; 140th inf., 481. 

Penrose, William H., N brig.-gen., port., 406. 

Pensacola, Fla., 10, 393; bombardment, ill., 
475 - 

Pensacola, N sloop, at N. O., 90, 91, 93. 

Perkins, George H.. N naval capt., New Or¬ 
leans, 95 ; Mobile Bay, 392. 

Perrin, Abner, C brig.-gen., killed, Spottsyl- 
vania, 362, 451. 

-, James H., N col., 479. 

Perryville, Ky., battle, 201, 307, 403. 

Peter, W. G., C lieut., executed as a spy, 507. 

Petersburg, Va., 353, 368, 387 ; approached by 
Grant, 397-400 ; map of vicinity, 399 ; explosion 
of mine, 399 ; ill., 400, 402,406 ; fighting before, 
443 ; outer defences taken, 445 : evacuated, 
445, 492; Court House, ill., 468; Burnside's 
Mine, 469 ; Crow’s Nest observatory, ill., 469. 

Peterson, Margaret Augusta, hospital services 
and death, 327 ; port., 327. 

Pettigrew, J. Johnston, C brig.-gen., port., 155. 

Peyton,-, C col., 493. 

Phelps, S. Ledyard, N lieut.-com., Peninsular 
campaign, 154. 

-, Thomas S., N rear-adm., 156 ; survey of 

Potomac River, 234. 

Philadelphia, Tenn., action, 342. 

Philippi, W. Va., battle, ill., 39, 45. 

“Philippi races,” 45. 

Phillips, Jesse L., N b’v’t brig.-gen., Rocky 
Crossing, Miss., 342. 

-, Wendell, port., 190. 

Philo Parsons, Lake steamer, captured by raid¬ 
ers, 528, 529. 

Pickens, Francis W., gov. S. C., 14. 


Picket, N gunboat, exploded, 219. 

Pickett, George E., C maj.-gen., Gettysburg, 
237-268 ; port., 263, 387. 

-, Mrs. Lasalle Corbell, article, 453, 454. 

Pierce, E. W., N b'v’t brig.-gen., at Big Bethel, 
45 - 

-, Franklin, president of the U. S., 36 ; at¬ 
titude toward slavery, 183 ; opposed to the 
war, 284. 

Pierpont, Francis H., gov. W. Va., 45 ; port., 
48. 

Pierre Bayou, Miss., 274. 

Pike, Albert, C brig.-gen., 80, 81 ; “ Dixie,” 
131 ; port., 131. 

Piketon, Mo., 122. 

Pillow, Gideon J., C brig.-gen., 41 ; Fort Donel- 
son, 79; port., 80. 

Pilot Knob, Mo., 118; ill., 119. 

Pin Indians, 81. 

Pine Bluff, Ark., engagement, 344. 

-, Tenn., fight, 437. 

Pine Mountain, Ga., occupied by Johnston, 385 ; 
Polk killed, 386. 

Pinkerton, Allan, port., 233. 

Pinney, Oscar F., N capt., Perryville, 201. 

Pipe Creek, near Gettysburg, 231, 252, 263. 

Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn., 100; ill., 102, 107. 

Pittsburgh, N gunboat, Island No. 10, 99. 

Pleasant Hill, La., battle, 378, 379. 

Pleasonton, Alfred. N maj.-gen., Chancellors- 
ville, 242 ; Brandy Sta., Va., 249 ; Aldie, Va., 
250 ; port., 230 ; Gettysburg, 251; Upperville, 
Va., 267. 

Plummer, Joseph B., N brig.-gen., at New 
Madrid, 99 ; Fredericktown, Mo., 118. 

Plymouth, N. C., 67; engagement, 218, 219, 
317 ; captured by Gen. Hoke, 433-434. 

-, N frigate, 29. 

Pocahontas, N vessel, 15. 

-, Miss., 207. 

Pocotaligo, S. C., 220. 439. 

Poe, Orlando M., N b'v’t brig.-gen., port., 552. 

Poindexter, --, C col., Roan's Tanyard, Mo., 

230. 

Point of Rocks, Va , 28, 397. 

Point Pleasant, W. Va., action, 337. 

Polk, James K., President of the U. S., attitude 
toward slavery, 183. 

-.Leonidas, C lieut.-gen., 99; port., 100; 

Shiloh, 103, 209 : Chickamauga. 298, 303; Me¬ 
ridian. 37s ; Atlanta campaign, 385 ; killed, 
Lost Mountain, 386, 451. 

Pollard, E. A„ quoted, 213, 316. 

Pope, John, N maj.-gen., 79 ; New Madrid, 99 ; 
Island No. 10, 100; port., 163; commands 
Army of Va., 163 ; campaign, 163-173 ; map 
of operations, 166, 358 ; cartoon, 457. 

Pope’s campaign, 163-173. 

Poplar Grove Church, ill., 350. 

Port Gibson, Miss., action, 274. 

Port Hudson, La., 240, 270, 271, 273; surren¬ 
dered, 276, 308, 345, 391. 

Port Republic, Va., action, 216; occupied by 
Early, 409. 

Port Royal, S. C., 69, 71, 289. 

Porter, Andrew, N brig.-gen., 49; at Bull Run, 
55 . 57 - 

-, David, commodore U. S. navy, 76, 90. 

-, David D., N rear-adm., port., 90; at N. O., 

90-95; Baton Rouge, 270; Vicksburg cam¬ 
paign, 271-277; Alexandria, La., 375; Grand 
Ecore, La., 381, 382. 

-, Eliza C., Mrs., 534. 

--, Fitz-John, N maj.-gen., at Harper’s Ferry, 

47; Peninsular campaign, 155-162; Pope’s 
campaign, 168-170; port., 168; court-mar¬ 
tialed, 169 ; Antietam, 178. 

-, Horace, N b’v’t brig.-gen.. Fort Pulaski, 

221 ; Chickamauga, 302 ; port., 530. 

--, Peter A., N col., killed, 478. 

-, William D., N commodore, Fort Henry, 

76; port., 270. 

-, -, N col., killed, Cold Harbor, 367. 

Porterfield, G. A., col., Va. vols., 44. 

Portsmouth, Va., 217, 329. 

-, N vessel ; at N. O-, 90, 92. 

Posey, Carnot, C brig.-gen., Bristoe Sta., Va., 
334 - 

Potomac, Army r ‘ the : commanded by McClel¬ 
lan, 45, 165, 169, 175 : commanded by Burn¬ 
side, 193 ; commanded by Hooker, 241 ; com¬ 
manded by Meade, 250; pursues Lee ; Grant’s 
headquarters, 351, 353; organization. 354; 
advance on Petersburg, 397; defence of Wash¬ 
ington. 402 ; review in Washington, 450; in 
winter quarters, ill., 499. 

-River, surveyed, 234 ; aqueduct bridge, 

ill., 473. 

Potter, Robert B., N maj.-gen., Antietam, 179 ; 
port., 401. 

-, ——, N col., Tranter’s Creek, N. C., 218. 

Potter House, Atlanta, Ga., ill., 428. 

Pound Gap, Ky., action, 223. 

Powell, William H., N b'v’t maj., 105. 

-.-- 33 - 

-,-, N col., Wytheville, Va., 339. 


Powell’s River Bridge, Tenn., fight, 437. 

Prairie Grove, Ark., battle, 233. 

Preble, George H., N commodore, port., 370. 
Preliminary Events, 5-18. 

Preliminary Operations in the West, 375-382. 
Prentiss, Benjamin M., N maj.-gen., Shiloh, 
100-107 ; port., 105 ; speech on negro soldiers, 
239 ; Helena, Ark., 344. 

Preparation for Conflict, 19-29 ; in the North, 
23. 35 . 3 6 - 

Presidential Election (The), 412-415. 

Press, Nashville, quoted, 507. 

Preston, John S., C brig.-gen., port., 318. 

-, William, C maj.-gen., port., 281. 

Prestonburg, Ky., 73. 

Price, Sterling, C maj.-gen., 39, 41 ; port., 45; 
in Mo., 79, 118, 122 ; in Ark.. 80 ; Iuka, 203- 
206; Corinth, 206 ; Helena, Ark., 344. 

Prince, Henry. N brig.-gen., port., 335 ; Robert¬ 
son’s Tavern, Va., 336. 

Princeton, W. Va., 218. 

Prisons and Escapes, 520-527. 

Pryor, Roger A., C brig.-gen., 17; port., 508. 
Pulaski Monument, Savannah, Ga., ill., 115. 
Putnam, Douglas, Jr., N col., 107. 

-, Haldimand S., N col., killed, Fort Wag¬ 
ner, 290. 

Quantrell, W. C., C guerilla. Independence. Mo., 
230 ; Warrensburg, Mo., 230 ; Lawrence, Kan., 
345 - 

Quarantine Station, La., 95. 

“ Queen Caroline,” 154. 

Quinby, Isaac F., N brig.-gen., Vicksburg cam¬ 
paign, 273. 

Raccoon Ford, Va., 164, 166, 336. 

Radcliffe,-, C supply agent, 510, 511. 

Raids and Raiders, Union and Confederate, 
528-532. 

Rains, Gabriel J., C brig.-gen., port., 277. 

-, James E., C brig.-gen., port., 158 ; killed, 

Murfreesboro’, 211; Tazewell, Tenn., 227. 
Raleigh, N. C., 441. 

-Court House, W. Va., 339. 

-, C gunboat, 531. 

Ramsay, George D., N brig.-gen., port., 414. 

--, Joseph G., N lieut., killed at Bull Run, 

59 - 

Ramseur, Stephen D., C maj.-gen.. wounded, 
Spottsylvania, 362, 403 ; killed, Cedar Creek, 
Va., 410. 

Randall, A. W„ Gov. of Wis., port., 18. 

-, James Ryder, “ My Maryland,” 131; 

“ Boy Major,” 333. 

Randol, Alanson M., b’v’t brig.-gen., 158. 
Rankin's Hotel. Cynthiana, Ky., 223. 

Ransom, Matthew W., C maj.-gen.. port., 491. 

-, Robert, Jr., C maj.-gen., Antietam, 180; 

port., 195. 

-, Thomas E. G., N b’v’t maj.-gen., 316; 

Sabine Cross Roads, 378. 

-,-, N lieut.-col. 22d Ill., 117. 

Rappahannock Ford. Va., 166. 

-Station, Va., 166 ; action, 334, 335. 

Raritan, N cruiser, 29. 

Rations, Confederate, short, in March, 1865, 
485. 

Raum, Green B., N brig.-gen.. port., 311. 
Rawlins, John A., N b’v’t maj.-gen., 107, 108 ; 
ports., 31, 552. 

Raymond, Henry J., Republican convention, 
412; cartoon, 462. 

-, Miss., action, 274, 278. 

Reagan, John H , C postmaster-genl., port., 26; 

captured with Davis, 448. 

Realf, Richard, N lieut., Chickamauga, 301. 
Ream’s Station, Va., action, 406. 

“Rebels ” (author unknown), 132. 

Rectortown, Va., fight, 433. 

Red River Expedition, 375-382. 

Redfield, H. V., quoted, 502. 

-, Jas., N It.-col., killed, 420. 

Redwood, Minn., destroyed by Indians, 234. 
Reese, Harry, N sgt. at Burnside’s Mine, Peters¬ 
burg, 469. 

Refusal of Governors of certain States to furnish 
troops, 36, 37. 

Register, Baltimore, Md., 33. 

Reilly, James W., N brig.-gen., 429. 

Remington,-, N lieut., Gettysburg, 260. 

Reminiscences of the Battle of Bull Run, 472- 
474 - 

Reno, Jesse L., N maj.-gen., N. C. expedition, 
72; port., 73 : Pope’s campaign, 164-169; 
killed. South Mountain, 176, 451. 

Renshaw, W. B., N com’der, killed, Galveston, 
348 - 

Republican, Lynchburg, Va., quoted, 316. 
Republican Party, convention, 412. 

Resaca, Ga , battle, 383, 385. 

Review of the Army, 450 ; ill., 452. 


Reynolds, John F„ N maj.-gen., Cheat Moun¬ 
tain, 114 ; Pope's campaign, 166, 168 ; port., 
250; killed, Gettysburg, 251-267, 451 ; monu¬ 
ment, 552. 

—-, Joseph J., N maj.-gen., Chickamauga, 

298, 299. 

Rhode Island, 1st inf., 25, 193; Kelly’s Ford, 
332 ; 5th inf., 470. 

Rice, James C., N brig.-gen., killed, Spottsyl- 
vania, 362. 

Rich Mountain, W. Va., action, 45. 

Richardson, Albert D., N correspondent, ad 
ventures, 520-523. 

-, Israel B., N maj.-gen., 49 : at Bull Run, 

54; killed, Antietam, 180; port., 485. 

-, William P., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 414. 

Richmond, Ky., 200; battle, 224, 342. 

-, Miss., 275. 

-, Va., seat of C government, 9, 33 ; ill. of 

capitol, 28, 140-162, 163, 164, 193, 197, 307; 
Libby Prison, ills., 320, 520; prison camps, 
321, 354-369, 387, 397-399 ; map of vicinity, 
399, 402, 406; visit of peace commissioners, 
412 ; evacuated, 445 ; warehouses fired, iron¬ 
clads blown up, 445; occupied by Gen. Weit- 
zel, 445: ill., 451 ; U. S. nag raised, 454; C 
cemetery, ill., 512 ; N cemetery, ill., 525. 

-, N cruiser, at N. O., 90, 93. 

Ricketts, James B., N b’v’t maj.-gen.. port ,57 ; 
at Bull Run, 55. 57, 59 : Thoroughfare Gap, 
167 ; defence of Washington, 402. 

--, R. Bruce, N capt., Gettysburg, 254, 255. 

Riddle, William, N maj., Gettysburg, 267. 

Riggen,-, N private, killed, Gettysburg, 255. 

Ripley, Roswell S., C brig.-gen., at Port Royal, 
71 ; Antietam, 180. 

Ripley, Miss., 206. 

-, Tenn., action, 340. 

Ritchie, John, N b’v’t brig.-gen., Shirley’s Ford, 
Mo., 231. 

Roanoke Island, N. C., 71 ; map, 75, 193. 

-Sound, N. C., 71. 

Roan’s Tanyard, Silver Creek, Mo., engage¬ 
ment, 230. 

Robbins. Walter R . N b’v’t brig.-gen., Hawes's 
Shop, Va., 363, 364. 

Roberts, Benjamin S.. N b'v’t maj.-gen., Ft. 
Craig, N. M., 233. 

Robertson’s Tavern, Va., action, 335, 336. 
Robertsville, S. C., 439. 

Robinson House, Bull Ruu, ill., 165. 

Robinson, James S.. N b'v’t maj.-gen.. port., 386. 

-, John C., N b’v't maj.-gen, Gettysburg. 

252; port., 363. 

-, Samuel. N spy; executed, 529. 

Rock Creek, Gettysburg. 252, 254. 

Rockbridge (Va.) cavalry, 319. 

Rocky Crossing, Miss., battle, 342. 

Rocky Gap, Va., engagement, 333. 

Rodes, Robert E.. C maj -gen., port., 146 ; An. 
tietam, 180; Robertson's Tavern. 336; Ft. 
Stevens, D. C., 403 ; killed, Winchester, 407; 
port., 4:1. 

Rodgers, C. R. P., N rear-adm., port., 69. 

-. John, N rear-adm., port., 69; siege of 

Charleston, 290. 

Rodman. Isaac P., N brig.-gen., killed, Antie¬ 
tam, 180. 

Rogersville, Ky.. battle, 224, 225. 

Rolla, Mo., 79. 

Rome, Ga., 307, 308. 

Romney, W. Va., engagements, 113, 216. 

Root, George F.. “Tramp, tramp, tramp, the 
boys are marching,” 125 ; “ The Battle Cry of 
Freedom,” 138. 

Rosa, Rudolph, N col., Tybee Island, 220. 

Rosecrans, William S., N maj.-gen., in W. Va., 
45, 113 ; ports., 114, 204; Iuka, 203-205; Cor¬ 
inth, 206-209 ; supersedes Buell. 203, 209; Mur¬ 
freesboro’, 209-212, 215 ; Chickamauga, 297- 
303; superseded by Thomas, 305, 308 : anec¬ 
dote, 457, 481 ; deceived by Mrs. Col. Thomas 
in Tennessee, anecdote, 506. 

Rosengarten, Jcseph G., N maj., Gettysburg, 
266. 

Ross, Anna M., Miss, 538. 

--, John, chief Cherokee Indians, 81. 

-, Marion A., N spy, executed, 529. 

Rosser, Thomas L., C maj.-gen.. Wilderness, 
356 ; Tom’s Brook, Va., 410 ; Rectortown, Va., 
433 1 port., 491. 

Rossville, Ga., 299, 301. 

Rough and Ready, Ga., 422. 

Round Mountain, Ala., iron works burned, 295. 
Round Top, Gettysburg, 252, 263, 265. 

Rousseau, Lovell H., N maj.-gen., 41; Perry¬ 
ville, 201; port., 205 ; Murfreesboro', 212, 213. 
Rober, Tenn., action, 340. 

Rowan, Stephen C., N vice-adm , 15 : N. C. ex¬ 
pedition, 72; port., 73; siege of "Charleston, 
293 - 

Rowlett’s Station, Ky. (see Munfordville). 

Royall, William B.. N capt., 151. 

Rubadeau,-, N sergt., killed, Spottsylvania, 

361. 

Ruffin, Edmund, 15. 
















































INDEX 


549 


Ruger, Thomas H., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 

386. 

Ruggles, Daniel, C brig.-gen., Shiloh, 103; 
Rocky Crossing, Miss., 342. 

Runyon, Theodore, N brig.-gen., 49. 

Rural Hills, Tenn., engagement, 229. 

Russell, David A., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Rappa¬ 
hannock Sta., 335 ; killed, Winchester, 407; 
port., 411. 

-, John, Lord, favors the Confederacy, 269. 

-,-, Earl, neutrality discussion, 372, 373. 

Russia, friendly to the United States, 66. 

Sabine Cross Roads, La., battle, 377, 378. 

Sacramento, Ky., engagement, 115. 

Safford, Mary J., Miss, 538 ; port., 539. 

Sailor’s Creek, Va., engagement, 446. 

St. Helena Island, S. C., 69, 71. 

St. Joseph, Mo., 38. 

St. Louis, Mo., 37 ; loyal Germans, 41, 392. 

St. Louis and Cincinnati R.R., 140. 

St. Luke’s Hospital, New York, draft riot, 285. 

St. Michael’s Church, Charleston, S. C., ill., 294. 

St. Peter's Church, near White House, Va., ill., 
* 55 - 

Salem, Mo., 122. 

Salem Heights, Va., battle, 243. 

Salisbury, N. C., prison camps, 321, 440, 320. 

Salkehatchie River, S. C., fight, 440. • 

Sanders, William P., N brig.-gen., killed, Knox¬ 
ville, 342 ; port., 480. 

-,-, N col., Somerset, Ky., 340. 

Sandford, -, N b’v’t maj.-gen., at Harper’s 

Ferry, 47. 

Sandusky, O., Lake Erie raid, 528. 

Sanitary and Christian Commissions (The), 324- 
328. 

Sanitary Commission, 324-328 ; port., group 
officers, 326 ; ill. of headquarters, 327, 448 ; ill. 
of hospital, 540. 

San Jacinto, N frigate, 63; ill., 63. 

Santa F6, N. M., 233. 

Satraps, 283. 

Savage’s Station, Va., battle, 158. 

Savannah, Ga., 32 ; Pulaski Monument, ill., 115, 
220, 289, 290, 423 ; riot, 436, 439 ; President 
Davis a prisoner, 448. 

-, Tenn., 101. 

Sawyer, Charles C., “ When this cruel war is 
over,” 127. 

-—, Henry W., N capt., Libby Prison, 348, 

349 - 

Saxton, Rufus, N b’v’t maj.-gen., 239; port., 
4 X 4 - 

Scales, Alfred M., C brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 
239. 

Scarytown, W. Va., 113. 

Schenck, Robert C., N maj.-gen., 49 ; Bull Run, 
55 ; Shenandoah Valley, 216; port., 217. 

--,-, N sergt.. killed, Spottsylvania, 361. 

Schiller, J. C. F. von, quoted, 498. 

Schimmelpfennig, Alex., N brig.-gen., occupies 
Charleston, 440. 

Schoepf, Albin, N brig.-gen., Camp Wildcat, 73, 
114. 

Schofield, John M., N maj.-gen., 41 ; Atlanta 
campaign, 383-387; port., 385; with Thomas 
at Nashville, 421; Frankl'in, 427-430; joins 
Sherman at Goldsboro’, 441. 

Schurz, Carl, N maj.-gen., port., 254. 

Schuyler, Philip, Jr., N maj., 24. 

Scott, John, N spy, executed, 329. 

-, John S., C col., Somerset, Ky., 339, 340. 

-, Thomas M., C brig.-gen., port., 341. 

-.Winfield, N b’v't lieut.-gen , port., 12, 

20, 38, 48, 49. 52, 53, 54 ; retires, 140; attitude 
toward Sanitary Commission, 324. 

Scribner, Benjamin F., N b’v't brig.-gen.,port., 
302. 

Searcy Landing, Little Red River, Ark., en- 
gagement, 231. 

Secession, contemplated, 7 ; begun by South 
Carolina, ordinances by other States, 9. 

Secessionville, S. C., battle, 219 ; ill., 22r. 

“ Secret History of the Confederacy,” quoted, 
316. 

Sectional feeling a cause of the war, 7. 

Sedgwick, John, N maj.-gen., Antietam, 178, 
180; Fredericksburg, 241, 242, 243; port., 242 ; 
Salem Heights, 243 ', Gettysburg, 252, 259. 262 ; 
Rappahannock Sta., 334, 335 ; Wilderness, 354 ; 
Spottsylvania, 358 ; killed, 359 ; ill., 360, 451. 

Seeley’s Battery, losses, 483. 

Seelye, Miss (“ Frank Thompson ”), N private 
2d Mich, inf., 470. 

Selma, Ala., 375. 

Seminary Ridge, Gettysburg, 251-256. 

Semmes, Paul J., C brig.-gen., killed, Gettys¬ 
burg, 259. 

_ Raphael, C rear-adm., 9; commands 

“Alabama,” 371 ; battle with “ Kearsarge,’ 
372; port., 372. 

Sequatchie Valley, Tenn., 226. 

Serrell, Edward W., N b’v’t brig.-gen., siege of 
Charleston, 294. 


Seven Days, 160. 

Seven Pines, Va., battle, 146. 

Sevierville, Tenn., fight near, 436. 

Seward, William H., N Secy, of State, port., 6, 
65 ; emancipation, 189 ; criticised by Gurowski, 
237, 283 ; letter to Minister Adams, 372-374, 
375 ; with Lincoln at Ft. Monroe, 441 ; at¬ 
tacked by an assassin, 449. 

-, William H., Jr., N brig.-gen., port., 362, 

478. 

Seymour, Horatio, Gov. of New York, opposed 
to the war, 284; port., 285; speech to rioters, 
287; Democratic convention, 413. 

-, Thomas H., proposed for president, 413. 

-, Truman, N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., n ; at 

Sumter, n ; 2d Bull Run, 169 ; Wilderness, 
357 ; Olustee, Florida, 436. 

Shackelford, James M., N brig.-gen., East 
Tenn., 341. 

Shadrack, Perry G.. N spy, executed, 529. 

Shady Grove Church, Spottsylvania, 359. 

Shaler, Alexander, N b’v’t maj.-gen., 24 ; port., 
33 ; Wilderness, 337. 

Sharpsburg, Md., Antietam campaign, 175-179. 

Shaw, Jas., Jr., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 552. 

-, Robert G., N col., port., 238 ; commands 

first colored regiment, 239 ; killed, Fort Wag¬ 
ner, 24, 239, 290 ; courage, 291. 

-, William T., N col., Pleasant Hill, 379. 

-,-N lieut., Hawes’s Shop, Va., 364. 

Shelby, Joseph O., C brig.-gen., 437. 

Shelbyville, Tenn., 510, 529. 

Shenandoah, C cruiser, 372. 

-, Army of the, commanded by Sheridan, 

4 ° 5 - 

-City, Va., in. 

- Valley, 143-152, 163, 193; campaign, 

216; invaded, 250; Lee's retreat, 333, 353, 
368, 402 ; Sheridan's operations, 405-411; map, 
407. 

Shepherdstown, W. Va , 177, 180, 250, 319. 

Sheridan, Philip H., N maj.-gen.. Perryville, 
201 ; port., 203 ; Murfreesboro’, 210 ; cavalry 
superiority, 250; Chickamauga, 299, 301 ; Chat¬ 
tanooga, 309 ; Wilderness, 354-356 ; port., 356 ; 
Todd’s Tavern, 358; Yellow Tavern, 359; 
North Anna, 363; Cold Harbor, 365 ; Shenan¬ 
doah Valley, 404-411; port., 408 ; Trevilian 
Station and Gordonsville, Va., 433; raid on 
the upper James, 442 ; Five Forks, 443-5 ; 
reconnoitring at Five Forks, ill., 444; stops 
Lee’s retreat at Appomattox C. H., 446,451 ; 
on the James, 486; quoted, 518. 

-in the Shenandoah, 405-411. 

Sherman, Thomas W., N b'v’t maj.-gen., 69; 
port., 71. 

-, William T., N gen., ports., 30, 519 ; 

under first fire, 39, 49 ; at Bull Run, 55, 57 ; 
Shiloh, 100-108 ; Vicksburg campaign, 271- 
275 ; Chattanooga, 305-3x4 ; Knoxville, 342 ; 
under Grant, 351-353 ; quoted, 358 ; Meridian, 
Miss., 375; “ Hairpins,” 375 ; Atlanta cam¬ 
paign, 383-390 ; Resaca, 385 ; Kenesaw Moun¬ 
tain, 387; plans, capture of Mobile, 391, 
397; “ March to the Sea,” 419-430 ; correspond¬ 
ence with Gen. Hood and mayor of Atlanta, 
419 ; instructions for the march, 422 ; march 
through the Carolinas. 439-441 ; receives 
Johnston’s surrender at Durham Station, 446 ; 
army reviewed in Washington, 450, 451 ; anec¬ 
dotes, 456, 458, 513, 517 ; quoted, 515 ; (sketch) 
518. 

-and his generals, history suggested by 

picture, group of, 5x3-519. 

Shields. James, N b’v’t maj.-gen.. 143; port., 
152 ; Winchester, 216 ; Port Republic, 216, 217 ; 
port., 219. 

Shiloh, Tenn., battle, 101-109; map, 104. 

-Church, 101; ill., 103. 

Ship Island, Miss., 91; ill., 92. 

Shipping Point, Potomac River, ill., 146. 

Shirley’s Ford, Spring River, Mo., engagement, 
231. 

Shreveport, La., 270, 271; capture attempted by 
Banks, 375 ; Gen Kirby Smith surrenders the 
last Confederate army at, 446. 

Shufeldt, Robert W., N naval corn’d., port., 370. 

Sibley, Henry H., C brig.-gen., port., 231 ; Fort 
Craig, N. M., 233. 

-, -, N brig.-gen., Indian campaign, 234. 

Sibley tents, 496. 

Sickles, Daniel E.. N maj.-gen., Chancellors- 
ville, 241-246; Gettysburg, 252-266; port., 
262, 361, 479. 

Siege of Charleston, The, 288-294. 

Sigel. Franz, N maj.-gen., Carthage. 41 ; Pea 
Ridge, 80; Pope’s campaign, 163-168 ; port., 
168, 172 ; under Grant, 353 ; Newmarket, W. 
Va., 433. 

Signal Hill, Chattanooga, 313. 

-Station, near Washington, ill., 431. 

Sill, Joshua W., N brig.-gen., killed, Murfrees¬ 
boro’, 211 ; port., 483, 529. 

Silver Creek, Mo., engagement, 230. 

Simpson,-, N col., Charlestown, Va, 334. 

Sioux Indians, atrocities, 234. 

Slack, William Y., C brig.-gen., Pea Ridge, 80. 

Slater,-, N lieut., 437. 

Slavens, Samuel, N spy, executed, 529. 

Slavery, a cause of the war, 5, 182. 


Slemmer, Adam J., N b’v’t brig.-gen., 10. 

Slidell, John, 63 ; port., 65. 

Slocum. Henry W., N maj.-gen., port., 30, 518; 
Chancellorsville, 243, 250 ; Gettysburg, 252 ; 
succeeds Hooker, 390 ; Atlanta, 390, 420; in 
march to the sea, 422 ; Averysboro’, 441 ; Ben- 
tonville, 441,513 ; (sketch) 518. 

Small, Jerusha R., Mrs., 539. 

Smith, Andrew J., N maj.-gen., Alexandria, La., 
375 ; Pleasant Hill, 378, 379. 

-, A. J., N maj., Cedar Creek, Va., 411. 

-, Caleb B., N Secy, of the Interior, port, 

6. 

-, Charles F., N maj.-gen., 75 ; Fort Don- 

elson, 77 ; port., 79 ; Shiloh, 100. 

-, Edmund Kirby, C gen., invades Ky., 

223, 224; Richmond, Ky., 224; port., 225; 
Pleasant Hill, 379 ; surrender at Shreveport, 
La., 446. 

-, Gerrit, gives bail for Davis, 448. 

-, Giles A., N maj.-gen., Atlanta, 389. 

-, Goldwin, 66. 

-, Gustavus W., C maj.-gen., Fair Oaks, 

150, 151 ; port., 427. 

-, Joseph, N rear-adm., port., 84. 

---, Morgan L., N brig.-gen., Atlanta, 389. 

--, Patrick, N private., Bayou Teche, La., 

348. 

-, Preston, C maj.-gen., killed, Chicka¬ 
mauga, 299. 

-, T. Kilby, N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 378; 

Pleasant Hill, 379. 

-, William, C maj.-gen., port., 508. 

-, William F., N maj.-gen.. Peninsular 

campaign, 143 ; Cold Harbor, 365 : advance 
on Petersburg, 397. 

-, William Sooy, N brig.-gen., raid from 

Memphis, 375. 

-,-, N lieut.. Lookout Mt., 313. 

-,-, N ensign., recaptured, 322. 

Smyth, Thomas A., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 
357 - 

Snake Creek Gap. Ga., 385. 

Sneedsboro’, S. C., 440. 

Snicker’s Gap, Va., 406. 

Snow Hill, Tenn., battle, 295, 341. 

Snyder, George W., N 1st lieut., port., 11; at 
Sumter, 11. 

Solferino, Italy, 23, 169. 

Somerset, Ky., action, 339,340. 

Sons of America, 521. 

Sons of Liberty, 528. 

Soule, Pierre, 96. 

South Carolina, Nullification Acts of, 7; secedes, 
9; 1st inf., Antietam, 180; colored regiment, 
185; 8th C inf. captured, 406; 18th and 72d 
inf. at Petersburg mine, 470. 

-, regimental losses, 1st inf., 483 ; 7th, 

17th, 23d, 12th inf., 484. 

South Carolina railroad destroyed, 440. 

South Mountain, Md., battle, 176. 

Southampton, Eng., 372. 

Southern life under blockade, 425. 

Southfield, N gunboat, Plymouth, N. C., 434. 

Southside Railroad, Va., 443. 

Southwest Pass, Miss. River, La., 91. 

Speed, -—~, N lieut., quoted, 429. 

Spencer. R. H., Mrs., port., 537, 538. 

Sperryville, Va., 163. 

Spies and scouts, Northern, 507-512. 

-, Southern, 505-507. 

Spinola, Francis B., N brig.-gen., Manassas 
Gap, 333. 

Spottsylvania, Va.. 358; battle, 359-362, 470; 
losses at, 477 ; Kilpatrick’s raid, 531. 

Sprague, William, gov. of R. I., port., 18. 

Spring Place, Ga., 385. 

Springfield, Ill., 38. 

-, Mo., 41, 79; engagement, 118-121; ill., 

120; action, 344. 

Springfield Landing, La., 379. 

Stafford, ——, N sergt., Gettysburg, 255. 

Stahel, Julius X.. N maj.-gen., Cross Keys, 
216 ; port., 218, 268. 

Standard, Raleigh, N. C., quoted, 431. 

Stanley, David S., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Iuka, 203, 
204 ; Corinth, 206, 207 ; Murfreesboro, 211 ; 
port., 212 ; Snow Hill, Tenn., 295, 341, 305 ; 
Bradyville, 340 ; Atlanta campaign, 386 ; with 
Thomas at Nashville, 421. 

Stannard, George J., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Gettys¬ 
burg, 259, 262. 

Stannard’s Battery, Camp Wild Cat, 114. 

Stansbury Hill, Fredericksburg. 199. 

Stanton, Edwin M., N sec’y of war, port., 6, 
48, 143, 154, 295, 349, 405 ; cartoon, 463; offers 
reward for arrest of Booth and accomplices, 
Sio- 

Star of the West, N vessel, 5, 14. 

“ Star Spangled Banner,” 122. 

Starke, William E., C brig.-gen., killed, Antie¬ 
tam, 180. 

State sovereignty, a cause of the war, 5, 7, 35. 

Statesville, Tenn., action, 340. 


Staunton, Va., devastated by Hunter, 317, 318; 
by Torbert, 409. 

Steadman, N capt., 71. 

Stedman, Griffin A., Jr., N b’v't brig.-gen., 
port., 362. 

Steedman, James B., N maj.-gen., port., 301; 
Chickamauga, 302, 303. 

Steel, --, N maj., Warrenton Junction, 331. 

Steele, Frederick, N maj.-gen., Vicksburg cam¬ 
paign, 271. 

Steele’s Bayou, Miss., 273. 

Stein,-, C, killed. Prairie Grove, 233. 

Steinwehr, Adolph von, N brig.-gen., Gettys¬ 
burg, 252 ; port., 255. 

Stephens, Alexander H., C vice-pres., port.. 28; 
speech against secession, 31 ; speech defend¬ 
ing slavery, 32 ; writing about effect of Lin¬ 
coln’s proclamation of rebellion, 35 ; speech, 
Charlotte, N. C., 307 ; peace commissioner, 
441. 

-, Malvina, N guide, 521. 

Stevens, Aaron F., N b'v’t brig.-gen., Fred¬ 
ericksburg, 199. 

--—, Alanson J., N lieut., Gettysburg, 254. 

---, Atherton H., Jr., N maj., 454. 

-, Isaac I., N maj.-gen., killed, Chantilly, 

Va., 169 and 479 ; Secessionville, 219. 

-, Thaddeus, M. C., financial proposition, 

416. 

Stevensburg, Va., 165. 

Stevenson, Carter L., C maj.-gen., port., 275. 

-, Thomas G., N brig.-gen., killed, Spott¬ 
sylvania, 362. 

Stewart, Alexander P., C lieut.-gen., port., 313. 

-, George H., C brig.-gen., captured, Spott¬ 
sylvania, 359, 362. 

-, William C., N color-bearer, Lebanon, 

Tenn., 229. 

--,-, N lieut., Hawes's Shop, Va., 364. 

Stiles, Israel N., N b’v’t brig.-gen., 429. 

Stimers,-, engineer, “ Monitor,” 85. 

Stimpson,-, N, Bolivar Heights, m. 

Stiner, J. H., balloonist, 162. 

Stokes, James H., N capt., Murfreesboro, 212. 

Stone, Charles P., N brig.-gen., 20, 22 ; port., 
29 ; at Harper's Ferry, 47 ; Ball’s Bluff, 109 ; 
Sabine Cross Roads, 377. 

-, Ray, N b’v’t brig.-gen., Gettysburg, 251. 

Stone Bridge (Bull Run), 52, 53, 54, 55, 60 ; ill., 
172. 

-House (Bull Run), ill., 58. 

■- River, Tenn., battle, 209-213 ; ill., 202 ; 

Map , 211, 308. 

Stoneman, George, N maj.-gen., Warrenton, 
Va., 331; captured, Clifton, Ga., 390. 

Stoner,-, N ensign, recaptured, 322. 

Stoughton, Charles B., N b’v’t brig.-gen., cap¬ 
tured, Fairfax C. H., Va., 331. 

Stovall, Marcellus A., N brig.-gen., port.,303. 

Stowe, Mrs. Harriet Beecher, port., 189. 

Strahl, Oscar F., N brig.-gen., killed, 430. 

Stranahan, Mrs. James S. T., port., 539, 540. 

Strasburg, Va., 28, 409, 410. 

Streight, Abel D., N b’v’t brig.-gen., raid in 
Ala. and capture, 295. 

Stringham, Silas H., N rear-adm., port., 66, 68. 

Strong, George C., N maj.-gen., killed, Fort 
Wagner, 290. 

-, George T., Sanitary Commission, 325. 

-, William E., N b’v’t brig.-gen., ports., 

277, 418. 

Stuart, George H., Christian Commission, 326. 

-, James E. B., C lieut.-gen , at Bull Run, 

60 ; Bunker Hill, in ; Peninsular campaign, 
150-152 ; port., 158 ; operations against Pope, 
164-166, 192 ; Chancellorsville, 242 ; Culpeper, 
249; Aldie, Va., 250; Gettysburg, 259, 267, 
268 ; in Va., 232 ; Wilderness, 354 ; Yellow 
Tavern, 359, 451. 

-,-, N lieut.-col., Chattanooga, 314. 

Sturgis, Russell, 15. 

—7—, Samuel D., N b'v’t maj.-gen., 41 ; An¬ 
tietam, 179 ; Fair Gardens, Tenn., 436 ; port., 
437 - 

Sudley Ford (Bull Run), 54, 55, 61. 

-Mill (Bull Run), 167 ; ill., 169. 

-Road (Bull Run), 54, 55, 57. 

-Springs, Va., 169. 

Suffolk, Va., Map of vicinity, 141; actions, 329, 
33 1 - 

Sugar Creek, Ark., 80 ; action, 231. 

Sugar Valley, Ga., occupied by McPherson, 
385- 

Sullivan, Jeremiah C., N brig.-gen., Iuka, 203. 

Sullivan's Island, Charleston harbor, n, 292. 

Sully. Alfred, N b’v't maj.-gen., Whitestone 
Hill, Dak., 348. 

Sulphur Springs, Va., 166, 333. 

Su’tana, N steamer, fatal explosion, 468. 

Summerton (Chattanooga), 314. 

Sumner, Charles, port., 189, 375. 

-, Edwin V., N maj.-gen., 49; Peninsular 

campaign, 143-158 ; port., 152 ; 2d Bull Run, 
169; Antietam, 177-179; port., 192; Burn¬ 
side’s campaign, 193. 



























































550 


INDEX 


Sumter, C cruiser, abandoned, Gibraltar, 372. 

Surratt, John H., reward offered for arrest, 510. 

Surrender of Lee, ill , 447. 

Susquehanna, N cruiser, 68. 

Swamp Angel, 294. 

Sweeden's Cove, Ala., engagement, 226. 

Sweeting, Harry, C cav., Warrenton Junction, 
33 '- 

Switzerland, N ram, Waterproof, La , 437. 

Sykes, George, N maj.-gen., at Bull Run, 55 ; 
Gettysburg, 252, 265, 266 ; quoted, 479. 

Tacony, C cruiser, 372. 

Talbot, Theodore, N 1st lieut., port., 11 ; at 
Sumter, 11. 

Taliaferro, William B., C brig.-gen., 28 ; port., 
* 93 - 

Tallahassee, C cruiser, 372. 

Tammany regiment, N. Y., 42d inf., 109. 

Taney, Roger B.. U. S. chief-justice, 43, 186, 
284. 

Taneytown, Md., 252. 

Taylor, Benjamin F., correspondent, describes 
battle Lookout Mt., 311-314 ; quoted, 504. 

-, C. Fred., N col., port., 484. 

-, Frank E., N lieut., Pleasant Hill, La., 

378- 

-, Nellie M., Mrs., port., 533, 536. 

-, Richard, C lieut.-gen., Sabine Cross 

Roads, La., 377 ; Pleasant Hill, 379 ; port., 381. 

-, Samuel B., quoted, 526. 

-, Walter H., C maj., port., 165. 

Tazewell, Tenn., action, 227. 

Tecumseh, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 391-393. 

Templeman,-, C cav., killed, Warrenton 

Junction, 332. 

Tennessee, struggle for, 35, 44 ; 1st cav., Mur¬ 
freesboro', 211 ; terrorism in, 317. 

—-, regimental losses, 8th inf., 483, 484 ; 10th, 

2d, 15th, 6th, 9th, 23d, 63d, 20th, 32d, 12th, inf., 
484. 

-, C ironclad, Mobile Bay, 391, 302. 

-, Army of the, commanded by McPher¬ 
son, 383 ; commanded by Howard, 390. 

-, Army and dept, of, C 387. 

“ Tenting on the old camp ground,” Walter 
Kittridge, 139, 413. 

Tents used in camp, 496. 

-, “ A,” 496. 

-, dog, 498. 

-, shelter, 498. 

-, Sibley, 496. 

-, wall, 496. 

Terrill. William R., N brig.-gen., killed, Perry- 
ville, 201. 

Terry, Alfred H., N maj.-gen., port., 290, 439; 
siege of Charleston, 292; Fort Fisher, 441 ; 
joins Sherman, 441. 

-, B. F., C col., killed, Munfordville, 115. 

-, of Texas, C spy, 505. 

Texas, annexation of, 7 ; secedes, 9 ; 3d inf., 
Iuka, 206 ; 1st inf., losses, 484 ; 4th. inf., losses, 
484. 

Thoburn, Joseph, N col., killed. Cedar Creek, 
Va., 410. 

Thomas, George 'H., N maj.-geri., port., 49 ; at 
Mill Springs, Ky., 73; Falling Waters, nr ; 
Murfreesboro’, 210, 263; port., 298; Chicka- 
mauga, 298-302 ; supersedes Rosecrans, 305 ; 
Chattanooga, 308, 309; Atlanta campaign, 
383-387; “Circus,” 383; Peach Tree Creek. 
387 ; organizes an army at Nashville, 421, 
43°> 45 l 1 anecdote, 457, 513. 

-, Lorenzo, N b’v’t maj.-gen., 49 ; address 

on colored soldiers, 238, 239. 

■--, Mrs. Col. (C), of Tenn., deceives Gen. 

Rosecrans, anecdote, 506. 

Thompson, Francis W., N lieut.-col., Bull Pas¬ 
ture Mountain, 216. 

-. Frank (Miss Seeiye), N (female) pvt., 

2d Mich, inf., 470. 

-, George, 18. 

-, Jacob, U. S. sec’y of the interior, 9 ; 

conspires with (C) Lieut. S. B. Davis. 471, 
528. 

-, M. Jeff., C brig.-gen., Fredericktown, 

Mo., 118 ; Charlestown, Mo., 230 ; port., 231. 

Thompson's Station, Tenn., engagement, 340. 

Thoroughfare Gap, Va., 166, 167. 

Tilghman, Lloyd, C brig.-gen., at Ft. Henry, 
75.76; port., 275; killed, Champion's Hill, 
Miss , 275. 

Times, London, Eng., 62, 87, 196. 

-, Wheeling, Va., 33. 

Todd, H. H., N capt., 523. 

Todd’s Tavern, Va.. engagement, 358. 

Toland. John T., N col., Fayetteville, V. Va., 
218 ; killed, Wytheville, Va., 339. 

Tom’s Brook, Va., action, 410. 

Toombs, Robert, C sec’y of state, port., 26; 
C brig.-gen., Antietam. 180. 

Topliff, E. A., N pvt., Parker’s Cross Roads, 230. 

Torbert. Alfred T. A., N b'v’t maj.-gen., port., 
405; Shenandoah Valley, 406-410; Trevilian 
Sta., Va., 433. 


Torrence,-, N maj., Roan’s Tanyard, Mo., 

230. 

Totten, Joseph G., N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 35, 
49. 

Tourtellotte, John E., N b’v’t brig.-gen., at 
Allatoona, 420. 

Towns, -, N capt., 318. 

Townsend, Edward D., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 
29, 49. 

-, Frederick, N b’v’t brig.-gen., at Big 

Bethel, 45. 

Tracy, Benjamin F., N b’v’t brig.-gen., 480. 

“ Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching,” 
George F. Root, 125. 

Tranter’s Creek, N. C., battle, 218. 

Trebra,-, N lieut.-col., 32d Ind., 115. 

Trent, British steamer, 63 ; ill., 63, 65. 

Trent affair, 63, 65. 

Trenton, Tenn., captured by Forrest, 229. 

Trevilian Station, Va., ill., 432. 

Tribune, Cincinnati, quoted, 526. 

-. New York, N. Y., 186 ; office attacked by 

rioters, 286 ; correspondents captured, 520. 

Trobriand, P. Regis de, N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 
262 ; Gettysburg, 265, 266. 

Trobriand's (de) Zouaves, 499. 

Trumbull, Henry C. (Rev.), captured, Ft. Wag¬ 
ner, 291, 292. 

Tullahoma, Tenn., 297. 

Tunnel, Libby Prison, 521. 

Tunnel Hill, Ga., fortified by Johnston, 383. 

Turchin, John B., N brig.-gen., port., 311. 

-, Mrs. John B., 470. 

Turkey Bend, Va., 159. 

Turner, Nat. insurrection, 448. 

-, R. R., C maj., keeper Libby Prison, 

port., 321. 

Turner’s Gap, Md., 176,177. 

Tuscaloosa, Ala., 316. 

Tuscarora, N gunboat, Gibraltar, 372. 

Twiggs, David E , U. S. brig.-gen., 35, 49. 

Tybee Island, Ga., 220, 221. 

Tyler, Daniel, N brig.-gen., 49; at Bull Run, 
53 > 54 , 55 - 

-, Erastus B., N b’v't maj.-gen., port., 57. 

-, Robert O., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port.. 362 ; 

Spottsylvania, 362 ; Cold Harbor, 367 ; de¬ 
fence of Washington, 402. 

Tyler, N gunboat, Shiloh, 101; Helena, Ark., 
344 - 

-, Tex., prison camps, 321. 

Union City, Tenn., 225 ; action, 226. 

Union Mills Ford (Bull Run), 52. 

Union Square, New York, N. Y., mass meeting, 
236. 

United States Ford, Chancellorsville, 246. 

Upperville, Va., action, 250, 267. 

Upton, Emory, N b’v’t maj.-gen., Spottsyl¬ 
vania, 359 ; port., 367, 480. 

Ute Indians, Ft. Halleck, Idaho, 348. 

Vallandigham, Clement L., M. C., opposes 
emancipation, 190; opposition to Lincoln, 
283 ; banishment, 284 ; port., 285; Demo¬ 
cratic convention, 413. 

Valparaiso. 90. 

Van Allen, James H., N brig.-gen., port., 247. 

Van Buren, Dr., Sanitary Commission, 324. 

Vance, Robert B.. C brig.-gen., port.. 213. 

-, Zebulon C., gov. N. C., quoted, 420. 

Van Cleve, Horatio P., N b’v't maj.-gen., 
Chickamauga, 301. 

Vanderbilt, Cornelius, gives bail for Davis, 448. 

Van Dorn, Earl, C maj.-gen.. Pea Ridge. 80 ; 
port , 81, 203 ; Corinth, 206, 207 ; superseded 
by Pemberton, 209; Holly Springs, Miss., 
271 ; Franklin, Tenn., 295. 341. 

Van Gilder,-, N ord.-sergt., Spottsylvania, 

361. 

Van Pelt farmhouse, Bull Run, hospital, 464- 
465. 

Van Wyck, Charles H., N brig.-gen., port., 147. 

Varuna, N cruiser, at N. O., 93 ; ill., 94. 

Vaught’s Hill, Tenn , action, 340, 341. 

Verdiersville, Va., 164. 

Vermilion Bayou, La., ills, of battle, 330, 343; 
battle, 347. 

Vermont, 1st and 5th cav.. Kettle Run, Va., 331; 
8th inf., losses at Cedar Creek, 478 : 1st hvy. 
art’y, losses. 478: 2d inf., losses, 478; 4th inf., 
losses in Wilderness, 478; Newport News, 
anecdote, 502. 

Vesey, Denmark, insurrection, 448. 

Vicksburg, Miss., campaign, 270-282; Map , 
271 ; ill , 280, 295, 307, 308, 322, 350, 375. 

-campaign, The, 270-282. 

Viele, Egbert L., N brig, gen., 24; Norfolk, 
217; port., 221. 

Vienna, Va., 52. 

Vigintal crop, the, 33. 

Vincent. Strong, N brig, gen., Gettysburg, 252, 
261; killed, 254. 


Virginia, invaded by John Brown, 7 ; secedes, 
9, 33 ; measures for defence, 27 ; slave indus¬ 
try, 32 ; struggle for, 44 ; C ist cav., Kelly’s 
Ford, 332 ; N 13th inf., Point Pleasant, 337; 
C 54th inf., anecdote, 468. 

-.regimental losses, 17th, 32d, 4th inf., 484. 

--, C ironclad (see “ Merrimac ”). 

--■, Army of, 163. 

■-, Northern. Army of, C, Gettysburg, 262 ; 

retreat, 334, 335, 353 ; organization, 354, 387 ; 
surrender to Grant, 446. 

Virginia and Tennessee R. R., 316 ; destroyed, 
433 - 

Virginia Central R. R., 362, 363, 409, 531. 

Virginia Military Institute burned by Hunter, 
318 ; cadets, 433. 

Vollmer, David, C, killed, Belmont, 122. 

Von Borcke,-, C, 164. 

Von Gilsa, Leopold, N col., Chancellorsville, 
245 - 

Voris, Alvin C., N b’v't maj.-gen., Fort Wag¬ 
ner, 291. 

Wabash, N cruiser, 68, 71. 

Wade, Jennie, killed, Gettysburg, 259 ; port., 
267, 538. 

-, Mary E., Mrs., port., 533. 

Wadsworth, James S., N b'v’t maj.-gen., Gettys¬ 
burg, 267 ; killed, Wilderness, 356, 451. 

Wagner, George D., N brig.-gen., Franklin, 
Tenn , 427. 

Wagons, army, 504. 

Wainwright, J. M., N comr., killed, Galves¬ 
ton, 348. 

Walke, Henry, N rear-adm., Island No. 10, 99 ; 
port., 273. 

Walker, J. Bryant, N capt., Atlanta, 389. 

-, John G., C maj.-gen.. Harper’s Ferry, 

175 > port., 177, 220. 

-, Leroy P., C sec’y of war, port., 26. 

-, W. H. T., C maj.-gen., wounded, Spott¬ 
sylvania, 362. 

-, -, C col., Belmont, 122. 

-,-, imprisoned, 316. 

---,-, N capt., Atlanta, 389. 

Wallace, Lew. N maj.-gen.. Fort Donelson, 77 ; 
Crump's Landing. 100; Shiloh, 101-108 ; port., 
104; defence of Washington, 402, 403. 

-, William H. L., N brig.-gen., Shiloh, 100, 

101, 481. 

Waller, Francis A., N corp., Gettysburg, 260. 

Wampler, --, imprisoned, 316. 

Wapping Heights, Va., battle, 333. 

War Democrats, 36. 

-humor in the South, 459-463. 

-in the West, 200-214. 

--songs, 123-139. 

Ward, William T., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 423. 

Ware, W. W., 349. 

Waring, George E., Jr., N col., Batesville. Ark., 
343 - 

Warner,-, N maj., Gettysburg, 266. 

-,-, C capt., 320. 

Warren, Gouverneur K., N maj.-gen.. Big 
Bethel, 45 ; 2d Bull Run, 169 : Gettysburg, 
252-265 ; port., 257 ; Bristow Sta., Va., 334 ; 
Mine Run. 337 ; Wilderness, 354 ; Spottsyl¬ 
vania, 358-361 ; North Anna, 362 ; advance on 
Petersburg, 400; relieved. 445, 479. 

Warrensburg, Mo., 118 ; engagement, 230. 

Warrenton, Va., 193-197. 

Warrenton Junction, Va., 168: attacked by 
Mosby, 331 : Grant escapes capture, 375. 

Warrenton Turnpike (Bull Run), 52, 53, 55, 57, 
60, 167 ; ill., 172. 

Warrior, English vessel, 87. 

Warwick River, Va., 143. 

Washburne, Elihu B., M. C., tribute to Han¬ 
cock, 261, 262. 

Washington, John A., C col., killed at Cheat 
Mountain, 114. 

-, J. B., C aide, port., 79. 

Washington, D. C., C sympathizers. 19 ; meas¬ 
ures for defence, 20, 22 ; N troops arrive, 25 ; 
Peninsular campaign, 140-162 ; threatened by- 
Early, 402-404. 

-, N. C., 67, 218 ; battle, 219. 

Washington College, Va , threatened by Hunter, 
318. 

Washington in Danger, 402-404. 

Waterloo and Gettysburg compared, 259. 

Waterproof, La., fight, 437. 

Watkins, Louis D., N b'v’t brig.-gen., 507. 

Wauhatchie, Tenn., action, 305, 313. 

Waynesboro, Va., action, 409; engagement, 
442. 

“We are coming, Father Abraham,” James 
Sloane Gibbons. 128, 413. 

Wead, -, N col., Cold Harbor, Va., 365; 

killed, 367. 

Weatherby, —, N lieut., Vicksburg, 279. 

Webb, Alexander S., N b’v't maj. gen., Penin¬ 
sular campaign, 150-160 ; Gettysburg, 257, 259, 
263 ; Bristol Sta., Va., 334 ; Robertson’s Tav¬ 
ern, 336; Spottsylvania, 362. 


Webster, Fletcher, N col., killed, 477; port., 
480. 

-, Joseph D., N b'v't maj.-gen., Shiloh, 

101, 108. 

-,-, N maj., 25th Ohio, 114. 

Weed, Stephen H., N brig.-gen , killed, Gettys¬ 
burg, 254, 261. 

Weehawken, N monitor, siege of Charleston, 

289. 

Weekly Spectator, London, Eng., 65. 

Weitzel. Godfrey. N maj.-gen., Franklin, La., 
345: Vermillion Bayou, La.,347; port., 443 ; 
occupies Richmond, Va., 445, 454. 

Weldon R. R., Va., actions, 398, 400. 

Welles, Gideon, N sec’y of the navy, port., 6; 
49, 91. 

Wells. George D., N b’v't brig.-gen., killed, 
Cedar Creek, Va., 410. 

Wessells, Henry W., N brig.-gen., Plymouth, 
S. C., 433 - 434 - 

Westfield, N vessel, destroyed, Galveston, 338. 

West Liberty, Ky., action, 114, 115. 

West Point, Va., 158. 

West Tennessee, Army of, 206. 

West Virginia, admitted to the Union, 9; for 
mation of, 44, 45: cleared of Confederate 
troops, 113, 114; 3d inf., Bull Pasture Moun¬ 
tain, 216 ; 7th inf. Blooming Gap, 217. 

-, Army of, Shenandoah Valley, 411; 7th 

inf. losses, 481. 

Wharton, John A., C maj.-gen., Snow Hill, 
Tenn., 341. 

Wheeler, Joseph, C lieut.-gen., Murfreesboro’, 
2ir; port., 212: Dover, 295: Rover. Tenn., 
340 ; Fort Donelson, 340 : Vaught's Hill, 340; 
Atlanta, 389, 390; Confederate cavalry, 423; 
opposes Sherman in S. C., 440. 

Wheeling, W. Va., 44, 45. 

“When Johnny comes marching home,” Pat¬ 
rick S. Gilmore, 136. 

“When this cruel war is over,” Charles C. 
Sawyer, 127, 413. 

Whig, Richmond, quoted, 431. 

Whilldin,-, capt., 349. 

Whipple. Amiel W., N maj.-gen., killed, Chan¬ 
cellorsville, 242, 247. 

Whitaker, Walter C., N b’v’t maj.-gen., Chick¬ 
amauga, 299 ; Lookout Mountain, 313. 

White, John H., N lieut.-col., port., 484. 

■-, Julius, N b'v’t maj.-gen., Harper’s 

Ferry, 176. 

-, Mathew X., C capt., murdered, 319. 

-,-, N maj., Springfield, Mo., 118, 119. 

White Oak Swamp, Va., battle, 158. 

White House, Va., Peninsular campaign, 144- 
162 ; ill., 153 ; 365, 368, 531. 

Whiteside, Tenn., ill. of bridge, 338. 

Whitestone Hill, Dak., engagement, 348. 

Whiting, William,quoted on emancipation, 190, 
191. 

--, W. H. C., C maj.-gen.. Peninsular 

campaign, 155. 

Whitney, Eli, cotton-gin, 5. 

Whittier, John G., from “Brown of Ossawat- 
omie,” 21, 182 ; port., 190. 

Wickham, William C., C brig.-gen., port., 
434 - 

Wickliffe,-, M. C., 190. 

Wiedrick, Michael, N capt, Gettysburg. 254. 

Wilcox, Cadmus M., C maj.-gen., port., 195 ; 
Gettysburg. 476. 

Wilcox’s Landing, Va., 468. 

Wild,--, C cav., Warrenton Junction, 331. 

Wilderness, 335, 336, 353; ill., 354; battle, 355- 
357 ; Map, 355, 387 ; losses, 477. 

Wilderness Tavern, Va., Grant's headquarters, 
355 - 

Wilkes, Charles, N capt.. 63, 65 ; port., 65. 

Wilkeson, Frank, quoted, 358. 

Willard’s Hotel, Washington, D. C., 25. 

Willcox, Orlando B., N maj.-gen., at Bull Run, 
55- 57 ; port., 401. 

William Aiken, U. S. revenue cutter, 10. 

William and Mary College, 33. 

Williams, Alpheus S., N b’v’t maj.-gen., 513. 

-, E. C., N ensign, Red River expedition, 

382. 

-, John S., C brig.-gen., port., 336. 

-.Thomas, N brig.-gen.. attitude toward 

slavery, 185 ; killed, Baton Rouge, 270. 

-,-, N lieut., Ft. Halleck, Idaho, 348. 

Williamsburg, Va., battle, 143-144. 

Williamsport, Md., 250 ; fight, 436. 

Williston, Edward B., N lieut., Trevilian Sta., 
Va.. 433. 

Willoughby Run. Gettysburg, 251. 

Willoughby's Point, Va., 217. 

Willow Springs, Miss., engagement, 274. 

Wilmington Island, Ga.,engagement, 223. 

Wilson, C. H., N lieut., Wilmington Island, 

223. 

--—, George D., N spy, executed, 529. 

-, Henry, 190. 




























































INDEX. 


551 


Wilson, James H., N maj.-gen., cavalry supe¬ 
riority, 250 ; North Anna, 363 ; Long Bridge, 
368 ; Shenandoah, 407 ; Nashville, 430; cap¬ 
tures Davis, 448. 

-,-, N capt., Lookout Mountain, 304. 

Wilson Small, N transport,327. 

Wilson’s Creek, Mo., battle, 41 ; ill., 42. 

Winchester, Tenn., 226. 

-, Va.. 47, 54, 59 - IJ 3' i43> 19G engagement, 

216 ; captured by Ewell, 250, 403 ; action, 404, 
406 ; battle. 407, 409 ; Sheridan’s ride, 410, 411. 

Winder, Charles S., C brig.-gen , killed, Cedar 
Mountain, 164. 

-, John H., C brig.-gen., port., 318 ; Libby 

Prison, 321, 349; Andersonville, 390; death, 
448. 

Winnebago, N monitor, Mobile Bay, 319. 

Winslow, John A., N naval capt., port., 371 ; 
commands “ Kearsarge ” and destroys “ Ala¬ 
bama,” 372 ; port., 372. 

Winthrop, Theodore, N maj., 24 ; port., «; 
killed, Big Bethel, 45, 4S i. 

Wisconsin Infantry , 1st, Danridge, 436; 2d, 
losses, Bull Run, 477; 3 d, Bolivar Heights, in; 
4th, 185 ; 5th, Rappahannock Sta., 335 ; 6th 
and 7th. Gettysburg, 259 ; nth, Atlanta, 389; 
15th, Chickamauga, 299; 16th, Atlanta, 389; 
5th art’y, Perryville, 201. 


Wisconsin, regimental losses, 2d inf., 483 ; 7th 
inf., 483 ; 20th inf., 483. 

Wise, Henry A., C brig-gen., in W. Va., 113 ; 

gov. of Va., port., 183. 

Withered, Mrs. E. C., 539. 

Withers, Jones M., C maj.-gen., port., 108. 
Wittenmeyer, Annie, Mrs., 538. 

Wolford, Frank, N col., Somerset, Ky., 340. 

•--, F. T., N col., Philadelphia, Tenn., 342. 

Woman’s Contribution to the Cause, 533-540. 
Women’s Central Association of Relief, 324. 
Wood, Robert C., N b’v’t brig.-gen.. Sanitary 
Commission 324. 

■-, Thomas J., N maj.-gen., Chickamauga, 

298-302; Chattanooga, 309; Atlanta cam¬ 
paign, 386. 

Woodford, Stewart L., N b’v’t brig.-gen., port., 

290. 

Woods, Charles R., N b’v’t maj.-gen., port., 
311 ; Atlanta, 389. 

Woodsonville, Ky. (see Munfordville). 

Woodstock company, 1st Vt. inf., anecdote, 
502. 

Wool, John E.. N maj.-gen., port., 23, 49 ; cap¬ 
tures Norfolk, 217. 


Woolsey, Georgia M., Miss., 538. 

-, Jane C., Miss., 538. 

Worden, John L., N rear-adm., N. C. expedi¬ 
tion, 72; “ Monitor,” 85 ; port., 87; destroys 
the “ Nashville,” 348. 

Work, Henry C., “ Marching through Georgia,” 
129 ; “ Grafted into the Army,” 137. 

Wormeley, Katherine P., Miss., 537. 

Wright, Ambrose R., C maj.-gen., Antietam, 
180. 

--—, Horatio G., N maj.-gen., Secessionville, 

219; Rappahannock Sta., 335 ; Spottsylvania, 
359. 362 ; North Anna, 362, 363; Cold Harbor, 
365 ; advance on Petersburg, 398 ; defence of 
Washington, 404; port., 405; Cedar Creek, 
410, 411, 445. 

Wyatt’s, Miss., action, 343. 

Wyndham, Percy, N col., Harrisonburg, 216; 
port., 218. 

Wynkoop, --, N lieut., Hawes’s Shop, Va., 

3 6 4- 

Wytheville, Va., action, 339. 

Yankee, N steam-tug, 29. 

Yates, Richard, gov. of Ill., port., 18. 

Yazoo City, Miss., 273. 


Yazoo Pass, Miss., 273. 

Yellow Medicine, Minn., destroyed by Indians, 
234 - 

Yellow Tavern, Va., action, 359. 

York, Pa., occupied by Lee, 250, 251. 

Yorktown, Va., 143; ills, of battery, 149, 151, 
463- 

Young, Francis G., N capt., Ball’s Bluff, no. 

-, Pierce M. B., C maj.-gen., port., 508. 

-,-, N adjt., Gettysburg, 255. 

-,-, N eng. corps, Pleasant Hills, La., 

379 - 

Young Men’s Christian Association, 325. 
Young’s Branch (Bull Run), 55,57. 


Zagonyi, Charles, N maj., cav., Springfield, 
Mo., 118-121 ; port., 121. 

Zelitch,-, N ensign, Mobile Bay, 393. 

Zollicoffer. Felix K., C brig.-gen., Camp Wild 
Cat, 73, 114 ; killed, Fishing Creek, 73 ; port., 
77 - 45 i- 

Zook, Samuel K., N b’v’t maj.-gen., killed, Get¬ 
tysburg, 254; port., 261. 

Zouaves. “Duryea’s,” 24; “Chicago,” 25; 
“ Fire,” 25, 6i; “ Hawkins’,” 72, 218 ; ill. 198. 















H S SMITtls 

PHII.ADELPHIA 

— U-S A 



























































